At some point, doesn’t the ability to just hit the baseball matter?
Sure, home runs have always been the sexy stat. As MLB greats Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine famously declared in the Nike commercial from 1999, “Chicks dig the long ball.”
But there still has to be a place in the game for someone who can flat-out hit.
Someone who has shown the ability to consistently put the ball in play and reach base on a nearly every game basis.
Someone like New York Yankees prospect Jesus Rodriguez.
“He hits, that’s all he does, and it’s kind of crazy,” said Ryan Garcia of the “Fireside Yankees” podcast. “It’s at this point where it’s kind of insane that he’s as good as he is.”
It’s also kind of insane that Rodriguez remains pretty much under the radar in terms of potential callups to the big leagues. Especially given what he has done since being promoted to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Jesus Rodriguez Has Reached Base in 31 Consecutive Games
Rodriguez opened the 2025 season with Double-A Somerset, but he was sent up after just seven games. The right-handed hitter debuted with the RailRiders on April 13, going 1-for-2 with a walk, an RBI and two runs scored in the 8-0 win over the Rochester Red Wings.
And the 23-year-old from La Victoria, Venezuela, hasn’t stopped wearing out the basepaths since.
In Scranton-Wilkes-Barre’s most recent game on Saturday, a 12-5 loss to the Nashville Sounds, Rodriguez went 0-for-4 but did get a walk, making it 31 consecutive games, every one that he has played for the RailRiders, in which Rodriguez has reached base. In those 31 games, Rodriguez is batting .376 with a .464 on-base percentage, leading the International League in both categories, ahead of much higher-touted Triple-A prospects such as Roman Anthony, Justin Crawford and Moises Ballesteros.
“The way he takes his at-bats and the way he handles himself is impressive,” said RailRiders manager Shelley Duncan.
It’s pretty much the same way Rodriguez has approached the plate since he was signed as an international free agent in early July of 2019 at the age of 17.
“When he’s healthy, he hits. That’s just how it goes,” Garcia said. “He hits, that’s all he does. He hits for high average, gets on base a ton.”
In 1,149 minor league at bats covering 320 games across six different levels, from the Dominican Summer League on up, Rodriguez has posted a combined batting average of .312 with a .399 on-base percentage. The only stop where Rodriguez struggled was at Double-A Somerset, as he has just 22 hits in 122 at bats (.196), but the bulk of those at bats occurred at the end of the 2024 season, when Garcia noted that Rodriguez was battling injuries.
Otherwise, it’s been nothing but solid contact for the 5-foot-10, 208-pounder.
“He has just one of the better hit tools in the organization,” Garcia said. “He has a great feel for contact, he hits the ball decently hard, he barrels the ball enough. He makes really, really good swing decisions.”
Jesus Rodriguez Has Done Nothing But Hit Since Being Signed in 2019
Which makes the lack of prospect love for Rodriguez all the more confusing. He is currently ranked 30th, the only time he has been awarded a spot on the Yankees’ top-30 list.
One of the knocks against Rodriguez, of course, is the lack of power. Of his 359 career hits, Rodriguez has 69 doubles, 16 triples and 26 home runs, adding up to an overall slugging percentage of .468.
“He’s not crushing in terms of the extra-base hit department, but he hits so much,” Garcia stressed. “He does such a good job of just hitting.”
There are also questions about where to play Rodriguez defensively. Originally signed as a catcher, Rodriguez has not stood out at that position, but the Yankees have had him play several games at third base, and Garcia said the experiment looks like it may be successful.
“He’s pretty mobile,” Garcia said of Rodriguez. “I’m kind of stunned as to how mobile he is. He’s someone who should not move as much as he can at his size and weight.”
At the very least, Rodriguez’s bat plays, and he would certainly give the Yankees a tremendous boost offensively at the hot corner over what they are currently getting from Oswald Peraza and others.
“Jesus Rodriguez, he might just be a big leaguer right now,” Garcia said.
Yankees’ Underrated Prospect is Putting on a Show: ‘He Hits, That’s All He Does’