Guardians Option Outfielder Johnathan Rodríguez to Triple-A Columbus
Rodríguez hit .273 this spring but went without an extra-base hit in 25 plate appearances, and his .626 OPS in 31 MLB games last year wasn't enough to stick.
Johnathan Rodríguez is headed back to Columbus. The Cleveland Guardians optioned the 26-year-old outfielder to Triple-A on Sunday, part of a four-player roster cut that also sent Kody Huff, Cooper Ingle and Dayan Frías to minor-league camp and trimmed the spring roster to 44.
The move wasn't a surprise. Rodríguez hit .273 this spring but went without a single extra-base hit across 25 plate appearances, offering little to push his case for an Opening Day roster spot. The power that made him a legitimate prospect never showed up in Arizona.
It hasn't shown up much in Cleveland, either. Rodríguez appeared in 31 major-league games for the Guardians in 2025, posting a .626 OPS with two home runs and a 28.6 percent strikeout rate. He batted .197 in 77 plate appearances, collecting 14 hits including four doubles, one triple and two homers, with 10 RBI. He struck out 22 times against just six walks. Those are thin returns for a player who had been given multiple cracks at the roster.
The career arc makes the current standing more striking. Cleveland selected Rodríguez in the third round, 102nd overall, out of Toa Baja, Puerto Rico, in the 2017 draft. He spent years grinding through the system before winning the 2024 International League MVP Award, slashing .301/.390/.540 with 29 home runs and 94 RBI across 118 games with the Columbus Clippers. That season looked like a breakthrough. His MLB debut followed in May 2024, but 31 total big-league games across two seasons and a .176 career batting average tell a different story.
The first career home run came on July 18, 2025, off JP Sears of the Athletics. There have been only two total in the majors.
Rodríguez will open 2026 with Columbus in the International League, the same place he spent most of the last three years. At 26, the runway is narrowing. The raw tools that earned him a 40-man roster spot in November 2023 still exist on paper, but his window to convert them into a consistent big-league role is getting harder to see.
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