LAKELAND, Fla. — Eduardo Rodriguez’s first start as a Tiger will be the unofficial holiday that is Opening Day in Detroit. Manager A.J. Hinch announced Friday that the left-hander is scheduled to start their regular-season opener April 8 against the White Sox at Comerica Park.
The decision, Hinch said, came early in the offseason, shortly after Rodriguez signed a five-year, $77 million contract with the Tigers in November. It’ll be Rodriguez’s first Opening Day assignment and the first time a pitcher has made debut for Detroit as the Opening Day starter since Kenny Rogers in 2006.
“He’s been on the biggest stage. He’s the most veteran starting pitcher,” Hinch said Friday morning before Rodriguez started the Tigers’ Grapefruit League opener against the Phillies at Joker Marchant Stadium. “And he’s excited. I told him that a while back, so he knew coming into camp. Before the lockout, he knew, ‘You need to be ready to pitch ASAP.’”
Rodriguez seemingly took that to heart. On the first day of Major League camp Monday, he threw a lengthy bullpen session, going long after most pitchers in his same group had finished. Even pitchers who had been in Minor League camp weren’t as stretched out as Rodriguez.
Rodriguez set an example not just with the quantity of his pitches but the quality. He used a cutout of a batter in the same session and practiced pitching inside. Several times, he hit the string hanging under the batter’s hands, right where the catcher had lined up.
On Rodriguez’s final pitch of the session, he called up and in, then sent a ball flying over the cutout’s head, drawing laughs from around the bullpen mounds.