ARLINGTON, Texas — Grayson Rodriguez is not from Houston.
His mother, Temple, gets frustrated when she sees it written that her son is a Houston native.
“Please tell them,” she pleaded. “He is not from Houston. He was just born there because I was high risk. He’s from Nacogdoches.”
To some, the distinction might not seem important. Houston, about 140 miles south, is the closest major city in Texas to Nacogdoches.
But the significance of noting that Rodriguez, the Orioles’ top pitching prospect, isn’t from Houston — population 2.28 million — and is instead from Nacogdoches — population 32,118 — was obvious Wednesday when he made his MLB debut in Texas against the Rangers. Seated behind the third base dugout for his first big league start were scores of Rodriguez supporters from Nacogdoches — family, friends and former teammates and coaches — all donning either Central Heights High blue or Orioles orange.
“It was a lot of fun having friends and family,” said Rodriguez, who had a long line of family and friends to hug outside the Orioles’ clubhouse after his start.
That’s why Rodriguez’s mom is passionate about what his hometown is listed as. Rodriguez is not from the big city; he’s from a small town — a community that helped shape him into who he is today.
“We love our hometown, we love our hometown people,” Temple said before her son impressed in his debut, pitching five innings of two-run ball with five strikeouts. “They’re so supporting. They don’t care what the outcome is. They’re here to support Grayson.”
Sheldon McCown grew up on the same street in Nacogdoches as Rodriguez.
“Three houses down,” he said. “We were just about the only kids in the neighborhood.”
McCown is two years older than Rodriguez, but they “were always outside doing something” since they were in elementary school — backyard home run derbies, playing catch or having snowball fights on the rare occasion it snowed.
“I think the velocity came a little later, but I’m sure they didn’t feel good,” McCown joked about getting hit with a snowball thrown by a young Rodriguez.
McCown, 25, knew Rodriguez, ranked as Baseball America’s No. 6 overall prospect, was a good athlete since he was young. But he didn’t realize just how talented his neighbor was until he walked into his bedroom one day as a pre-teen and saw Rodriguez had dozens of home run balls saved.
“I was like, ‘This kid’s incredible,’” said McCown. “And it hasn’t stopped. He kept improving, kept reaching new milestones.”
The 23-year-old Rodriguez notched a few more milestones Wednesday. After allowing two runs in his first inning, he pitched four shutout frames with five strikeouts. The 6-foot-5 right-hander got 14 swings and misses — including his final pitch, a 96.9 mph fastball to strike out Rangers star shortstop Corey Seager — on 44 swings for an elite 32% whiff rate.
“He’s got so much talent and such a high ceiling,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said. “He’s gonna be such a good starting pitcher in this league.”
Seeing Rodriguez strike batters out is nothing new for McCown, who was a junior third baseman when the wunderkind was firing 90 mph fastballs as a freshman on the Central Heights varsity team.
“When he was on the mound, it was pretty much a guaranteed win,” McCown said.
Jackson Nichols’ left index finger will never be the same. He caught too many fastballs from Rodriguez.
Nichols was a junior catcher at Central Heights — a small school with graduating classes of less than 100 students — when Rodriguez arrived as a freshman fireballer. But, despite the pain Rodriguez’s heaters inflicted on Nichols’ catching hand, he wouldn’t take any of them back.
“It’s honestly just mind-blowing to see a kid that I grew up with, grew up playing ball with, played with in high school now on the big stage doing exactly what he’s meant to be doing,” Nichols said.
“His freshman year, my first year catching him, the first pitch he ever threw to me, I told myself, ‘This kid’s gonna do something big one day.’ Sure enough, after that, all the work he’s put in, everything that he’s done to grind up until this point, he’s done it the right way.”
Nichols, 25, remembers receiving pitches from Rodriguez — the blazing fastball and sharp breaking ball that got him drafted No. 11 overall by the Orioles in 2018 — and being star-struck. He’d turn back sometimes and look at the umpire in “disbelief.”
Hyde said before Rodriguez’s start Wednesday that he wanted the youngster to pretend like he was back in high school — a tall task considering Globe Life Field seats approximately 40,000, or about 8,000 more than the population of Rodriguez’s hometown in East Texas.
But Nichols said that’s exactly what he and the rest of the Nacogdoches community were there Wednesday to do.
“We want to kind of give that high school feel — having familiar faces in the stands, having the same people who were cheering him on back in high school,” he said. “I think it’s huge to show the support through Central High and Nacogdoches for one kid to just be behind him and hype him up for his debut.”
Travis Jackson knew who Rodriguez was before he even met him.
Jackson was hired as Central Heights’ baseball coach heading into Rodriguez’s junior year.
“It was kind of ‘the man, the myth, the legend,’” Jackson, 45, said. “You hear about him, you hear 95 [mph] and you wonder if it’s that or if it’s really just high-80s.”
He then saw a video of Rodriguez touching 95 mph, and Jackson realized his new ace was “the real deal.”
The Blue Devils won the Class 3A Texas state championship in 2017, riding Rodriguez’s right arm to the crown in Jackson’s first season. But it’s a memory from Rodriguez’s senior year in 2018 that is Jackson’s fondest.
In a game against Bridge City High, the opposing fans were a little “mouthy” toward Central Heights’ players. Rodriguez responded in kind, taking over the game and pitching a seven-inning no-hitter with 19 strikeouts in a contest that ended in a 0-0 tie.
“Something clicked in and he just took over. It was pretty much nothing but fastballs from the fifth inning on,” recalled Jackson, who is in his seventh season as the school’s coach. “Me and my assistant coaches talk about that game all the time.”
Rodriguez wore No. 30 for the Orioles on Wednesday, but it was his No. 16 jersey from high school — the black T-shirt style one with blue lettering — that Jackson wore at Globe Life Field to cheer on his former player.
The number isn’t retired at Central Heights yet, but it will be soon. No baseball player has worn No. 16 since Rodriguez graduated in 2018.
“No one will wear his number anymore,” Jackson said.
Kevin Herron received a call from Rodriguez on Tuesday during the school day, asking the Central Heights athletic director to pull his younger brother, Garner, out of class to tell him the news of his big league call-up.
“We FaceTimed, and they both started weeping,” said Herron, who had tears in his eyes while recalling the exchange. “It was really cool. I’m extremely proud of him.”
That was far from the only emotional moment Rodriguez had during his “hectic” past two days. He was playing catch on the field in Norfolk when he was told he was being promoted, and he quickly called his parents.
“A lot of tears,” Rodriguez said.
Then, after his successful debut, he greeted his father, Gilbert, and both men wept.
“We finally did it,” Rodriguez said after the long embrace with his dad in a moment shown during the team’s broadcast on the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network.
Herron, Central Heights’ basketball coach, first met Rodriguez as a junior high basketball player.
“He was a little gangly,” Herron, 50, said with a laugh, remembering Rodriguez’s lanky frame as a seventh grader.
Herron remembers how “effortless” Rodriguez made pitching look back in high school. His ascent through the minors was much the same. In 296 career minor league innings, Rodriguez posted a 2.49 ERA with an eye-popping 35.9% strikeout rate.
He was as dominant as ever to open the 2022 season in Triple-A, and he appeared on the verge of a call-up to the show. But a lat muscle injury sidelined him for three months, delaying his debut.
His resolve was put to the test again two weeks ago when, instead of breaking camp in the big leagues as expected, he was sent back down to Triple-A after struggling in spring training. Rodriguez, who was promoted Wednesday after starting pitcher Kyle Bradish went down with a foot injury, admitted it was “disappointing” to start the season in Norfolk.
“I think he handled it extremely well,” Hyde said. “This is not an easy thing that we’re doing here. It’s tough to play major league baseball. There’s gonna be adversity throughout everybody’s careers. There’s gonna be things you need to bounce back from, whether that be injury or playing time. It’s just part of the journey of being a player.”
Now, though, the lat injury and bumpy start to his 2023 campaign are now just speed bumps in the rear view of Rodriguez’s future career — one with expectations for many more starts like Wednesday’s, and some even better. But for his family and friends back home, he’ll forever be the kid from Nacogdoches who made it big.
“When you’re in a small town, everybody has dreams,” Herron said. “It’s magnified when one kid from your town has this opportunity.”
