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Versatile Rodriguez plays key role for Pirates

By John Perrotto for The 3 min read

Looking only at Sean Rodriguez’s offensive statistics, it is difficult to understand why Pirates general manager Neal Huntington tried for three years to acquire the utility player in a trade.

Rodriguez was hitting just .204 with three home runs and six RBIs in 84 games going into Tuesday night’s game against the Twins at Minnesota in his first season in Pittsburgh to go with a .230 on-base percentage and a .306 slugging percentage.

However, Huntington and the Pirates are quite happy that they were able to get Rodriguez from the Tampa Bay Rays on Dec. 1 in exchange for minor league pitcher Buddy Borden.

Rodriguez’s value lies in his versatility and defense.

The 30-year-old has started at first base, second base, third base, left field and right field. He has made highlight-reel plays at all five positions.

“He’s always ready,” Pirates second baseman Neil Walker said. “He knows his role on this team, he knows what he’s going to be asked to do and nothing ever surprises him, especially on the defensive end of things.

“He knows he’s in there to make plays and to be where he needs to be. He always seems to be where he’s supposed to be.”

That was the case Sunday in the Pirates’ 3-1 win over the Washington Nationals at PNC Park when Rodriguez made a dazzling play after entering the game as a defensive replacement for first baseman Pedro Alvarez.

Down 3-1 in the eighth inning, the Nationals had runners on first and third with two outs when Rodriguez made a diving stop to his right of a hard ground ball by star right fielder Bryce Harper.

Rodriguez quickly popped up, spun and threw a strike to reliever Tony Watson, who was covering first base, in time to retire the sliding Harper and end the threat.

“That was one of those in-between ones,” Rodriguez said. “I had to look to (Walker) every pitch before that just to make sure how far out I could go and that was one where I just basically said if I get to it there’s no play at first because he beats a lot of those, but I’m keeping a run from scoring.

“I just took that chance.”

Pirates manager Clint Hurdle is glad his team took a chance on trading for Rodriguez.

“That play might be a play only Rodriguez can make,” Hurdle said.

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