Hamilton Cardinals sign Major League Baseball champ Fernando Rodney for 2025 season

The Hamilton Cardinals have made a “significant” addition to their lineup with the signing this week of former Major League Baseball all-star pitcher Fernando Rodney for the 2025 season.

Rodney’s storied career spans 17 years in the MLB, during which he donned the jerseys of 11 teams, including the Detroit Tigers and Seattle Mariners. The 47-year-old brings “leadership” and a lot more to the Hamilton team, owner Eric Spearin said. 

The Cardinals are one of nine teams in the Intercounty Baseball League in Southern Ontario. 

“Our league is typically made-up of baseball players that may have made the major leagues, like the Blue Jays … so the fact that we signed Fernando Rodney is significant,” Spearin told CBC Hamilton via telephone from the Dominican Republic — Rodney’s home country. 

“He’s been an all star, World Series champion. He’s won the World Baseball Classic, he’s known as one of the greatest all-time baseball players.”

Rodney is a three-time All-Star, in 2012, 2014, and 2016. According to a media release from the Cardinals, Rodney’s “finest season” was in 2012 while with the Tampa Bay Rays.

“That year, Rodney set a franchise record with 48 saves and posted an extraordinary 0.60 [Earned Run Average, or ERA] over 74.2 innings pitched, earning him the AL Comeback Player of the Year and Delivery Man of the Year honours. His performance also set a then-record for the lowest ERA in a single season by a reliever with at least 50 innings pitched,” the release said. 

Rodney is older than his new teammates — the average age of players is 27-28 years old — but Spearin said this is an added benefit to the team.

“They’ve watched Fernando pitch for a number of years, so I think that makes it even more exciting for them. They’ve looked up to him throughout his career and now they’re going to be sharing the same locker room with him,” Spearin said.

“I think he’s going to bring leadership, a wealth of knowledge and passion. He’s extremely passionate about the sport, that’s why he continues to play [and] we’re just really excited to have him.”

Spearin said team member and assistant coach Luis Bernardo, who is originally from the Dominican Republic, has known Rodney for a number of years, and was “very instrumental” in helping to get him to sign with the Cardinals.

Bernardo, two other players —Tyler Duncan and Tanner Rempel — as well as other Hamilton Cardinals staff members have joined Spearin in the Dominican Republic this week, for meetings with Rodney, as well as tryouts for other players. 

Quest to fix championship ‘drought’

Spearin said the Hamilton Cardinals — who have not won a championship since 1978 — have already commenced training at Strike Zone Training in Burlington ahead of the 2025 season.

“We will start bringing in our players to Hamilton probably the last week of April in anticipation of playing exhibition games the first two weeks of May, and then the middle of May is when our regular season would start and it lasts until the middle of September,” he said.

Noting that there’s been only one championship win in the team’s 67-year history, Spearin said bringing Rodney in is part of the quest to end the drought. 

“As an owner, I am doing whatever it takes to make sure that we’re going to try to fix that drought and actually win a championship,” he said.

“So, I think that just kind of furthers our commitment and our willingness to come down here, find players like Fernando and bring them back to Hamilton to help us win.”