{"id":622022,"date":"2026-03-13T16:40:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T16:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/622022\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T16:40:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T16:40:15","slug":"mariners-dr-star-julio-rodriguez-id-rather-win-wbc-than-world-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/622022\/","title":{"rendered":"Mariners, DR Star Julio Rodriguez: I’d Rather Win WBC Than World Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

Would you rather win the World Baseball Classic<\/a> or the World Series? For Seattle Mariners<\/a> and Dominican Republic<\/a> star Julio Rodriguez<\/a>, it’s a simple answer.<\/p>\n

“Being honest, I love the Mariners. They know I give my best for them every single time that I step on the field, but winning the World Baseball Classic would be top of the list,” Rodriguez said<\/a> in an interview on “Foul Territory”<\/a> when asked whether he’d prefer to win the World Baseball Classic or the World Series.<\/p>\n

“This is for my country; this is for my town; this is for my people, my neighborhood, everybody in the Dominican Republic, so I would say winning the World Baseball Classic would be No. 1.”<\/p>\n

Julio Rodr\u00edguez rips solo home run, extending Dominican Republic’s lead over Nicaragua \"Julio<\/a> <\/p>\n

Rodriguez, an All-Star in three of his first four seasons with the Mariners, is currently playing for the Dominican Republic in the 2026 World Baseball Classic. Across 11 at-bats, Rodriguez has totaled one home run and three RBIs, while posting a .273\/.385\/.545 slash line.<\/p>\n

– \u2018Like A Big Family:’ J-Rod Talks Love For Team D.R.<\/a><\/p>\n

Rodriguez and the Dominican Republic finished first in Pool D at 4-0 and will now face off against the Republic of Korea<\/a> in the quarterfinal round of the tournament on Friday afternoon (6:30 p.m. ET on FS2 and the FOX Sports app<\/a>).<\/p>\n

As for his MLB<\/a> team, Rodriguez and the Mariners are coming off both their first AL West division title and AL Championship Series appearance since 2001. Granted, Seattle blew a 2-0 series lead and then a 3-2 lead to the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

In the regular season, Rodriguez, a two-time Silver Slugger, totaled 32 home runs, 95 RBIs, 30 stolen bases and a career-high 6.8 wins above replacement, while posting a .267\/.324\/.474 slash line. He posted nine defensive runs saved in center field. Then, in the postseason, Rodriguez hit four home runs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Would you rather win the World Baseball Classic or the World Series? For Seattle Mariners and Dominican Republic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,1888,3992,19,4,65,4820],"class_list":{"0":"post-622022","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-dominican-republic","10":"tag-julio-rodriguez","11":"tag-major-league-baseball","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-seattle-mariners","14":"tag-world-baseball-classic"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116222866226443836","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}