Game 162 was as good a day as any to rest – necessary or not – for Julio Rodríguez, who found himself not in the starting lineup for just the second time this season. With just over an hour until first pitch Sunday, Rodríguez looked remarkably fresh for a player who had tallied the most plate appearances in the American League.
“I honestly feel really good,” he said. “I’m excited for only one more.”
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Sunday morning there was only one more game standing between him, the Seattle Mariners and playoff baseball. The short-term reward: the rest, both physically and mentally, the team earned in surging at the right time and wrapping up the second seed in the AL with games still left to be played. It’s a very different position from the previous two years and Rodríguez was savoring the experience.
“Since we have been so close before, I just feel like we have earned it,” he said. “We have earned to be in the position we are in after (coming up short before). Being in a different position now, I feel like we earned that and I feel everybody knows that we did, but we also know we are in a great position to make a run and go deep in the playoffs, and I feel like that’s what motivates this team. We are all very excited. We know we have a lot of good pieces and we know we can compete. It’s very cool.”
This isn’t end the drought, dip your toe in the playoff waters as far as Rodríguez is concerned. While 2022 was an incredible experience for the then rookie, there has been much water under the bridge since then. Experience has been gained season to season and with that comes confidence. This year, adversity faced as an individual getting off to a slow start and as a team that tumbled after a strong start that included nine straight series wins has also proved to be a valuable building block in Rodríguez’s eyes.
“It just makes you stronger,” he said. “I just feel like it’s very easy when things don’t go your way or things are not easy – because this game is going to get like that – I feel it is very easy just to shy away from it or kind of feel sorry for yourself, but this team did a great job just kind of staying strong, staying together and staying positive through those things. And that’s when we are able to turn it up and be in the position we are in.”
Rodríguez has contributed greatly to the position the Mariners are now in. In his champagne-soaked, division-clinching radio interview, president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto went as far as to point to the 24 year old’s game Sept. 6 in Atlanta as a turning point for the team.
“I thought it was the best game Julio’s ever played in his career,” he said. “He hit a key homer that looked like a 2-iron over the center-field fence, and from that moment on, we had our swag back.”
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Getting to that moment had been a slow burn for Rodríguez, who through July 10 had posted just a .687 OPS with only 29 extra-base hits in 92 games. On July 11, Rodríguez announced he would forgo the All-Star Game and instead would rest and focus on fully preparing for the second half. Since that day, he slashed .299/.356/.598 with a .954 OPS and 49 extra-base hits in 68 games. Second-half Julio indeed, but this time, he had reinforcements. The trade deadline additions, the threat of Cal Raleigh, and the improvement of those around him gave him something in the Mariners lineup he hadn’t had in past years.
“It’s huge,” he said. “Because I feel like we all rely on each other. We know the guy in front of you, the guy behind you is going to do what needs to be done in any situation. You don’t feel it’s all, like, (on) you. We have a very good team, and that’s what makes it exciting to play with these guys because everybody is prepared, everybody is ready to compete. Everybody is looking for what they can do to help the team win, and I feel like that is something that is very exciting and unique about this team, is we have a lot of guys who can get it done.”
Sitting at his locker Sunday morning, the scene was different than it was the past two years. There were no boxes in front of the lockers, no goodbye hugs being exchanged. While in an effort to keep everyone healthy, the foot may have been taken off the gas a bit in the Dodger series, but Rodríguez still felt the buzz and the energy from his teammates.
“Just feeling the vibes from everybody kind of excited to get this going (to) the next phase, I think that’s huge,” he said. “And I am very happy about this season for everyone so far.”
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