Background and career
Iván Rodríguez Torres (born November 27, 1971), nicknamed "Pudge" and "I-Rod", is a Puerto Rican former professional baseball catcher who played 21 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played for the Texas Rangers (in two separate stints, comprising the majority of his career), Florida Marlins, Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, Houston Astros and Washington Nationals. Rodríguez is widely regarded as one of the greatest catchers in MLB history and was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2017. Rodríguez was awarded the American League Most Valuable Player Award in 1999. He won the 2003 World Series with the Florida Marlins and played in the 2006 World Series while with the Tigers. In 2009, he set an MLB record by catching his 2,227th game, passing Carlton Fisk for the most. He had the best career caught-stealing percentage of any major league catcher, at 45.68% (versus a league average of 31%), and he had nine seasons with a caught-stealing rate of 50% or higher. Only one major league catcher (Yadier Molina) has more putouts. Rodríguez recorded 2,844 hits in his career, the most of any catcher in MLB history. In October 2024, he was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in Detroit. After retiring from baseball, he served as a Shadow Representative from Puerto Rico.
Rodríguez was born in Manatí, Puerto Rico and raised in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico. His father, José was his baseball coach and his mother, Eva Torres, was an elementary school teacher. Iván's first job involved delivering flyers in the shopping malls in Puerto Rico. He learned baseball at an early age, his biggest rival being Juan González, whom he often played against in his youth. As a Little League player and just 8 years old, he moved from pitcher and third baseman (his favorite position) to catcher because his father, who was also his coach, thought he was throwing too hard and scaring opposing players with his pitches. His favorite player growing up was Johnny Bench, even before he was changed to the catcher position. The reason for this was that, according to Rodríguez, the Big Red Machine teams for whom Bench played were constantly on TV in Puerto Rico, and he saw how good Bench was. Rodríguez attended Lino Padron Rivera High School, where he was discovered by scout Luis Rosa. Rosa reported that "He showed leadership at 16 that I'd seen in few kids. He knew where he was going." Rodríguez signed a contract with the Texas Rangers in July 1988, at the age of 16, and began his professional baseball career.
Rodríguez made his professional debut in 1989 at the age of 17 as catcher for the Gastonia Rangers of the South Atlantic League. In his first game, he went 3-for-3 at the plate against Spartanburg. Playing in the Florida State League in 1990, Rodríguez was selected the best catcher in the league and named to the All-Star team. He placed 15th in the league in batting at .287, and led his team in runs batted in, with 55. He also played in the Liga de Béisbol Profesional Roberto Clemente (LBPRC) over the offseason.
I got my nickname on the very first day of camp. Chino Cadahia, who was a Rangers coach at the time, gave me that name. He saw that I was short and stocky, so, from Day One, he started calling me "Pudge." It caught on, and the rest is history. At the beginning of the 1991 season, Rodríguez played 50 games with the Tulsa Drillers, a AA team, where he batted .274 in 175 at-bats. He was considered the number one prospect of the Texas League. Before the middle of the season, he was called up to the Texas Rangers, thus bypassing AAA.
Making his debut with the Texas Rangers on June 20, 1991, he became the youngest player to catch in a major league game that season at 19 years of age. He immediately established himself as an excellent hitter who was also proficient in throwing out would-be base-stealers. He started many of the Rangers games at the end of the season, including 81 of the last 102. Rodríguez became the youngest player in the history of the Texas Rangers to hit a home run, on August 30, 1991, facing the Kansas City Royals and right-hander Storm Davis. He was named to the Major League Baseball (MLB) Rookie All-Star team by both Topps and Baseball America and finished in fourth place in the AL Rookie of the Year voting. He also placed first in throwing out runners, catching 48.6 percent of runners attempting to steal. In 1992, Rodríguez started 112 games behind the plate and was the youngest player in the major leagues for the second year in a row. Playing in the Puerto Rico Winter League, he had a .262 batting average playing in 17 games for Mayagüez. In the 1993 season, Rodríguez batted .273, had 66 runs batted in and hit 10 home runs, ranking fourth, fifth, and fifth on his team respectively. He had a stretch of eight straight hits over two games facing the Kansas City Royals on July 26 and July 28. He played the final month of the regular season in the Puerto Rican Winter league, where he had a .425 batting average and 14 runs batted in for Mayagüez. Rodríguez was named to the Puerto Rican Winter League all-star team and was also the league Most Valuable Player (MVP). In 1994, Rodríguez led the American League in batting average among catchers, at .298. He placed high on his team in many statistics, placing second in batting average (.298), tied for third in doubles (19), and fourth in hits, total bases, runs, home runs, walks, games, and at bats. He also caught Kenny Rogers' perfect game on July 28. Rodríguez played in the Puerto Rican Winter League over the winter, but he suffered a severe knee injury which kept him from playing for the rest of the season.
Playing for the Rangers during the 1995 season, Rodríguez led his team in batting, total bases, and doubles, at .303, 221, and 32 respectively. He was named the Texas Rangers' player of the year. Rodríguez also had his first multi-home run game while playing the Boston Red Sox on July 13, hitting both off All-Star pitcher Roger Clemens. He also played for Caguas in the Puerto Rican Winter League during the offseason. In 1996, Rodríguez set an MLB record for most doubles by a catcher, amassing 47 over the course of the season. This broke the previous mark of 42, set by Mickey Cochrane in 1930. He also set the major league record for at-bats by a catcher in a single season, with 639, which surpassed Johnny Bench's record of 621 in 1970. He led the Texas Rangers in doubles, at bats, hits, and runs scored. He was selected to the Major League Baseball All-Star team that played a series in Japan against the Japanese all-stars after the season was over. He again played in the Puerto Rican Winter League this season. In the 1997 season, Rodríguez also placed first among catchers in many categories in Major League Baseball. These categories were hits, runs, runs batted in, and doubles. He placed second in home runs among catchers, below only Sandy Alomar Jr. of the Cleveland Indians, who had 20 home runs. He appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated on the week of August 4. This marked the fourth time a player from the Texas Rangers had been on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Rodríguez played in the Puerto Rican Winter League yet again, where he had a .285 batting average, four home runs, and 18 runs batted in over the course of 32 games playing for Caguas. In the 1998 season, Rodríguez led the Texas Rangers in batting average at .325, which placed eighth in the American League. He also had 75 multi-hit games and 186 hits, finishing seventh and ninth in MLB respectively. He finished second on the Rangers in hits, total bases, triples, and slugging percentage. Rodríguez was third on the team in doubles, home runs, and stolen bases, and fourth in runs batted in. He recorded his 1,000th career hit in a game facing the Cleveland Indians on May 10 of that season. Rodríguez also became the first catcher in the history of Major League Baseball to have two or more seasons with 40 or more doubles. He was selected to the American League All-Star Team again, and he was also named to all-star teams by The Associated Press, The Sporting News, and Baseball America. In 1999, Rodríguez was selected as the American League MVP. Rodríguez was also the first catcher to have more than 30 home runs, 100 runs batted in, and 100 runs scored in the history of Major League Baseball. In addition, he holds the distinction of being the first catcher in the history of the league to amass more than 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases. From May 8 to June 1, 1999, Rodríguez had a career-high 20-game hitting streak. He had 25 stolen bases, which was fifth most among catchers in the history of the league. He led the league in times grounded into a double play, with 31. Rodríguez was only the ninth catcher in the history of Major League Baseball to win the Most Valuable Player award, and he was the first to win it since Thurman Munson in 1976. He was named on all of the ballots, getting seven first place votes and six second place votes. Rodríguez was the sixth Puerto Rican to win the award, and the fourth player from the Texas Rangers to win it. He also won the Silver Slugger Award for the sixth time in a row and was selected Most Valuable Player by Baseball Digest. He was again named to all-star teams by the Associated Press, The Sporting News, and Baseball America. While he was hitting home runs, he rarely drew walks. He is one of only six players active in 2009 who have had at least 30 home runs in a season in which they had more homers than walks (34 home runs, 24 walks in 1999). The others are Alfonso Soriano (39–23 in 2002, 36–33 in 2005, 33–31 in 2007), Garret Anderson (35–24 in 2000), Ryan Braun (34–29 in 2007), Joe Crede (30–28 in 2006), and José Guillén (31–24 in 2003). In 2000, Rodríguez suffered a season-ending injury in a game against the Anaheim Angels. While trying to make a throw to second base, his thumb made contact with the swing of Mo Vaughn's bat. He fractured his right thumb and underwent surgery the next day. This injury caused him to miss the rest of the season. Rodríguez appeared in just 91 games, which was the fewest that he appeared in since his first season in the league, 1991. His nine home runs in April matched a team record that was shared (through 2008) with Alex Rodriguez (2002), Carl Everett (2003), and Ian Kinsler (2007). Even though he was injured, he was still named to the second-team of Baseball America's Major League Baseball All-Star Team. Rodríguez returned to full action in 2001 and had another all-star season. He was selected to his ninth straight MLB All-Star Game, which tied the all-time record set by Johnny Bench. He also tied Bench's record of ten straight Rawlings Gold Glove Awards in a row. He batted .308, making 2001 his seventh straight season with a batting average of over .300. He had 25 home runs, 136 hits, and 65 RBI. He also posted a career-best 60.3% caught stealing rate, in a year when the league average was 29%. Rodríguez's final year in his first stint with the Texas Rangers came in 2002. His .314 batting average was seventh best among American League players. This was his eighth season in a row with batting average of .300 or above. He also had 32 doubles, two triples, and 60 runs batted in while playing in 108 games for the Rangers. Rodríguez was placed on the disabled list on April 23 after suffering a herniated disk on April 15. The injury did not require surgery, and he rehabilitated while playing for Class-A Charlotte. He later returned to the Rangers and played there for the remainder of the season. After the 2002 season, his contract with Texas expired and he became a free agent.
