No. 9: Jeremy Rodriguez, SS B/T: L/R Age: 7/4/2006 (17) Ht: 6’0″ Wt: 170 lb. Acquired: Trade with Diamondbacks for OF Tommy Pham ETA: 2027 Previous Rank: N/R Stats (2023 Dominican Summer League) – 51 G, .293 BA, .878 OPS, 3 HR, 18 XBH, 37 R, 33 RBI, 19 SB 33/31 BB/K Jeremy Rodríguez is […]
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B/T: L/R Age: 7/4/2006 (17)
Ht: 6’0″ Wt: 170 lb.
Acquired: Trade with Diamondbacks for OF Tommy Pham
ETA: 2027 Previous Rank: N/R
Stats (2023 Dominican Summer League) – 51 G, .293 BA, .878 OPS, 3 HR, 18 XBH, 37 R, 33 RBI, 19 SB 33/31 BB/K
Jeremy Rodríguez is one of the Mets prospects who has received the most helium over the last season based on his output and huge upside. Rodríguez was initially signed for $1,250,000 as the top international free agent for the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 2023 IFA class. He played 38 games for Arizona’s DSL team, slashing .246/.363/.377 for them with two home runs, 12 stolen bases and a 22/27 BB/K. Upon his arrival to the Mets in the Tommy Pham trade, he improved on those numbers, slashing .422/.536/.711 with one home run, seven stolen bases, and an 11/4 BB/K over 13 games.
Rodríguez’s improvement after coming over from the Diamondbacks was huge. He had eight extra-base hits in 13 games and seven stolen bases to one caught stealing. His batting eye is highly advanced, and he has already shown an ability to know what pitches he can drive and to take what the pitchers give him regarding walks. Rodríguez then uses his plus speed on the basepaths and high baseball IQ to leverage them into extra bases via the steal (19 stolen bases, six caught stealing).
Offensively, Rodriguez is currently more hit-over-power from a simple left-handed swing that lets him put the ball in play. As where most young hitters struggle with breaking pitches, he has shown the ability to hit fastballs and get to breaking balls and do damage to them.
Jeremy Rodriguez, Photo by Ed Delany of Metmerized
Defensively, Rodríguez played almost exclusively at shortstop and made 14 errors, which is to be expected as a young shortstop learning the position at the professional level. He profiles to be able to stay at shortstop, even though he will grow into some more strength. He has fluid motions in the field and an above-average arm.
Overall, Rodríguez is possibly the highest-upside true shortstop prospect in the Mets system currently, and the Mets front office deserves credit for getting him in the trade for Tommy Pham. If he keeps up this pace, he can be an average to above-average defensive shortstop who routinely puts up .280/.400/.450 batting lines while hitting 15 home runs and stealing 30 bases.
One outlet, FanGraphs, already considers Rodríguez a top 100 MLB prospect. FG had the 17-year-old at No. 96 on their preseason list. MLB Pipeline recently wrote about Jeremy being one of the top 10 prospects playing rookie ball to start the season.
Rodríguez is starting the season for the Florida Complex League Mets in his stateside debut, though it shouldn’t be ruled out that he ends the season with the Low-A St. Lucie Mets given what he’s shown since joining the Mets organization. The infielder has started the season 5-for-11 with two walks.
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