Cleveland Guardians 2023 prospect scouting report: #32 3B Gabriel Rodriguez

Rodriguez's slick glove and emerging bat make him a potential sleeper in 2023

Build & Background

Tall with moderate frame. Good, athletic build. Improved conditioning. Strong upper body. Moderately longer legs. Not much projection remaining in frame. Received Cleveland’s highest signing bonus for a position player in international free agency ($2.1M). Had offseason shoulder surgery.

Justin L. @JL_Baseball

Encouraging to see Guardians 3B prospect Gabriel Rodriguez hitting off a tee recently. Shoulder surgery ended his 2022 season early after a somewhat quietly good season at age 20 in High-A Lake County.

What Rodriguez does well

Smooth defender at third base. Comes in on balls well. Able to barehand on the run. Strong arm from the left side of the infield. Showed potentially above average pop overall. Improved contact ability from 2021 to 2022 despite being younger and advancing a level. Some projection remaining. 

Ben Hercik @BHercikNH

For the second time this series, Gabriel Rodriguez called game! FINAL: @LCCaptains: 6 Great Lakes: 5 @NHPreps

Justin L. @JL_Baseball

We havent talked about Gabriel Rodriguez much this year because offensively he's struggled to make contact. But tonight he's made two good defensive plays, showing off his arm here and barehanding this topper off of a Davenport CB.

Where Rodriguez needs to improve

In order to take the next step, Rodriguez could make more good contact in the zone. Adding strength and attacking the ball out front more to get to more pull side power could also help him take a leap offensively and take advantage of decent contact skills. 

Eric Longenhagen @longenhagen

Hey, check out this monster Gabriel Rodriguez hack.

Intangibles

Rodriguez improved his conditioning and had a big bounce back year from 2021 to 2022. Still young for level. 

Future

2022 was a big turnaround for Rodriguez in many ways. He looked good physically and smooth at third base. It looks like he’s going to be able to count defense and arm as stand out tools at third base. He improved his ability to make contact, cutting down on a bigger swing earlier in his career. There’s untapped power potential with some refinement, added strength and reps. Impacts ball well enough now and makes solid swing decisions. Advanced pitching in Double-A could prove to be a tough task for him and picking up more spin, but if he builds on his solid improvements from 2022, he could be something of a sleeper prospect, but it will depend on if his bat will have enough power to profile at third as a regular or more of a backup 3B/1B. The confidence level would be higher if he could play middle infield, but he seems locked in at third now.

Role: 40 - Backup type corner with pop and breakout potential for more