Why Diamondbacks Fans Should Be Optimistic About Eduardo Rodriguez

On Thursday, a slimmed-down Eduardo Rodriguez took the mound for the Arizona Diamondbacks, delivering two scoreless innings. His fastball velocity up well above 93 MPH — a tick and a half above 2025's 92 MPH average. He peaked at nearly 95, a rising trend among D-backs starters this spring.

Rodriguez completed the two frames on 31 pitches (20 strikes). He gave up three singles in the second inning, but they were sandwiched around a routine double play.

Rodriguez was extremely pleased with his increase in velocity.

"It feels really good overall on everything, especially the velocity," he said. "I know my location is good and everything, I was just throwing to see where [the velocity] was. ... Overall today was a really, really good day for me on everything."

Though the past two seasons may have been ugly for the southpaw, there's reason to believe an improvement is coming in 2026 — two reasons, in particular.

Why Eduardo Rodriguez Could Bounce Back for Diamondbacks

Sep 27, 2025; San Diego, California, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks starting pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez (57) delivers during the second inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Denis Poroy-Imagn Images | Denis Poroy-Imagn Images

Rodriguez's 2025 was ultimately another disappointing season in terms of results. He threw to another ERA above 5.00. But he also began to show signs of improvement as the year progressed. The split between his first-half ERA (5.94) and second-half (4.01) was drastic.

The veteran said part of that improvement was thanks to losing around 20 pounds during the course of the year.

"After my first start of the season, I was 256, something like that," he said. "So I know I [had] a lot of weight on there, and I can feel it on the mound. I started working and I get to 235 by the end of the season, that's almost 20 pounds on there. And right now I'm 232, so I want to get [down to] 225, 226," he said.

The physical transformation wasn't the only thing that contributed to Rodriguez's increased success. He implemented a curveball midway through the year, and is working on making the offering a more vertical-moving pitch, as opposed to his more traditional slider.

"He's trying to land a different shape breaking ball right now, and it looks really, really good," manager Torey Lovullo told reporters prior to Rodriguez's first spring start. Rodriguez

Rodriguez said it's "getting to the point that it's a real true curveball."

"I started using more [curveballs] during the [2025] season, like August to the last games of the season. ... This year we're working on getting more like a true curveball rather than... a sweeper or slider and that's what we were really working on today."

Rodriguez is entering year three of his four-year, $80 million contract with Arizona. A bounce-back season would be much-welcomed by the Diamondbacks, and he's certainly appeared to be trending in a more positive direction since June of 2025.