Yariel impresses again as fiery side continues to emerge

TORONTO -- We’re reaching the tail end of the get-to-know-you process between the Blue Jays and Yariel Rodríguez. One late development of note? The fire.

There has been a lot of easing in with Rodríguez, but each cleared benchmark has made room for his personality to shine through. Now the Blue Jays are getting a good look at Yariel, the competitor.

He showed it again on Saturday afternoon, walking off the Rogers Centre mound with one expletive word -- in English, too -- after a great outing in a 1-0 loss to the A’s. Weirdly, that reaction spoke to Rodríguez’s growing comfort level, one of his many steps forward over the past month or so.

“He's kind of learned that his stuff is good,” said manager John Schneider. “And when he’s attacking, he’s really good.”

Rodríguez was firmly on the attack against the A’s, striking out five batters and allowing five hits and one walk over 5 2/3 innings. A solo home run from Brent Rooker with two outs in the sixth was the only damage Rodríguez allowed. Shea Langeliers then singled in the next at-bat and Schneider came out of the dugout to end his starter’s day at 85 pitches -- a new career high for Rodríguez.

The right-hander didn’t protest the move as he did six days ago in New York, pulled from the game after 4 2/3 scoreless innings with Juan Soto stepping in the box, but as the competitor comes into view, some raw reactions emerge as well.

That’s when Rodríguez shakes his head and slams the rosin bag after missing with a breaking ball, or when he walks back to the dugout looking stone cold despite a shower of cheers from the home crowd.

“He was pretty locked in, from the meeting with [pitching coach] Pete [Walker] all the way through to the game,” Schneider said. “ … And he was pretty steady, which I think goes along with the physical stuff that he's still getting accustomed to.”

Rodríguez isn’t looking to just settle in anymore. He wants to win.

“This is what I expected of me,” Rodríguez said in Spanish. “[The team] has been patient with me from the start, but this is what I expected of me, and I think I can do better.”

There’s been a lot of easing in with Rodríguez in his first season of North American baseball.

After five years in Cuba and three more in Japan -- where he found success after moving to the bullpen -- before an entire season away from the mound in 2023, the 27-year-old Rodríguez landed in Toronto with a ton of promise and a few questions to answer. Add that to a delayed start to the season due to back issues and the Blue Jays had good reason to be cautious.

Conversations revolved around workload and execution for most of the season -- and that stuff will certainly keep coming up from now until October -- but Rodríguez is showing there are more layers to unpeel.

“It's a learning process for him a little bit and he's navigating it well,” said Schneider. “As we continue to go, we're gonna see how he continues to adjust. So far so good, but, you know, he obviously wants to be out there.”

But the Blue Jays aren’t ditching the training wheels yet.

Performance and circumstance earned Rodríguez a rotation spot despite some hard-and-fast limits to his workload early on. The Blue Jays plan to up his pitch count to around 90 pitches in the upcoming weeks, but you probably won’t see Rodríguez go too far past that mark this year, regardless of results.

“I’m feeling good right now,” said Rodríguez. “I like taking on the responsibility of being a starter for our team, and physically I’m feeling strong as well. I’ll keep working harder and we’ll keep moving forward.”

This is all about what comes next, after all.

Every time Rodríguez steps on the mound from now until the end of the regular season will be a new audition for 2025. He’s proving he can be a big league starter. The next challenge will be to earn a spot in a rotation that will certainly look a lot different when the Blue Jays get back into contending mode next year.

Rodríguez’s past two starts have added some good data to this fact-finding mission.

“He always has a pretty good heartbeat when he's out there on the mound,” said Schneider.