Endy Rodriguez is due to breakout in 2025. E-Rod is a great teammate, full of energy, talks to everyone, is a great interview, and a very athletic ballplayer.
Endy was acquired by Ben Cherington in a trade during his first full offseason as Pirates GM after the 2020 season. The trade was a three team trade with the San Diego Padres and New York Mets. The Pirates landed 5 players from this trade including: Hudson Head, David Bednar, Drake Fellows, and Omar Cruz from the Padres and Endy from the Mets. The Pirates traded away Joe Musgrove to the Padres and the Friars sent lefty Joey Lucchesi to the Mets. By including the Mets on this deal for Endy when the remaining 80% of the prospects came from the padres it is clear Cherington had to have Endy, and he was the primary piece of this trade. This is much like the Spencer Horwitz trade this past offseason which was essentially a 3 team trade. Cherington wanted Horwitz for a long time and finally got him.
Just the eye test watching Rodriguez's ABs shows when he focuses on hitting he is already a professional hitter with pop and positional flexibility. Despite being an overall disappointment at the plate in 2023, the Pirates had a 21 and 24 record with Endy starting behind the dish. When Endy is on he has the batters eye and contact ability of a discount Juan Soto minus the power. When Endy is off at the plate he will suffer with strikeouts. But unlike other Pirates hitters like Suwinski, Davis, and Cruz Endy doesn't K when he is on.
During spring training, E-Rod wisely worked pitches breaking in on him, moving away from him, breaking vertically, and high heat. He just didn't have a weakness until it was announced he was making the opening day roster as the backup catcher and first baseman. Then the strikeouts started cropping up again.
It won't be long before Endy starts having professional at bats like McCutchen, limiting strikeouts like IKF, making contact like reynolds, and have ok pop not quite as much as suwinski or cruz.