The name would sound vaguely familiar to mid-Atlantic baseball fans and yes, Roderick Bernadina has a cousin who plays for the Washington Nationals. But Roger, who is eight years Roderick’s senior, hasn’t been an overnight success in the big leagues as he’s bounced around between the Nationals and AAA for each of the last five seasons. Similarly, Roderick has gone from Aberdeen to Frederick to Delmarva over a whirlwind eight weeks, landing in Delmarva July 28.
But the younger Bernadina has lately shown some offensive prowess hitherto unknown over his brief career, where his overall average was barely holding the .240 mark before this season. It’s sort of a small sample size, but in 10 games since joining the Shorebirds Roderick is 13-for-37 (.351) and has a couple doubles to his credit as well.
Perhaps Delmarva is where the 20-year-old (as of tomorrow) belongs, since he had done a reasonable job at Aberdeen this season (.259/0/14/.631 OPS in 30 games) but struggled with Frederick, going 1-for-12 in 3 games there. Interestingly enough, Roger spent three seasons in the South Atlantic League with Savannah (2003-05) and had similar numbers to Roderick’s before picking up steam at the higher levels of the Expos/Nationals organization. Given that history, the Orioles may be just as patient with the younger cousin.