Pitcher Dereck Rodriguez came full circle when he finally debuted for Twins

When the Twins called Dereck Rodriguez at 12:40 a.m. Wednesday, he was wide awake.

The pitcher was up playing the new Lego Star Wars video game on his computer, just chilling knowing his St. Paul Saints didn't play until that evening. The Twins, meanwhile, had just finished a marathon of a rain-delay loss and desperately needed some bullpen help before finishing the Dodgers series a mere 12 hours later.

Rodriguez was the pick to ascend from Class AAA, though he might not have tallied much more sleep than his new teammates. Running on the adrenaline high of his impending Twins debut, the righty immediately quit his game, texted his agent, family and friends, and began packing. Target Field was only a 15-minute drive, but the Twins were set to leave following the game for a road trip that starts Friday in Boston.

"You're always mentally prepared for it, but I wasn't, not this fast, not this quick into the season," Rodriguez said. "… I wasn't expecting it to be me, but I knew somebody might've been coming up here."

The 29-year-old came into the 7-0 loss to the Dodgers on Thursday, pitching four innings. While Clayton Kershaw very nearly pitched a perfect game for the Dodgers, Rodriguez didn't allow a hit or a run for his first three innings. But he undid all that good work in his last inning, allowing back-to-back-to-back homers from the bottom of the Dodgers' lineup.

On Friday morning, the Twins announced that Rodriguez has been designated for release or assignment with the team calling up outfielder Kyle Garlick.

Regardless of how he performed, though, just playing on the Twins was a bit of a full-circle moment for Rodriguez.

The Twins drafted the Texas native — a son of Hall of Fame catcher Ivan Rodriguez — in the sixth round of the 2011 draft. Back then, he was still an outfielder. But after three seasons playing at the rookie level in the Twins' system, the organization decided to convert him into a pitcher.

Rodriguez said he remembered in pre-draft workouts about half the teams wanted to see him in the outfield and the other half on the mound. He had pitched only about seven innings at his Monsignor Edward Pace High School team in Florida, where he was "just pretty much throwing the ball as hard" as he could.

So Rodriguez went from sharing the outfield with the likes of Byron Buxton and Max Kepler in the minors to honing a four-seam fastball, changeup, curveball and cutter.

"To me, it was just baseball. It's the game. I always said, 'As long as I have a uniform, it doesn't matter what it is. I'm happy,'" Rodriguez said. "I always had a good arm. Not that it came easy, but it came a little bit more natural, I would say, than a lot of other people."

Rodriguez made it to Class A with the Twins by 2017 but departed for a minor league contract with the Giants in 2018. He made his MLB debut that May for San Francisco and ended his rookie year with 19 starts in 21 games with a 2.81 ERA. He bounced up and down in 2019, amassing a 5.64 ERA through his 28 games and 16 starts. And he appeared in just two games in the pandemic 2020 season before San Francisco designated him for assignment.

The Tigers picked him off waivers only to drop him about two months later before he ever played. He then signed with Colorado and played the 2021 season at the Rockies' Class AAA affiliate. He finished with a 6.72 ERA in 22 games and 19 starts.

He returned to the Twins on a minor league deal this offseason and was near-perfect in his one start for the Saints before his call-up, allowing just one hit in four innings. Rodriguez said rejoining the Twins organization was a "no-brainer" given his comfort level with the team from his seven minor league seasons. Twins manager Rocco Baldelli is hoping that will translate to the MLB side.

"He's a proven strike-thrower. He can go out there, and he can handle things," Baldelli said. "He's a pretty level-headed guy. You can put him, I think, in any situation, and he'll be just fine."

Rodriguez is thrilled he got a chance to finally bring his teenage dream into reality.

"It's been a long journey," Rodriguez said. "… It's nice to finally be up here with them. Even when I got drafted, I always envisioned myself as a big-leaguer with the Twins. You always have the team that drafts you, so it's nice that it's coming true."