Ivan Rodriguez retiring and the Texas Rangers' huge mistake; what a difference Pudge could have made

In July 1997, Texas Rangers fans plastered cars with bumper stickers and roadways with billboards imploring the team to sign their favorite player and future hall-of-fame catcher known affectionately by his one-word moniker, Pudge.

The Rangers, which earlier had traded for 33-year-old Angels catcher Jim Leyritz, ultimately got the message, with the help of one Ivan Rodriguez, and signed the then 25-year-old to a five-year, $42 million contract extension. But in 2002, the team blew it, and let arguably the greatest catcher ever to play the game get away.  

While the "Sign Pudge" campaign in '97 made headlines, Rodriguez quietly appeared at then-Rangers president Tom Schieffer's door sans agent and negotiated the 5-year deal, but left the club, when the contract expired, for the Florida Marlins and their youthful pitching staff.  Texas' front office suggested in 2002 that Pudge was bound to break down soon, having played nearly 1,500 games in his physically demanding position since he debuted in 1991 as a 19-year-old, and thus declined to extend his contract. Word also trickled out that Rangers' brass believed Rodriguez was more concerned about his hitting statistics than working with the team's pitchers, and decided his $10 million price-tag was too high and too risky.

So the beloved 30-year-old veteran catcher became battery mate to a rotation of young Marlins' upstarts with an average age of 25, and helped lead them to a World Series title that year, after earning the National League Championship Series MVP award. The shortsighted Rangers again finished in the American League West Division cellar even after spending $13 million on 30-year-old pitcher Chan Ho Park, who started only 7 games in his second season with the club.

 Pudge would sign in 2004 with the Detroit Tigers -- a team that lost an American League record 119 games the prior season -- and help lead the franchise and its youthful pitching staff from the cellar to the World Series in just three seasons. And from 2003 through 2008 with the Marlins and Tigers, Rodriguez took home three Gold Glove awards -- he owns the catcher's record with 13 -- and his seventh Silver Slugger award as the best hitting catcher, also an American League record and second only to catcher Mike Piazza, who earned 10 in the National League. So much for a player ready for the scrap heap.

During the same period, the Rangers would manage only one winning season and finish no better than third in the AL West, while cycling through four primary catchers -- Einar Diaz, then age 30; Rod Barajas, 28; Gerald Laird, 26; and Jarrod Saltalamacchia, 23. Their combined statistics from 2003 through the 2008 season pale when compared to Rodriguez's numbers during the same period. Some highlights:

2003-08 Catcher Stats	Pudge	Rangers
Games Played	755	780
Batting Average	.298	.258
Hits	861	675
Runs Batted In (RBI)	385	330
Runs Scored	390	357
Extra-base Hits (xBH)	274	241
Stolen Bases	40	14
Walks	161	161
Strike Outs	510	510
On-base % (OBP)	.348	.308
Runners caught stealing	39%	34%

Source: BaseballReference

Of the Rangers starting catchers from 2003 through 2008, one, Diaz, played only one season and was traded to the Montreal Expos before disappearing from Major League Baseball in 2006. The two former Texas prospects, Laird and Saltalamacchia, were dealt in trades, the latter coming in 2010. 

Even more than the firepower, the Rangers missed the opportunity to capitalize on their investment in Rodriguez, especially when they brought up Laird from the minor leagues and/or later traded for Saltalamacchia, a potential catching phenom that Texas acquired in July 2007 from Atlanta in the Mark Teixeira trade. Pudge would have been an excellent mentor to these youngsters, just ask Mike Rizzo and the Washington Nationals, where Rodriguez spent his final two seasons working with Wilson Ramos and Jesus Flores.

It will be a beautiful thing Monday in Arlington when Texas honors its fun-loving former catcher, who spent his first three seasons there as backstop for hall-of-famer and current Rangers president Nolan Ryan. The ballclub should be proud that Pudge wants to formerly announce his retirement with the team where his journey to Cooperstown began, but it should be ashamed that his final major league at-bat happened elsewhere.