The Eduardo Rodriguez Situation.

[KL2]

I just want to point out they talked about him and having communication is 30 to 45 days. I wonder where you can go and be cut off from the world for 30 to 45 days? 

 

One day at a time ER

[Tiger337]

17 minutes ago, KL2 said:

I wonder where you can go and be cut off from the world for 30 to 45 days? 

 

Doesn't sound too bad these days

[Hongbit]

Whatever the issue, it’s certainly been frustrating, difficult, and painful for him which is exactly what it’s like being a starting pitcher in front of this defense and batting order.  

[gehringer_2]

40 minutes ago, Hongbit said:

Whatever the issue, it’s certainly been frustrating, difficult, and painful for him which is exactly what it’s like being a starting pitcher in front of this defense and batting order.  

so you're saying he should have been used to it?

[1984Echoes]

What if it was something like a suicide attempt?

Something that they'd want decidedly kept within the family.

[chasfh]

23 minutes ago, 1984Echoes said:

What if it was something like a suicide attempt?

Something that they'd want decidedly kept within the family.

It could be that, it could be drugs, it could be domestic or child abuse or sexual assault, or it could be simple failure to put forth your best efforts on behalf of the team. Those are all pretty common reasons teams petition the Commissioner to put one of their players on the restricted list. This is probably not an exhaustive list of reasons and he might be on the list for another reason.

We can probably assume it’s not due to a death in the family, since the bereavement list is for that, and it’s probably not due to another family member’s illness or any absence to handle personal obligations, since that would warrant placement on the temporarily inactive list.

[romad1]

It’s definitely creepy for us to be guessing.  I do not condone his leaving the team in the lurch but this season is already an Al Avila special mess. 

[gehringer_2]

28 minutes ago, romad1 said:

It’s definitely creepy for us to be guessing. 

Nature abhors a vacuum and the human brain is hard wired to seek analogy when faced with the unfamiliar. He is also fundamentally unaffected by anything we think or say about him here. Judgments here, such as they are, are all understood to be conditional on various sets of postulated conditions. 

At some point there may be a true story that deserves praise, pity or opprobrium. I don’t feel the need to worry the speculations until and unless we ever know it. 

[romad1]

The crap never stops with this team 

[chasfh]

41 minutes ago, romad1 said:

It’s definitely creepy for us to be guessing.  I do not condone his leaving the team in the lurch but this season is already an Al Avila special mess. 

Eduardo Rodriguez is a public figure who works at a job in which millions of people have great interest. While we may not be the employer signing his checks, his leaving the team and being incommunicado from the world still affects us as fans, even to the minor degree it does. We fans make up a constituency of his. So it's fair of us to wonder what was behind it all, same as with any public figure. It basically depends on how strong the consistency tie is.

If your child's teacher left her job very suddenly and went incommunicado for weeks at a time, you would be justified in wondering what the situation was with her before she came back into the classroom to teach your child again. On the other hand, since she is not my child's teacher, I wouldn't at all be justified in pressing to found out her deal was, because I have no stake in it at all, so it would be creepy of me to pursue it. The difference is you are part of her constituency, and I am not.

Rodriguez is definitely not the same as your child's teacher, but his situation does exist along that same continuum.

[Biff Mayhem]

Or what if they were dealing with a kidnapping issue?

[Edman85]

20 hours ago, 1984Echoes said:

What if it was something like a suicide attempt?

Something that they'd want decidedly kept within the family.

That would not be covered by the restricted list, but instead the bereavement and family emergency list.

[Edman85]

P.s. my best guess is painkiller addiction. Because that is something that is very widespread in baseball, particularly pitchers coming back from injury.

[chasfh]

17 minutes ago, Edman85 said:

P.s. my best guess is painkiller addiction. Because that is something that is very widespread in baseball, particularly pitchers coming back from injury.

If this is the case, how debilitating would the addiction have to be in order to shut him down and have him get help? Majority of players typically want to play through everything and teams tacitly encourage that mindset, so how much of a zombie would a player have to become to have the team petition the Commissioner to put him on the restricted list so he can get help?

The other thing is, if the team is directing a player to get help for a medical issue that’s affecting the team, wouldn’t they maintain control of the process by sending him to one of their approved providers to deal with it, rather than sending him home and saying, deal with this however you want and just call us when you get better?

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, Edman85 said:

P.s. my best guess is painkiller addiction. Because that is something that is very widespread in baseball, particularly pitchers coming back from injury.

 

1 hour ago, chasfh said:

If this is the case, how debilitating would the addiction have to be in order to shut him down and have him get help? Majority of players typically want to play through everything and teams tacitly encourage that mindset, so how much of a zombie would a player have to become to have the team petition the Commissioner to put him on the restricted list so he can get help?

The other thing is, if the team is directing a player to get help for a medical issue that’s affecting the team, wouldn’t they maintain control of the process by sending him to one of their approved providers to deal with it, rather than sending him home and saying, deal with this however you want and just call us when you get better?

I guess I thought formalized substance abuse diversion processes were in the CBA?  No?

Edited July 25, 2022 by gehringer_2

[RedRamage]

On 7/23/2022 at 5:14 PM, gehringer_2 said:

not a matter of punting the situation to the corp, just of availing yourself of various resources that probably would have been made available had he stayed in touch. In general it's often true that people are their worst enemy when it come to not reaching out to people that are willing and able to help them.

And to be fair, if you're in a bad situation you're not always thinking 100% clearly either.

Silly case in point, I had a sever kidney stone attack once a few year back. My wife was teaching, I didn't want to disturb her. I couldn't think of anyone else to call except for my dad who was working part time then. I was hoping he wasn't working that day and could take me to the hospital, so I called him and asked: "Are you working today?"  He said "Yes."  So I said something like: "Okay, will that won't work, sorry." and hung up.

What I should have said was: "What time are you working?" because he wasn't working until later in the evening and this was like 10am. But I obviously wasn't thinking 100% clearly at that point.

[mtutiger]

20 hours ago, chasfh said:

Eduardo Rodriguez is a public figure who works at a job in which millions of people have great interest. While we may not be the employer signing his checks, his leaving the team and being incommunicado from the world still affects us as fans, even to the minor degree it does.

I can't speak for others, but Eduardo Rodriguez's absence has not affected my life in any measurable way.

[RedRamage]

1 hour ago, Edman85 said:

That would not be covered by the restricted list, but instead the bereavement and family emergency list.

However that would require ERod talking about it.  I know that some people view suicide/mental issues as very taboo. I think it's becoming less so, but there certainly still stigma about mental issues and that stigma is stronger with some people than with others.

[RedRamage]

6 minutes ago, mtutiger said:

I can't speak for others, but Eduardo Rodriguez's absence has not affected my life in any measurable way.

Define "measurable."  I think one could argue that the mere fact that you're taking the time to read/post in a thread about his absence means that it has at least effected your life to some level.  Measurable?  Probably not, but effected none-the-less.

[Shinzaki]

He's trying to earn the nickname "Edwierdo"

Edited July 25, 2022 by Shinzaki

[mtutiger]

7 minutes ago, RedRamage said:

Define "measurable."  I think one could argue that the mere fact that you're taking the time to read/post in a thread about his absence means that it has at least effected your life to some level.  Measurable?  Probably not, but effected none-the-less.

I would be spending time on this board regardless of whether this situation happened or not.

[chasfh]

25 minutes ago, mtutiger said:

I can't speak for others, but Eduardo Rodriguez's absence has not affected my life in any measurable way.

You are affected by his absence in a way measurable enough to post about it in this thread, so you'd be forgiven for being interested in what is actually happening behind the scenes. Unless you're not interested and you're here only to post how not interested you are while implying that it is not our place as fans to be interested.

Edited July 25, 2022 by chasfh

[mtutiger]

1 minute ago, chasfh said:

You are affected by his absence in a way measurable enough to post about it in this thread, so you'd be forgiven for being interested in what is actually happening behind the scenes. 

Sure, I am interested. But what interests me and what impacts my life in any meaningful way are often two separate things.

2 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Unless you're not interested and you're here only to post how not interested you are while implying anyone who is interested must be some kind of ghoul.

I'll take things I've not said for $1000, Mayim....

[chasfh]

23 minutes ago, mtutiger said:

Sure, I am interested. But what interests me and what impacts my life in any meaningful way are often two separate things.

I'll take things I've not said for $1000, Mayim....

I specifically highlighted "to the minor degree it does", and did not even type the word "meaningful"—but while we're at it, what level of meaningfulness does this have to rise to before you stop implying we should not be interested in what's going on behind the scenes?

[mtutiger]

1 minute ago, chasfh said:

I specifically highlighted "to the minor degree it does", and did not even type the word "meaningful"—but while we're at it, what level of meaningfulness does this have to rise to before you stop implying we should not be interested in what's going on behind the scenes?

I am not surprised that people are interested nor do I really care that people are interested. 

I'm just expressing my POV, which is that, despite how fans (and some in the media) act, whether it's good from a PR perspective or not, fans and the media really aren't entitled to information about why Eduardo is on the restricted list right now. It's between the team and the player.

That will not stop speculation from occurring, obviously. I suspect at some point we may learn more. But purely from a technical standpoint, we aren't the ones in a "need to know" basis here.