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Like a lot of baseball-crazed Puerto Rican kids, Yankees pitching prospect Elmer Rodriguez was a 14-year-old with a big-league dream when Hurricane Maria struck near his Trujillo Alta home on Sept. 20, 2017.
The deadliest storm to hit his region since 1899 killed 2,975 people. The Rodriguez family and its chicken farm survived, but they were lucky. In a neighboring San Juan suburb, where Rodriguez was a high school freshman at Leadership Christian Academy in Guaynabo, more than 2,800 homes were destroyed.
The storm was scary, but he was thankful that his only big inconvenience was living without electricity until the following summer.
Always tall and skinny, Rodriguez kept growing and kept pitching. The harder he threw, the more he put himself on the radar for a career in baseball. By the summer of 2021, the 6-foot-3, 160-pounder was drafted in the fourth round by the Red Sox, his maternal grandfather’s favorite team.
Rodriguez had a lot of success in his early days as a minor leaguer, and during the 2024 Winter Meetings, he was traded to the Yankees along with $250,000 in international signing pool money for touted catching prospect Carlos Narvaez.
So far, both teams are thrilled. Narvaez had a standout rookie season in 2025 for a Red Sox club that made the playoffs. By the end of the season, Rodriguez climbed into MLB Pipeline’s top 100 prospect rankings at No. 97. Baseball America ranked him as the Yankees’ No. 2 prospect, behind shortstop George Lombard, in its 2026 list.
Rodriguez was 11-8 with a 2.58 ERA in 27 outings with High-A Hudson Valley (15 games, 14 starts), Double-A Somerset (11 starts) and Triple-A Scranton Wilkes-Barre (1 start). His 178 strikeouts over 150 innings were the second most in minor-league baseball. His 10.98 strikeouts per nine innings were a career-high, and his 3.42 walks per nine were a career low.
An American League scout who follows the Yankees’ minor leagues was asked the other day what he thinks of Rodriguez, who is now 22.
“I think he can be a solid No. 4 starter in the big leagues,” the talent evaluator shot back.
The scout, who was granted anonymity because he’s not permitted to speak publicly about opposing players, opened up his report from his week scouting the Hudson Valley Renegades last summer to offer more on Rodriguez:
“When I watched Rodriguez, he threw a ton of strikes and every pitch was around the zone,” he said. He threw a two-seam fastball that had some sink and tail to it. He was 93-96, sitting 94, which was pretty good. His slider was slightly above average. He threw a decent sweeper. He gets some guys to chase.
“I know the Yankees gave up a good catcher, but they could still win this trade in the long run because it’s so hard to find starting pitchers, and Rodriguez could be a pretty good one.”
Rodriguez talked about his budding career, his trade to the Yankees and surviving Hurricane Maria in a Q&A with NJ Advance Media:
How were the holidays?
Rodriguez: Christmas Eve with the family is always fun. I wouldn’t call it a party, but we have a reunion. We play games and exchange gifts. Same thing for New Year’s Eve. We got together and played some dominoes.
From your Instagram page, I see that you’re the proud father of a baby boy. From the photos, I can tell that he’s your pride and joy.
Rodriguez. Yeah, that’s Zael. He’s one year and four months old.
Zael is a unique name.
Rodriguez: When my girlfriend was pregnant, we were looking into names and I first heard it on TikTok, then I kept seeing that name and we both liked it.
You used to go by Rodriguez-Cruz, then dropped Cruz. Why the switch?
Rodriguez: Cruz is my second last name. My mom’s last name is Cruz; my dad’s is Rodriguez. They’re still together, but when I went to my first Perfect Game tournament growing up, my mom put in all the info and signed me up as Rodriguez-Cruz. It was that way my entire career until I went to the Yankees and shortened it to Rodriguez.
What are your memories about Hurricane Maria?
Rodriguez: The whole country was really badly affected. For a month, we had no school because, literally, it was just cleaning up. There were electricity poles down everywhere. We had no power for eight months because they started fixing the poles in the cities first and it took a long time for the workers to get to the countryside, where our farm is. We had no electricity for eight months. It wasn’t fun. I was used to sleeping with air conditioners. We just had to grind through it. It was tough time, but we made it past it. We didn’t have any damage and nobody got hurt. I’m thankful for that.
What was life like on the chicken farm? Did you get a chance to play much baseball or did you have a lot of chores?
Rodriguez: We have about 250 chickens, but I really never had to do too much work. That was for my dad. My mom’s a teacher. Starting when I was 3 or 4 years old, I spent a lot of time in the backyard playing catch with my brother Victor. He’s two years older. I would always watch and learn from Victor. I’m a natural right-handed hitter as a kid, then switched to lefty because Victor hit lefty. He was pretty good until he had a meniscus tear in high school. At that point, he concentrated on his studies.
Were you a hard-throwing pitcher even as a young kid?
Rodriguez: My first position in baseball was catcher, but from the beginning, I always threw hard, so pitching was always one of my positions. Throwing hard always benefitted me. From a young age, it was difficult for kids to hit me. I played a lot of positions when I was a kid — catcher, first base, shortstop, the outfield — but pitching was that one constant that I had.
Who was your baseball hero growing up?
Rodriguez: A-Rod. Because of Alex Rodriguez, I started being a Yankees fan.
You’re a Yankees fan as a kid, then you get drafted by the Red Sox.
Rodriguez: That was difficult for me. I was a Yankees fan, but had a couple family members who were really big Boston fans, so we always had that Yankees-Red Sox rivalry. My grandfather was one of my biggest inspirations. When I was growing up, he taught me a lot of things. He also was a big Red Sox fan. I used to call my him Big Papi because he was the same build as (Red Sox Hall of Fame slugger David Ortiz). My grandfather had the same big belly. Big Papi was his favorite player, too. My grandfather passed away a couple years ago, but he got to see me get drafted by Boston. That’s what he wanted. When I was growing up, he always said he wanted to see me play for Boston. I ended up being drafted by the Red Sox with the 105th pick and my grandfather’s tomb number is 105. Seeing that was a full-circle moment for me.
Tell me about your minor-league journey so far.
Rodriguez: One of the first things that was emphasized after I was drafted was putting on weight because that eventually was going to help me with my fastball velocity. When I got there, I was only 160 pounds. When I was putting on weight, they didn’t have me throw a lot of innings. By 2024, once I was up to around 180, my velo went up almost 3 mph. Then last year, after I went to the Yankees, I got up to about 185 and the velo went up more. I’ve been eating a lot of chicken! I’ve been drinking a lot of protein shakes, too. I’ve also been lifting weights. I’ve been following that plan throughout and I’m going to stick with it because I want to add more weight.
Last year, you started out at Hudson Valley and dominated there. Then you went to Somerset and it was the same thing against better competition. You even got to Triple-A for one start at the end. What are your takeaways from 2025?
Rodriguez: I went into every start trying to be the best version that I can be and I feel like I exceeded most of my goals. I wanted to get to 100 innings because I’d never done it, and I got to 150. I had some success. I felt like it was a great year for me.
Watching your delivery, you have a high leg kick. Is that natural, or did somebody teach that?
Rodriguez: It’s natural. Pitching always has been natural for me. When I was in 12th grade and getting close to the draft, my family reached out to a pitching coach to get me more into details on pitching mechanics. It turns out that it was same pitching coach that (All-Star closer) Edwin Diaz and his brother had at the time. The pitching coach and I still work together to this day. He’s helped me execute my pitches better and become more consistent with my mechanics. As hard as I throw and with my pitch shapes, I know that I can attack the opponent and control the strike zone with consistent mechanics.
You were in Boston’s farm system for three seasons, then get traded to the Yankees. What was your reaction?
Rodriguez: It came out of nowhere. That was the same day that Boston traded for (ace left-hander) Garrett Crochet. That whole day was a roller coaster. I lost my phone service, so I couldn’t receive any messages or get calls. When I heard from someone that Crochet went to Boston for a couple prospects. I was wondering if I was in the trade. Later, I found out a couple friends of mine were in the trade. At night when I got back home, my phone was working again and I was scrolling Twitter because it was Winter Meetings time. There were some trade rumors out there. I read that Boston and Seattle were engaged in talks, then all of a sudden, I got a phone call from a Massachusetts number. I was like, ‘Oh my God, I just got traded to Seattle!’ I answered the phone and it was the Red Sox. They said, ‘We made a trade and you’re part of it.’ Once I heard Yankees, I was in shock. Red Sox to the Yankees. You don’t see trades like that often because they’re rivals. I needed a minute to think about what happened. When the Yankees reached out, I got excited to be part of the organization.
The Yankees are always in a win-now mode. They have a lot of money tied up in their rotation, more than $700 million for Gerrit Cole, Max Fried and Carlos Rodon. There’s also Luis Gil, Cam Schlitter and Will Warren. Clarke Schmidt has star potential. He’ll be back from Tommy John surgery at some point. Do you ever wonder how you’ll fit in, or are you a ‘one day at a time’ guy?
Rodriguez: I know the Yankees have a lot of great pitchers. Hopefully, one day I can be part of that rotation. I’m going to work hard to try to get there and help the Yankees bring home a championship. That’s the goal for every player, win a championship.
What are your goals for 2026? You finished last season in Triple-A, so you could start out there. Are you thinking this could be the year that you get that first call-up to the majors? You’re getting close.
Rodriguez: That’s what I have in my eyesight for next season. I want to get to the big leagues, make my debut. I’m shooting for more innings and get to the bigs.