Pirates GM Provides Injury Update for Catcher

PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates lost one of their main catchers to a recent injury, that forced them out of a game.

Pirates catcher Endy Rodríguez started vs. the Philadelphia Phillies on June 6 in the series opener at PNC Park on June 6.

Rodríguez would catch the first inning, but left in pain during warmups and Henry Davis replaced him the rest of the game for the Pirates.

Pirates manager Don Kelly said postgame that Rodríguez felt the pain in his right elbow during the first inning and wanted to test it, but couldn't go on any further.

Rodríguez would go on the 10-day Injured List with right elbow discomfort on June 7 and the Pirates brought up catcher Brett Sullivan from Triple-A Indianapolis.

This marks the second stint on the Injured List for Rodríguez this season, as he also left early vs. the the Washington Nationals at PNC Park on April 14. He took a curveball from star pitcher Paul Skenes off his throwing hand and suffered a right index finger laceration that required stitches, with Davis coming in for him that game as well.

Rodríguez also missed most of the 2024 season after he suffered an injury in winter ball following the 2023 campaign, which required reconstructive surgery on ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) and flexor tendon.

Pirates general manager Ben Cherington spoke on Rodríguez on his radio show on 93.7 The Fan on June 8 and said that while they don't see damage to the ligament in the elbow, they aren't entirely sure what is causing him pain at the moment.

He also said that Rodríguez will likely see Dr. Neal ElAttrache, who performed the surgery on him, and he hopes that they find out the problem soon.

"Well, we really don't know if it's related. All signs are this is not, from what we can tell right now, this is not about the ligament, that the ligament appears stable. That's based on the information we have now. I do expect that he's going to get, he'll get seen again, probably get a look. Dr. ElAttrache is who did the surgery originally and we may have him see him, just to really make sure we have every piece of information on what's going on.

"But yeah, he felt something in the elbow and obviously that's concerning when that happens. Based on our initial testing and diagnosis, we don't think it's the ligament that's causing that. There's something else going on in there, but we want clarity on that for his sake, for our sake.

"It's just very frustrating. He's most frustrated. You can see that in his face after he went out of the game. You could see that in the clubhouse when I went down there. Certainly his teammates. We're gonna hope for generally good news and hope that he's coming back from this and he will. It's just a matter of how much time it's going to take.

"But yeah, it's a tough blow and then of course you go back and look , 'Geez, what's going on?' He hadn't played a ton, so you wouldn't think it's a volume issue. He's as hard as worker as we've had. He's doing all his maintenance, his routine, his arm strengthening program. All the testing on that was coming out really well, kind of really since the beginning of spring training. No hiccups whatsoever and then this thing popped up.

"So, we've got to get our hands around this, get more clarity and we'll have more to share."

The Pirates currently have two catchers out with injury, as Joey Bart is still on the concussion list.