Héctor Rodríguez’s approach to a career-starting slump, and the Reds’ outlook in right field

Héctor Rodríguez is two-for-24 at the plate to start his young big league career. He has started his time in the big leagues with a slump. But the 22-year-old isn’t worrying too much about it.

“I know I’m going to hit,” Rodríguez said via interpreter Tomás Vera. “I know. I’ve been putting more emphasis on my defense because I need to get better at that. (The slow start) doesn’t impact me because I know I’m going to hit. I’m going to keep working. I haven’t achieved what I wanted yet. But I’m going to keep working the way I want to.”

While you always take Minor League stats with a grain of salt, Rodríguez posted a .881 OPS in Triple-A this season and the eye test backs those numbers up. He’s one of the Reds’ top prospects. Right now, he’s adjusting to big league spin. He’s whiffing on over half of his swings against breaking pitches, and he has a .083 average with a .310 OPS across his two weeks in the big leagues.

“We knew coming in that he’s ultra-aggressive as a hitter,” Terry Francona said. “When you get to the Major Leagues, that’s going to be a big test for him. We’re not telling him to go walk. We want him to swing at pitches he can handle. At the moment, he has gotten a little aggressive. Hopefully, he can reign that in a bit.”

Rodríguez is having about as surprising of a start to his big league career as we’ve seen on the Reds recently. He was expected to hit right away. At least so far, he hasn’t. The real questions and concerns were if he could play good enough defense to be a big league regular. But so far, he’s doing a really nice job in the outfield.

“He has worked really hard in the outfield,” Francona said. “That’s obvious. He has come a long way. That’s really good.”

Rodríguez is taking much better routes than he used to, he’s showing nice range and he’s keeping the routine plays routine.

“I feel great,” Rodríguez said. “I’ve been putting the work in. With all of the work that I did in Triple-A, I feel proud of myself. I see the results on the field right now.”

Maybe the most impressive part is how he isn’t letting his struggles offensively impact his defense.

“He has been a really nice bright spot for us,” outfield coach Collin Cowgill said. “He’s doing what he’s supposed to do. He has exceeded our expectations so far out there. It’s hard when you’re struggling to go and play your butt off on defense. He hasn’t shown that out there at all.”

The floor that Rodríguez is showing defensively really helps his case to be a long-term starter for the Reds. The expectation is that the bat will get going.

“He’s getting an idea of how hard it is to hit in the big leagues,” Cowgill said. “There’s no one in our dugout, on our staff or on our team who doesn’t think that he’ll be successful offensively. The offense is coming, there’s no doubt.”

Because of Rodríguez’s early struggles, right field is a work in progress for the Reds right now. Between Aug. 9 and Aug. 13, Rodríguez made four straight starts over Noelvi Marte in right field. Then on Aug. 14 and 15, Marte started over Rodríguez. On Sunday, Aug. 16, they both were on the bench with first baseman Michael Toglia (two minor league starts in the outfield this season and none in the big leagues) playing right field.

Francona said that was a way to get Toglia’s bat in the lineup on a day off for catcher Tyler Stephenson.

“Freddie (Benavides) were sitting here last night, and it wasn’t looking like… when (Stephenson doesn’t play, that’s our middle of the order bat right now,” Francona said. “We’re trying to mix and match a bit.”

While Marte started the first two games of this weekend’s series against the Marlins, his playing time has really started to dwindle.

“He’s working,” Francona said. “We’re trying to balance winning with guys developing. At times, it’s a little challenging. We’ve got to get some production.”

At this point a year ago, Marte was the Reds’ best player on a team that was fighting for a playoff spot. Now, he needs to prove that he should be in the lineup. Since he was called back up in June, it feels like his level of play has decreased each month.

Over his last 30 games, Marte has a .206 on-base percentage. He has to show that he can figure it out in the big leagues.

“When he swings at balls that are over the plate, he hits them,” Francona said. “When he chases, he gets himself in trouble. The idea is if you can swing at more strikes — we don’t need him to be a guy that walks 100 times. He’s got to swing at balls he can handle.”