Rodriguez is young, making any analysis of his minor league numbers shakier than most. And his stat profile is an outlier, even on top of that, being founded on an ultra-high walk rate like just about no one else. It would be exciting if his eye at the plate translated into laying off the bad pitches and clobbering the fat ones. His home run numbers are indeed pretty good. But that batting average of .240 and the 134 strikeouts this season paint a picture of maybe just taking advantage of pitchers who are never going to progress past high-A, but being abused by pitchers who have some command.
Still, he hasn't yet reached his 21st birthday, and for me that counts for a lot. I tried finding a comp for his numbers at A-ball, not just among Twins either, and the best match I found was Edouard Julien. We don't know for sure how the latter's career is going to unfold either. But it's pretty encouraging.
I wish I knew more about his defense. Being a centerfielder puts him in a different category than the corner OF bats we have collected. But it only matters if he's going to stick there.
All in all I think the ceiling is too high on our ERod to trade him for anything but a sure thing on the pitching side. He's probably not going to be what his video-game numbers in 2022 suggested, but his 2023 was a year of progress at the higher level of competition. Still a long way to go, to achieve actual stardom in the majors. Hey, he's 20 - or has that already been mentioned?