Dereck Rodriguez, Son Of Pudge, Hits The Big Leagues

It is the year of the baseball sons. With Vlad Guerrero Jr. due up later this year (and set to ascend to Cooperstown shortly thereafter) and Bo Bichette and Cavan Biggio also making their ways up through the Blue Jays’ system, the scions of ‘90s–2000s MLB royalty are starting to hit the big leagues. And the first of the group is Dereck Rodriguez, son of hall of fame catcher Ivan Rodriguez, who made his big-league debut for the Giants on Tuesday, and had a busy night.

Dereck looks basically like Pudge, but with long hair. He’s also a pitcher, having converted from outfielder in 2014. A starter in the minors, the 26-year-old got the call-up Monday afternoon and was unexpectedly pressed into service when Jeff Samardzija left the game after one inning with shoulder stiffness.

Rodriguez’s final line was four runs (one earned) and five hits over 3⅓ innings. That included four strikeouts, which is par for the course; Rodriguez had 53 Ks over 50 innings at AAA before his call-up. He also smacked an RBI double, which is extra-impressive because he’d only had five total plate appearances in the minors since rookie ball.

Rodriguez left the game in the fifth after being struck on the calf by a comebacker. He should be fine. The authenticators are excited, anyway.

“They took my bat away, my batting gloves, pretty much everything I had on except my sliders [sliding pants],” Rodriguez said.

The Giants fell to the Rockies 11-4.

Ivan Rodriguez was out of the country when the call-up came, so couldn’t be there for his son’s debut. But he congratulated Dereck by, uh, taking time away from listening to Sia to make this video:

Bring on the baseball sons!