TORONTO — Canada Day means different things to different people and for Yariel Rodriguez, the Toronto Blue Jays right-hander starting Monday’s series opener with the Houston Astros, it’s the latest landmark since he left Cuba to pursue a big-league dream.
“I went through a lot to get here, to be where I am right now,” he says through interpreter Hector Lebron. “To pitch on a very important day for Canada, for the fans, it’s amazing. I’m getting ready and hopefully I can do a great job out there for all of Canada.”
The 27-year-old certainly doesn’t take the opportunity to pitch here — and plant roots here — for granted.
In the spring of 2023, ostensibly on his way to Japan to rejoin the Chunichi Dragons in Japan after playing for Cuba in the World Baseball Classic, he clandestinely changed routes during a stopover in Mexico, diverting to the Dominican Republic instead.
From there, he worked through contractual and visa issues to eventually be declared a free agent and signed a five-year deal that guarantees $32 million with the Blue Jays before spring training. He debuted April 13 with six strikeouts over 3.2 innings of one-run ball versus the Colorado Rockies and has since worked to reacclimate to starting, with a detour through a back injury, on a regular basis.
At the same time, Rodriguez has also been adjusting to his new North American life.
He meets up with wife Gabriela and son Harold Yariel, who are based in Florida this season while their paperwork is settled, during road trips. They have plans to buy a home in the Tampa area so he can work out at the Blue Jays’ complex in Dunedin, Fla., during the off-season.
In that way, Rodriguez and his family are building an entirely new future, just like so many other new arrivals to Canada and the United States pursuing a better life.
“I dreamed of playing in the big-leagues and here I am now, playing in the big-leagues in Canada,” he says. “To be able to support my family when I couldn’t do it two years ago, now I can do it, it’s a great feeling. And most of all, to be able to be with my kid. Even when I was (pitching) in Japan, I wasn’t with my kid. Now I can spend time with him. That’s the biggest change in my life.”
Rodriguez’s exposures to Toronto thus far have been relatively limited, as for the time being he’s living in the hotel attached to Rogers Centre, but they’ve made an impression.
Beyond Canadians being stereotypically nice and friendly, he’s found the people he’s encountered “very educated,” adding that “the way they treat you, it’s amazing.”
The number of fans who have stopped him not only for an autograph or picture but to talk Blue Jays has shown him that “even outside of baseball, it’s still baseball here. There are a lot of baseball fans out there and they are very kind. Walking around, the fans and the people of the city have been great to me.”
On the pitching side, there are the growing pains he’s working through, adjusting not only to the highest calibre of baseball he’s ever experienced, but also to the rigours of starting after sitting out all last year while his move was settled.
Rodriguez’s last start was Wednesday in Boston, throwing one scoreless inning before rain forced the game’s suspension. He threw two more innings in the bullpen to help keep him built up and the Blue Jays will need innings from him Monday after Bowden Francis was needed twice for some mop-up work against the Yankees over the weekend.
At 36.3 innings of work between the Blue Jays and triple-A Buffalo, he’s already two-thirds of the way to the 54.2 frames he logged out of the bullpen for Chunichi in 2022. The last time he started consistently was with Camaguey in Cuba during the 2019-20 season and the club has set a rough target of 100 innings this season.
“It’s a process, we all knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” says Rodriguez. “But I’m feeling a lot better, learning every day, working very hard. Of course a couple of things happened, hurt my back, it’s part of the process, but I’m getting used to it and trying to get better every outing and find a way to help my teammates win some games.”
The next chance will come on Canada Day, about a year and a half after he skipped out on a plane bound for Tokyo and boarded one for the Dominican Republic, grasping for an opportunity at the life he’d always wanted.
“When I look back, it’s not easy to take a decision like that, especially when you don’t know your future,” Rodriguez says. “I didn’t know back then that I was going to be where I am at right now. It could go either way. But you’ve got to make a decision. Now looking back, of course I’m grateful for the decisions that I made. I’m very thankful for a lot of people in the way that they really supported me and helped me. And, of course, thanking God 100 per cent because it’s a decision that is risky. Even with the family, you don’t know if you’re going to see your family again. But it all paid off, it was worth it and I’m very grateful for that.”