Why Julio Rodríguez is crucial to the success of the Seattle Mariners
SEATTLE — He went largely unnoticed and overshadowed by his teammate’s assault on the record books, and lost in the excitement of his team’s prosperity, but Julio Rodríguez put together another 30/30 season this year. He and Bobby Witt Jr. are the only players to do it twice before turning 25, and Rodríguez is the only one, in history, to accumulate 110 home runs and 110 stolen bases in his first four seasons in the Major Leagues.
As the Seattle Mariners approach a decider Game 5 his American League Division Series on Friday, much of the pressure will fall on Rodríguez. He’s been a constant source of speed and power, and elite defense in center field, since baseball fans fell in love with him at age 21 in 2022. And yet, the conversation about him always seems to revolve around what he hasn’t accomplished yet, who he hasn’t yet become.
Those around him don’t seem to understand him.
“It’s incredible,” he said. Jerry Dipoto, president of baseball operations for the Mariners. “Our expectations are very high due to his physical ability, the achievements we have seen. But he has played four years in the Major Leagues. He has accomplished things that, in some cases, no other player has accomplished in his first four years. If we look at what he has achieved, he is on par with the best 23- to 25-year-old players in history. And yet, collectively, we continue to expect more.”
The lack of exposure that often comes with playing for a small-market West Coast franchise could play a role. Playing on the same team as Cal Raleigh in a year in which he set a home run record for a switch-hitter, a catcher and a Mariner has certainly played a role as well. So have the high expectations that came with being so good, so young. But any underestimation of Rodriguez’s accomplishments could also be due to how his seasons play out.
They all start agonizingly slow, leaving outsiders constantly wondering what has become of one of the sport’s greatest talents, just before he takes a turn in the opposite direction. It happened again in 2025, but this time, Dipoto said, “the transition point was different.”
“In previous years, you would see it develop, and he would take off. This year, there was no preparation time. It just happened.”
It began on July 11, before a road series against the same Detroit Tigers team that Rodriguez hopes to eliminate from the postseason. The Mariners had just been swept in the Yankee Stadiumand Rodríguez had a .244/.301/.386 batting average. Among the 155 qualified hitters at the time, his OPS ranked 125th. Players had voted him for their third All-Star Gamebut Rodríguez, after consulting with some of his fellow veterans, declined. I needed to rest, but also clear my mind.
“It was a tough decision,” Rodriguez said, “but I think it definitely came with maturity. I would have loved to be able to go to the All-Star Game and have a lot of fun with the guys, seeing everyone. But on the field, at that time, I needed a break.”
Rodriguez announced his decision on Friday before that weekend series in Detroit, and then went 6-for-12 with 3 home runs and 2 stolen bases in a three-game sweep. From that point on, he posted a .299/.356/.589 batting average with 21 home runs and 15 stolen bases over a 68-game stretch. His .954 OPS was the seventh-highest in the majors. His 3.8 fWAR tied Geraldo Perdomo’s for the most among position players. Overall, he trailed only Raleigh in leading the Mariners in home runs (32), and Randy Arozarena in stolen bases (30), and was by far the team’s best defensive player with 10 outs above average.
Incorporating a high tee batting drill used by Raleigh – which kept Rodriguez’s hands steady, prevented him from taking overly long strides and ultimately converted many of his ground balls into line drives – helped synchronize Rodriguez’s mechanics. But withdrawing from the All-Star Game, a decision Dipoto interpreted as a sign of “enormous growth” from one of his franchise players, served as a mental and emotional release.
“I feel like everything started to flow after that,” Rodriguez said. “I feel like I put myself in a better position mentally and physically, and I feel like that’s where everything really clicked.”
The Mariners look like a team capable of extending their streak into October, something Seattle hasn’t seen in a generation. The rotation has regained its dominance from last year, the bullpen has been solid and the lineup – still powered by Raleigh and Rodriguez, but bolstered by the in-season additions of Eugenio Suarez and Josh Naylor – is deeper than it has been in years. However, the Mariners’ season is reduced to a single game.
The Mariners earned their first home playoff win in 24 years thanks to Rodriguez’s double in the eighth inning of Sunday’s second game. Then they came within a whisker of advancing with four early runs against Jack Flaherty in Tuesday’s third game. But Detroit came out strong against the Mariners’ middle relievers 24 hours later to force a Game 5. American League Cy Young favorite Tarik Skubal will start for the Tigers, but the Mariners won the last time he took the mound in Game 2 and performed well against him during the regular season. And they will return home.
“We have everything ahead of us,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “These guys have done this all season: When faced with a tough situation, they know exactly what to do, and they fight back and bounce back.”
Rodriguez has been doing that his entire career.
As a rookie in 2022, he had a terrible April before taking off and reaching superstar status. In 2023, he saved his season with a prodigious August. In 2024, the most successful streak came in July. This year, it was half of July, then all of August and September. Rodriguez has a .737 career OPS in the first half and a .902 career OPS in the second half, a jump of 165 points.
“The more games he watches,” Mariners right fielder Victor Robles said, “the better he gets.”
For those around Rodríguez, however, his latest change was not so much a recurrence as an evolution.
Dipoto, who has known Rodríguez since he came to the organization at age 16, said he is “in a calm, serene and focused state, perhaps like we have never seen him.” Raleigh sees him as a “confident,” “balanced” and “controlled” Rodriguez in the batter’s box in recent weeks.
Rodriguez had a career-low 21.4% strikeout rate in 2025, 4 percentage points below where he finished last year. He said he’s gotten better at maintaining an all-field focus, with a better idea of when and where to take advantage of his opportunities to hit home runs for his hand. He believes he has a better understanding of himself overall, and not attending the All-Star Game, an event Rodriguez enjoys more than most, shows that.
“Your body tells you,” Rodriguez said. You have to be able to have a good relationship with yourself and your body, and be honest with yourself when you feel like things aren’t going your way and you want to improve and put yourself in a better situation. You just know it. You simply have to know yourself to make those decisions.
