Ivan Rodriguez, Traded Back to Where it all Started

Sports Betting News - August 19th, 2009 - Written by Ryan Smith

The Texas Rangers made a key acquisition earlier this week when they traded for veteran catcher Ivan Rodriguez. The 37-year-old Catcher signed a one year, $1.5 million contract with the Houston Astros baseball team in March of this year. However the Astros have slipped out of the playoff race in the last few weeks, and have no need to keep the veteran catcher on the pay roll. With former starting catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia on the disabled list, the Rangers decided to make a trade for Ivan Rodriguez, who spent his first 11 MLB seasons with the Rangers franchise.

The Houston Astros received pitcher Matt Nevaraez, and two players from the Rangers in this trade. The Rangers received Pudge, who started his career at 19 years-old with the Rangers franchise. ESPN reports Pudge had these comments to share with the media, "It's been a long time, I'm glad that I'm back." Rodriguez has played in 93 games this season, and compiled a .251 batting average, 8 home runs, and 34 RBI's in that time span. Rangers Manager Ron Washington, said Rodriguez is scheduled to back up Taylor Teagarden, who became the starter when Saltalamacchia got hurt.

Ivan Rodriguez is a 14-time all-star, and his leadership should help the young Rangers team down the stretch. In his 11 years with the franchise, Rodriguez has become one of the most popular Ranger players in history, winning 10 of 13 Gold Gloves with the team. Pudge also helped the Rangers baseball team make it to the playoffs three times, the only three times in franchise history (1996,1998,1999), and won an AL MVP while with the Rangers. For that reason outfielder David Murphy said he would give up his number 7 jersey, the same number Rodriguez wore throughout his career with the Rangers. Murphy will switch to the number 14 jersey instead.

Rodriguez was back in a Texas Rangers uniform on Tuesday night, and ESPN reports his new teammate Michael Young had this to say, "It's huge for our fan base, He might be the best player in the history of our organization and probably the most popular. This is just a great move on all fronts." The Rangers are currently tied with the Boston Redsox, as the number one team in the wild card race. This trade might just be a spark of life for the Rangers team, and they need all the help possible to hold off the Redsox for 40+ more games of regular season baseball.

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