A spring training Q&A with Sean Rodriguez, a Miami native with past ties to the Marlins
Sean Rodriguez’s journeyman-like career through Major League Baseball has brought him back home.
The 34-year-old Miami native who played high school ball at Coral Park and Braddock High joined the Miami Marlins this offseason on a minor-league contract with an invitation to big-league spring training.
He’s a 12-year MLB veteran whose stops include time with the Los Angeles Angels (2008-2009), Tampa Bay Rays (2010-2014), Pittsburgh Pirates (2015-2016), Atlanta Braves (2017), Pittsburgh Pirates (2017-2018) and Philadelphia Phillies (2019). He’s a super-utility player, having started at least 35 games at every position except pitcher and catcher.
Now, he has an opportunity to make the Opening Day roster of his hometown team, a franchise that played its first game two weeks before Rodriguez’s eighth birthday.
And his connections to the Marlins extend beyond just the city.
His father Johnny, now the St. Louis Cardinals’ minor-league infield coordinator, was a coach in the Marlins’ minor leagues in the early 2000’s. His older brother, Robert Rodriguez, is the Marlins’ assistant hitting coach.
Below is a Q&A with Rodriguez as he gets acclimated to playing with the Marlins
You’ve been through the MLB circuit and the spring training routines, but what is it like to have a chance to crack the roster for the hometown team?
“It starts obviously as an opportunity to keep playing, which is what I want to do. I always try to use the same analogy where if you get a new car and you take your tires off the car and you put them in your garage because you want to put some nice, new fancy rims on the car. Those stock pair of tires you put in the garage? That’s me. I’m not overworked. I’m not overused. I always feel like I have a lot of baseball left in me.
“But to do it for Miami? Shoot. I remember exactly the park I was playing at back in ‘93 the inaugural season. Me and a bunch of kids as soon as our game was over, we ran to the concession stand to see if they were already selling the baseball cards of Charlie Hough and to see first pitch. It’s surreal. You always sit there and think ‘Yeah. It would be cool to play for the hometown team.’ But having grown up watching them, my dad coached here for a long time back through the ‘03 World Series. Yeah. It’s pretty cool.”
What was the Marlins’ message to you when they discussed signing you?
“Just knowing there’s a goal with a lot of teams. This team, obviously, the goal being we want to win more ballgames. I’ve tried to pride myself that in 2003 when I signed on a minor-league deal to this present day as someone who not only went about their business on the field trying to win, but everything I do in life, with my kids, just trying to overachieve.”
Your dad is working in the Cardinals organization on the other side of this complex. Your brother is the assistant hitting coach here. What’s that dynamic like?
“On the field? In a baseball atmosphere? Very professional. You’d be surprised. I think we’re harder on each other than we are with anyone else. The demand is higher for us with one another because we try to push each other to an ultimate level that none of us think we can get to until we get there. But that’s a pretty cool dynamic in itself. I can turn around and see my brother’s ugly face every so often and take a jab at him every now and again. He got me the other day. I have to get him back.”
How much do you think your versatility and ability to play just about anywhere in the field can help you crack the roster?
“I don’t only take pride in carrying all my gloves. I take pride in being the best at that position on any given day that I’m at that position. I think that’s obviously helped me get to where I’m at now. I’ve built up that defensive resume that I’ve been able to have, but it’s not just carrying the glove and saying ‘Yeah. I can play first, I can play second, I can play short, left, center, right, third.’ It’s can you actually play that day at that position? And not just be adequate but that the manager can turn his attention to something else and know he’s going to handle it not only well, but to a whole nother level. I take a lot of pride in that. I’m trying to be as Gold Glove caliber as I can at every position.”
Does your brother have a good scouting report on you?
“Obviously, he’s a great coach. We worked out together all offseason. I’ll catch myself, with him being the assistant hitting coach, with going to his cage, which naturally as a bench player I’ve always gravitated toward the assistant hitting coach because he’s typically in the cage. Let us get our particulars out of the way early on. That’s usually what I do with my brother. He knows what I’m working on. But Dunc [hitting coach Eric Duncan] watches and he just laughs. He just says ‘Man, what kind of dialogue do you guys use?’ Obviously we already know where we’re at, but it’s fun. I know he’s going to help make me a better player because he’s with me every day.”
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