You won't find him among the top prospects in baseball. You won't even find him among the top 30 prospects in the Tigers' organization, according to MLB Pipeline. But don't sleep on Elvin Rodriguez.
Don't sleep on the lanky 23-year-old mowing down hitters in Double-A. Don't sleep on the right-hander with one of the most devastating curves in the minors, because he's also got a fastball that's gaining steam and a changeup that's coming to life.
Through his first four starts in Double-A, Rodriguez has a 1.40 ERA and 23 strikeouts in 19 1/3 innings. Don't sleep on that.
"We've got some guys coming," Tigers GM Al Avila said Wednesday during a virtual meeting with members of the Detroit Economic Club.
Avila was talking about the pitchers. And the talk typically centers on the Big Three, two of whom are already here in Casey Mize and Tarik Skubal. The other, Matt Manning, should be arriving this summer. And when the talk expands, it tends to focus on names like Alex Faedo and Joey Wentz.
Let's expand it further.
"You can go down to Erie and see guys like Elvin Rodriguez throwing no-hitters and shutouts," Avila said. "Throughout the minor leagues we’ve got guys that people don’t talk too much about, but there’s more guys coming."
OK, that's a little loose. Rodriguez is throwing no-hitters in that he's held teams hitless in two of his starts. He's throwing shutouts in that he's held teams scoreless in three of his starts. But his longest start is 5 1/3 innings.
Still, this is heady stuff from a pitcher who arrived as the player to be named later in the Justin Upton trade in 2017. At the time, the highlight of the Tigers' return was pitcher Grayson Long. He had excelled that season in Double-A and slotted in as Detroit's No 14 prospect. He retired the next spring due to injury complications.
Which left Rodriguez to salvage the trade. In 49 outings (48 starts) in the Tigers' organization since, he has a 3.41 ERA and nearly three times as many strikeouts as walks. And he's thriving this season against better competition, limiting hitters to a .123 average. The Tigers might have something here, something to add to what they have already.
"We feel pretty good about the pitching moving forward, knock on wood to keep everybody healthy," Avila said. "And the biggest challenge will be getting through this season and making sure that we don’t overtax them with innings after last year’s shortened season."
Again, the first names that come to mind here are Mize and Skubal. But innings limits and pitch counts apply to a pitcher like Rodriguez as much as anyone. He didn't throw a competitive inning last year due to the cancellation of the minor league season, so his arm will bear watching.
It bears watching now, because it looks better than ever.