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Toronto Blue Jays' Marquee Free Agent Dealing with Back Injury at Spring Training

The Toronto Blue Jays gave Cuban free agent pitcher Yariel Rodriguez a five-year deal this offseason, but he has yet to make his spring training debut because of back issues, according to reports.

Brady Farkas

Toronto Blue Jays' Marquee Free Agent Dealing with Back Injury at Spring Training
Toronto Blue Jays' Marquee Free Agent Dealing with Back Injury at Spring Training /
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This offseason, the Toronto Blue Jays signed Cuban free agent pitcher Yariel Rodriguez to a five-year deal. However, he has yet to appear in a Grapefruit League contest because of back issues, according to reports.

Per Arden Zwelling of Sportsnet in Canada:

Yariel Rodriguez has yet to make his spring debut due to back spasms he experienced following a recent live BP 

He’s scheduled to throw off a mound Saturday, per Blue Jays manager John Schneider. From there he’ll progress to a live BP and getting into games

It's certainly never good to hear about a player experiencing discomfort in camp, but this shouldn't rise to the level of worry yet. 

In addition to getting him healthy, the Jays need to work on defining a role for Rodriguez. Given that he signed a deal for more than $30 million, he figures to be a starter moving forward. However, with five starting pitchers already penciled into the starting rotation, how will Toronto use him?

Can they get him healthy and ready in time to potentially bump Alek Manoah from the starting rotation? Or will they slow play him, build him up in the minor leagues and then bring him up to the rotation if and when there's an injury?

And finally, if the team is content with Manoah as a starter, could they put Rodriguez into the bullpen and utilize him as a multi-inning guy to start? If that's the case, this delayed start to spring wouldn't matter as much because they wouldn't need to build up a full workload.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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