What is Ivan Rodriguez’s Net Worth?
Ivan Rodriguez is a Puerto Rican retired professional baseball player who has a net worth of $45 million. Ivan Rodriguez, also known as “Pudge” and “I-Rod,” is widely regarded as one of the best catchers in MLB history.
Early Life
Ivan Rodriguez Torres was born on November 27, 1971, in Manati, Puerto Rico. He got into baseball at a young age and moved from pitcher and third baseman to catcher because his father, also his coach, thought he threw too hard and was scaring the other kids. Living in Puerto Rico, he constantly got to watch Johnny Bench’s Big Red Machine teams on TV, and he became a huge fan. Rodriguez attended Lino Padron Rivera High School and signed with the Texas Rangers at the age of 16 years old in 1988.
MLB Career
Ivan Rodriguez made his professional debut in the minor leagues in 1989 for the Gastonia Rangers. He was named the best catcher in the league and selected as an All-Star and was called up to the big leagues in 1991, bypassing Triple-A because of his successes. He became the youngest player to catch in the MLB that year at only 19 years old and quickly established himself as not only a threat to throw out potential base-stealers, but as an excellent hitter.
Rodriguez played for the Texas Rangers until 2002 where he had the majority of his success but continued to play good baseball for the Florida Marlins (2003), Detroit Tigers (2004-08), New York Yankees (2008), and Houston Astros (2009), before returning to the Rangers during the 2009 season. He finished his career with the Washington Nationals before announcing his retirement in 2012.
Ivan Rodriguez ended his career batting .296 with 311 home runs, 1,332 runs batted in, and 2,844 total hits. He also posted the best caught-stealing percentage of any major league catcher at 45.68% (compared to the average of 31%) and even had nine seasons with a caught-stealing rate of 50% or higher.
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Awards & Accolades
Ivan Rodriguez was a 14x All-Star (1992-2001, 2004-2007), 13x Gold Glove award winner (1992-2001, 2004, 2006, 2007), 7x Silver Slugger award winner (1994-1999, 2004), AL MVP in 1999, and NLCS MVP and World Series Champion in 2003.
His No. 7 is retired with the Texas Rangers, and he is enshrined in the Texas Rangers Hall of Fame. In 2017, Rodriguez was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in his first year of eligibility.
Contracts & Earnings
Ivan Rodriguez last earned a salary of $3 million per year with the Washington Nationals but made upwards of $10 million to over $12 million per year in his prime with the Rangers, Marlins, and Tigers. In 2004, it was announced that Rodriguez and the Detroit Tigers came to an agreement on a four-year, $40 million contract.
Over his MLB career, Pudge made over $122 million in salary alone.
Personal Life
Ivan Rodriguez married Maribel Rivera on June 20, 1991. The couple had three children together: Dereck, Amanda, and Ivanna. Dereck was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in 2011. Rodriguez and his wife founded the “Ivan ‘Pudge’ Rodriguez Foundation” in 1993 to aid families in Puerto Rico, Dallas, and Fort Worth. Their 15-year marriage ended in 2006, and Ivan married Colombia native Patricia Gomez in 2007.