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Tigers closer Francisco Rodriguez still a work in progress in 2016

There is a baseball season underway, and so of course, the Detroit Tigers have seen shaky performances from a closer. Francisco Rodriguez looked like a solid value pickup by Al Avila this offseason, but so far it's been a bit of a rocky road. His last three outings have gone better, but the questions remain. Were Rodriguez' early season struggles just a rough patch, or potentially the sign of another closer acquired too close to their sell-by date?

On the surface, there are reasons to think his issues are somewhat flukey. In his outing against the Royals on April 20, just before going on family emergency leave, Rodriguez hung a pair of pitches in short order to Alex Gordon and Salvador Perez and paid for them with back-to-back solo shots.