CHICAGO -- Yariel Rodríguez is the risk the Blue Jays need to keep taking.

This organization is headed towards another offseason pivot, another crack at finding the right ingredients to mix in with the core of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette and the solid rotation. A sprinkle of this, a teaspoon of that, but the Blue Jays just haven’t found the right recipe.

This past winter, Toronto didn’t update that recipe much. The club signed Justin Turner, Kevin Kiermaier and Isiah Kiner-Falefa, rounding out its roster with veterans. All three are gone now, traded at the Deadline in a season that has been disappointing and will soon be forgotten. Rodríguez, the Blue Jays’ only other big-league signing, is the last man standing.

Finally settled into a starter’s schedule, Rodríguez is showing his upside, which has made the mystery so intriguing from the very beginning. Friday’s 6-5 walk-off loss to the Cubs in 10 innings wasn’t Rodríguez’s finest outing by any means, as he allowed four runs and three homers over five innings, but the Cuban right-hander was coming off two excellent starts, and he still represents something this organization is short on: true upside.

“I think [his stuff] is getting better, a little bit, by getting used to pitching every five days,” manager John Schneider said. “His velocity is there. His stuff is there. It’s just about limiting a handful of pitches per outing from him. He’s done a really good job of maintaining it.”

Rodríguez should have around eight starts left in 2024. When you add his Minor League innings on top of the 55 he’s thrown in the big leagues, he’s at 75 1/3 frames this season. A minor back issue in Spring Training and an IL stint earlier in the year were frustrating at the time, but since the Blue Jays have fallen out of contention, hindsight paints those moments in a kinder light. There shouldn’t be much of a workload restriction, if any, down the stretch.

“I think his time missed kind of solved that,” Schneider said recently. “We’d kind of targeted around 100 innings, which was very fluid at the beginning of the year. Right now, we can just let him go pitch. If you have to adjust it down the road a little bit, you do that.”

Rodríguez owns a 3.93 ERA and has shown flashes of being more than just a back-end starter in the big leagues. Consistency is the key here, but if Rodríguez is able to stretch a near-4.00 ERA to the end of the season, the Blue Jays will have their No. 4 starter for next season behind José Berríos, Kevin Gausman and Chris Bassitt, without question.

The five-year, $32 million contract Rodríguez signed, even after Friday’s stumble, still looks like great business by the Blue Jays. It came with more risk than any of the club’s other signings, but also with far more upside. The Blue Jays have done well when they’ve spent big, but at the level of Berríos or Gausman, you know what you’re getting for that price tag. Toronto loves its known commodities, but all it’s known in October are early exits. This recipe needs some spice.

Rodríguez knows and respects the Blue Jays’ plan for him, but he has simple needs. He just wants to pitch.

“I’m just trying to get some wins,” Rodríguez said through a club interpreter. “That’s the bottom line. I go out there to get a win and help the team win. I’ll keep working on my pitches and try to improve my pitches every time I go out there. I’m trying to finish strong, and that will carry over, I hope, into next year.”

Some poor locations cost Rodríguez on Friday, particularly on back-to-back home runs by Pete Crow-Armstrong and Miguel Amaya in the fifth. Rodríguez's outings can swing between incredible highs and sudden lows, but these three home runs were an outlier for a pitcher who entered with just four allowed over his first 50 innings in the Majors. He even poked some fun at himself when asked about his Wrigley Field debut.

“It’s great. I love it here. … It’s a small park, but …” Rodríguez said before his face broke into a smile and he started to laugh, cutting through the tension and the typical intensity we see on his face.

There’s something refreshing about Rodríguez, all of that intensity and upside in one fascinating package. He’s been worth the risk, and this should teach the Blue Jays to have an appetite for more.