Iván Rodríguez Torres (born November 27, 1971), nicknamed "Pudge"[1] and "I-Rod",[2] is a Puerto Rican former Major League Baseball catcher.

A member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Rodríguez is widely regarded as one of the greatest catchers in MLB history.

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.

"[5] Rodríguez signed a contract with the Texas Rangers in July 1988, at the age of 16, and began his professional baseball career.

[5] Rodríguez made his professional debut in 1989 at the age of 17 as catcher for the Gastonia Rangers of the South Atlantic League.

It caught on, and the rest is history.At the beginning of the 1991 season, Rodriguez played 50 games with the Tulsa Drillers, a AA team, where he batted .274 in 175 at-bats.

[11] 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.

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.

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.

[10] In the 1998 season, Rodríguez led the Texas Rangers in batting average at .325, which placed eighth in the American League.

He also won the Silver Slugger Award for the sixth time in a row and was selected Most Valuable Player by Baseball Digest.

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).

He was selected to his ninth straight MLB All-Star Game, which tied the all-time record set by Johnny Bench.

He also closed out the National League Division Series by holding onto the ball during a dramatic game-ending collision at the plate with J. T. Snow in Game 4.

[10] Prior to the 2005 season, Jose Canseco, in his controversial book Juiced, claimed to have personally injected Rodríguez with anabolic steroids during their time as teammates on the Texas Rangers.

[19] Given that Major League Baseball implemented a more stringent regime of testing for performance-enhancing drugs in 2005,[20] the "significant weight loss" experienced by Rodríguez[21] "raised more than a few eyebrows".

[23] On August 15, 2006, he also made his first Major League appearance at second base after regular second baseman Plácido Polanco was injured in a game in Boston.

On January 8, 2008, the Leones de Ponce reclaimed Rodríguez in the last turn of a special post-season draft, where players from eliminated teams were selected to reinforce those that qualified.

On May 17, 2009, Rodríguez hit his 300th career home run off of Chicago Cubs pitcher Rich Harden at Wrigley Field.

[34][35] On August 18, 2009, Rodríguez was traded to the Texas Rangers for minor league reliever Matt Nevarez and two PTBNL.

[37] He hit his first home run with the Rangers since 2002 on August 29, a solo shot against Minnesota Twins reliever José Mijares.

[38] He finished the 2009 season ranked first in major league history with 13,910 putouts as a catcher, ahead of Brad Ausmus (12,671).

[44] Rodríguez returned from the DL in time to catch for Stephen Strasburg's Major League debut on June 8, 2010.

[45] Strasburg struck out 14 batters and walked none over seven complete innings, which has been described as one of the greatest major league pitching debuts of all time.

[50] Rodríguez was one of several Major League Baseball players that committed to represent their birthplaces before the organization of the tournament.

[53] He joined the Rangers front office as a special assistant to the general manager in February 2013[54] and continues in that role as of the 2024 season.

Richard Justice of MLB.com argued that he was "unquestionably" a Hall of Fame-caliber player, writing on MLB.com in 2012 that he batted better than .290 with more than 2,500 hits, 550 doubles, 300 home runs and 1,300 RBI, an accomplishment equaled only by four all-time greats: Hank Aaron, George Brett, Babe Ruth and Barry Bonds.

Justice acknowledged that like Bonds, Rodríguez may have difficulty winning election to the Hall of Fame due to suspicion that he used steroids during his career,[55] USA Today expressed similar sentiments.

[60] Before the start of Game 1 of the 2023 World Series, Former President of the United States George W. Bush threw the ceremonial first pitch to Rodríguez.

That same night, having been called up from double A (Rodriguez bypassed AAA) by the Texas Rangers, Rodríguez made his major league debut, in which he threw out two White Sox would-be base stealers.