By Austin Humphrey
Adrian Rodriguez is done switch-hitting, at least for now. The Texas Longhorns junior shortstop is staying on the left side of the plate, and he’s learning he doesn’t need nearly as many swings to get ready.
Rodriguez hit exclusively left-handed down the stretch of Texas’ 2026 run to Omaha while managing a left-hand injury that has followed him through his first two college seasons. The Longhorns plan to keep it that way heading into 2027.
Texas head coach Jim Schlossnagle said Monday
the doctors and specialists Rodriguez saw recommended rest, and that batting right-handed bothered his left hand more than batting left-handed did. “With that rest, the best thing for him, at least at this point in his career, is to just hit on one side of the plate,” Schlossnagle said.
Switch hitting also meant twice the workload. “When you’re a switch hitter, it’s double the work, and whether you’re doing 10 swings in a day, you’ve got to do 10 from each side, or whether you’re doing 1,000, then it’s both sides,” Schlossnagle said.
The decision came through what Schlossnagle called “a series of conversations” over “a very long amount of time.” They involved Rodriguez, members of his family and Troy Tulowitzki, the former major-league shortstop who is now a star assistant for the Longhorns. Tulowitzki’s credibility, built in this case around his ability to “recite off examples of major leaguers that he’s played with” who have done more with fewer swings helped convince Rodriguez to stick with a reduced-volume approach from the left side. The goal was getting everyone on the same page “because we want him to feel supported by everyone around him,” Schlossnagle said.
Part of that process meant changing how Rodriguez prepares. Schlossnagle described telling his star shortstop that “if some guys need 200 swings before a game to be ready, you need two and you’re ready to go,” even if that’s not an exact swing count.. “A lot of players find comfort and confidence in their work ethic,” Schlossnagle said. “I think he still has that.”
The hand has interrupted Rodriguez’s development more than once. His trouble dates to March 2025, when a pitch against Missouri fractured his left hamate. He finished his freshman season batting left-handed and had surgery that fall to insert a staple. The hardware came out around the end of March 2026 after inflammation that Schlossnagle attributed to an apparent reaction to nickel and cobalt. Rodriguez missed eight games after the procedure and returned against Alabama on April 17.
Even before the full switch, the left side was doing more damage. In an April 30 scouting report, Prep Baseball’s David Seifert listed a .461 slugging percentage for Rodriguez batting left-handed and .244 batting right-handed. The report didn’t include at-bat totals for each side, so those numbers are a midseason snapshot rather than a final split. By June 8, Burnt Orange Nation reported, Rodriguez was hitting exclusively left-handed because it caused less pain.
During Texas’ NCAA tournament run, Rodriguez went 19-for-31 (.613) with 16 RBI in eight games. His best afternoon came June 15, when he went 5-for-5 in a 14–2 elimination-game win over Alabama and hit for the third cycle in Men’s College World Series history. His sixth-inning home run completed the cycle, and his seven RBI tied a single-game event record.
That afternoon will be the easy reference point next spring, but his full season is a steadier measure of what Texas brings back: a .327 hitter with 18 doubles and 47 RBI in 53 starts.
So far, the hand has held up. “I haven’t seen any flare-ups. Certainly going to knock on wood about that,” Schlossnagle said. He added that it would be nice for everyone, Rodriguez most of all, “just to play a season without taking a swing and knowing that if you miss the ball, it’s going to hurt.”
Schlossnagle also said Rodriguez has “some clarity in his own mind about who he is as a player” and pointed to “so much success left on left.”
As for getting the Omaha version of Rodriguez every day, Schlossnagle kept his expectations simple.
“I just want to see him healthy and confident and smiling,” the Texas head coach said. “When he’s doing that, he’ll be just fine.”
