The Blue Jays have finally found the perfect role for Yariel Rodríguez

It took more than a year, but the Blue Jays have finally found the perfect role for Yariel Rodríguez.

After working as a starter last year, Rodríguez opened this year in the bullpen after he lost out on a spot in the starting rotation.

And, after a rough start to the year, Rodríguez has turned into one of the most important pitchers in the Blue Jays' bullpen.

Rodríguez entered Wednesday's games with a 3.38 ERA in 24 innings out of the bullpen. He's currently in the midst of the best stretch of his MLB career.

Rodriguez hasn't allowed a run across his last 9 2/3 innings (seven games), and has racked up 10 strikeouts across that time frame. After allowing five runs across the first 4 2/3 innings of his 2025 season, he's allowed just four earned runs across his last 19 1/3 innings.

In fact, he's been one of the best relievers in baseball over the past two weeks. Rodríguez has been worth 0.4 fWAR in the last two weeks, which is tied with David Bednar, Carlos Estévez, Jordan Romano and Justin Slaten for the best mark over that time period.

He's one spot ahead of fellow Blue Jays reliever Brendon Little, who hasn't allowed a run over his last 6 2/3 innings.

Along with having that ERA of 3.38, Rodríguez also has a FIP of 4.80 and a K/9 of 8.25. Opposing batters have hit just .205 against him, and he has a walk rate of just 9.6%.

The Blue Jays have finally found the perfect role for Yariel Rodríguez

The Blue Jays signed Rodríguez to a five-year, $32 million contract ahead of the 2024 season with the hopes that he'd be a full-time starter despite previously working as a high-leverage reliever for the Chunichi Dragons in Nippon Professional Baseball.

And while he worked as a starter in 2024, he didn't have much success, as he finished the year with a 4.47 ERA in 86 2/3 innings, which set up his move to the bullpen this year.

Rodríguez was initially set to be a swingman out of the bullpen, but he quickly became a one inning weapon thanks to the abundance of injuries that have plagued the bullpen. Those injuries left the Blue Jays with a lack of bridge arms ahead of Jeff Hoffman and Yimi García, which is where Rodríguez comes in.

He currently ranks in the 79th percentile in expected batting average and the 67th percentile in whiff rate.

It's clear that Rodríguez is comfortable in the bullpen, and the Blue Jays should keep him there, even if there'll be moments where it'll be tempting to move him to the starting rotation.

The Blue Jays have two impending free agents in their rotation (Chris Bassitt and Kevin Guasman), but they shouldn't look at Rodríguez as an option to fill either of those voids. He's a valuable piece for the bullpen, and that's where he should stay.

The Blue Jays will be playing in plenty of close games as the season goes on, so Rodríguez will get plenty of chances to prove his worth as a valuable arm out of the bullpen. It may not be the role the Blue Jays envisioned for him when they signed him a contract, but this could end up being the classic case of not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth.