Steve Rodriguez enters his sixth season as an assistant coach with Stanford baseball in 2025. The 2025 season will be his fourth as a full-time assistant after serving as a volunteer assistant in his first two seasons. Included in his duties, Rodriguez has been instrumental in developing the offense and catchers while on The Farm.
Rodriguez helped guide Stanford to a third consecutive appearance in the College World Series in 2023, including its 19th in program history, finishing the year with a 44-20 overall record and a 23-7 mark in the Pac-12 to win the conference regular season championship for the second consecutive season. The Cardinal entered the postseason ranked No. 6 in the nation according to D1Baseball and won a regional featuring No. 25 Texas A&M, Cal State Fullerton and San Jose State to advance and host a super regional. The Cardinal won three consecutive elimination games in the regional, including defeating No. 25 Texas A&M twice, before winning two more against Texas in the super regional to punch a ticket to Omaha. The Cardinal hit .316 as a team (first in Pac-12 and 10th nationally) and averaged 8.36 runs per game while also leading the conference in home runs (117) and finishing second in slugging percentage (.539). For the second consecutive season, Stanford cleaned up in the Pac-12 yearly award voting, capturing four of the five major Pac-12 yearly awards in addition to the batting champion in Tommy Troy. Among those lauded, Alberto Rios won Player of the Year, and catcher Malcolm Moore took home Freshman of the Year as a unanimous Freshman All-American. Developing for two seasons under Rodriguez’ tutelage, Moore was drafted 30th overall in the first round by the Texas Rangers in the 2024 MLB Draft.
Rodriguez and the Cardinal finished the 2022 season at the College World Series after posting a 47-18 overall record and a 21-9 mark in the Pac-12 to win both the Pac-12 regular season and inaugural Pac-12 Tournament championships. Stanford, which entered the College World Series ranked No. 1 in the nation according to Collegiate Baseball, finished the year ranked No. 5 in the D1Baseball poll. Just as it did in 2021, Stanford led all teams in postseason home runs, connecting for 23 of its program-record 118 long balls during the 10-game postseason run. The Cardinal ranked second in the Pac-12 in average (.309) and led the Conference in slugging (.536) and home runs (118) while hitting 71 in the last 27 games overall. Stanford's starting catcher, Kody Huff, was drafted in the seventh round by the Colorado Rockies in the 2022 MLB Draft.
During Rodriguez' first season as a full-time assistant in 2021, the Cardinal went 39-17 and 17-10 in Pac-12 play to claim third place in the conference standings. Stanford would ultimately make a run to Omaha and finish the season with a No. 5 ranking according to Collegiate Baseball. Developing the hitters, Rodriguez saw the Cardinal connect for 85 home runs, including an NCAA-high 22 in the postseason.
Prior to coming to Stanford, Rodriguez spent the previous three seasons with UCLA as the Director of Baseball Operations. A student-athlete for the Bruins from 2009-11, Rodriguez played six seasons as a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Atlanta Braves organizations (2011-16).
A native of Lomita, Calif., Rodriguez played 147 games at catcher with UCLA, making 137 starts across three seasons. He finished his career with a .215 batting average and compiled 10 home runs and 64 RBIs while serving as catcher for future first-round picks Gerrit Cole and Trevor Bauer. During his three seasons, the Bruins pitching staff owned a 3.33 ERA with over 1,700 strikeouts. In 2010, Rodriguez was a member of the United States Collegiate National team.
Rodriguez was selected in the 15th round of the 2011 MLB Draft by the Arizona Diamondbacks, and made it as high as Double-A with both the Diamondbacks and the Braves. He hit .221 in his professional career, collecting four home runs and 79 RBIs. Rodriguez had one of his best seasons in 2014 when he was promoted to Double-A Mobile and hit .267 with a .352 slugging percentage while scoring 11 runs in 60 games for the BayBears.
Rodriguez and his wife, Claire, were married in 2021. The couple welcomed a daughter, Mia, in 2023.