Pudge Rodriguez: Looking For 'Real Playing Time'

Pudge Rodriguez is considering offers to be a backup, but he's holding out for 'real playing time.'

Feb 22, 2012 - When I get up from a squatting position, I make a non-ironic old-man "mnrnrrrppph" noise. I don't want to. But I can't help it. So believe that I have all the respect in the world for a guy like Pudge Rodriguez, who not only puts on a bunch of heavy gear and willingly squats and deflects baseballs for a living, but who wants to continue to do it into his 40s.

This is not breaking news, but Pudge Rodriguez is kind of a badass. He has been for a while.

What he isn't, though, is a starting catcher. Yet Pudge told Jon Heyman that he wasn't just a backup:

ivan rodriguez has fielded a few inquiries, including 1 from #dbacks. but he seeks job with chance for real playing time

Real playing time. That's an ambiguous statement, so it's not worth going nuts over, but it suggests that Pudge is looking to be more than a backup. Because backups play. Miguel Montero's backup last year, Henry Blanco, played in 37 games. That's 125 games of sitting on the bench, of course, but it's about what Pudge should be doing these days. A reminder:

Year	Age	Tm	G	HR	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+
2008	36	DET	82	5	.295	.338	.417	.756	97
2008	36	NYY	33	2	.219	.257	.323	.580	51
2009	37	TOT	121	10	.249	.280	.384	.663	74
2009	37	HOU	93	8	.251	.280	.382	.662	75
2009	37	TEX	28	2	.245	.279	.388	.667	70
2010	38	WSN	111	4	.266	.294	.347	.640	73
2011	39	WSN	44	2	.218	.281	.323	.604	66

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 2/22/2012.

Say, you, astute baseball fan. Would you expect those numbers to improve for our 40-year-old backstop friend, or would you expect them to decline? Would you think that Pudge's numbers would be acceptable for a catcher, or would you think that they would stuff acceptable in a steamer trunk and play dumb when the cops came around? Remember: 40-year-old catcher.

You know the answer. Every GM in baseball knows the answer, even that one you're smirking about right now. But even if there were people out there who thought Pudge could be more than a backup, would there be a team with an opening?

Maybe the Dodgers. Maybe Ned Colletti is looking down at A.J. Ellis and thinking he needs some competition. Maybe not jumping on an offer to be a backup is Pudge's way of sending the Dodgers a napkin with his phone number and a lipstick kiss on it. That's about the only option unless there's some sick, Kevin Spacey in Seven kind of reason to have Miguel Olivo and Pudge battle for a job in Seattle.

Depending on how the Cooperstown Witch Trials go over the next couple of decades, Pudge will likely be a Hall of Famer. He's had an amazing career. But he isn't going to get real playing time in 2012. Either he wants to be a backup, or he wants to be a golfer. It's not fair, but those are the choices until someone gets injured on a team that has absolutely no one ready to step in.

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Grant Brisbee

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Grant Brisbee has been the lead writer for McCovey Chronicles since 2005, when the San Francisco Giants-themed site became the second blog on the SB Nation network. He graduated from San Jose State... Read full bio

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