Julio One Year Later

 

All it takes for Julio Rodriguez is a good June. 

Last year, Rodriguez started off alright, but caught ground late in May and became a phenom by June, raising his average into the .300 zone and hitting 7 homers and 16 RBIs over the course of the month. Obviously he'd funnel that into July accolades, a Rookie of the Year, and the status of 2023 Topps poster boy.

This year, his season began with another low-key April where things just weren't clicking immediately. Kelenic and Castillo were the real crowd-pleasers. Yet by the end of June he had the second-highest WAR on the team, and now he's looking at another shot at the Home Run Derby and, quite possibly the way things are going, a starting spot on the AL team. They haven't announced who's taking the open spots, but considering that there's already 5 Rangers in this lineup and the game's being played in Seattle, I'd bet on Julio starting the game. And honestly, he deserves to.

This is a somewhat slumpy sophomore year for Julio, as he's only hitting .248, and he's hitting less home runs, but he's still on pace for a 150+ hit and 100+ RBI season because of his current 85 hits and 47 RBIs. Julio also doesn't have to feel bad about being disappointing compared to last year, because most Mariners are kinda there too right now. Crawford, Kelenic and Kirby are outdoing 2022 stats, but people like Ty France, Logan Gilbert, Cal Raleigh and Eugenio Suarez are putting up disappointing campaigns. Even people they went and got, Kolten Wong, Teoscar Hernandez and A.J. Pollock, aren't doing great. Hernandez still has 15 home runs, but he feels like he's not as confident as he was in Toronto. That Julio still has a WAR over 2 right now is still a net win, because so many other guys couldn't even muster that much.

What I'm happy with is that the Mariners' depth is showing up big time this year. It's the kind of depth that can withstand injuries to people literally just being brought up. Easton McGee pitched a gem then was done for the year, all good, we have like 3 other rookies behind him. Bryce Miller's hurt too, ah well, Bryan Woo's certainly figuring it out. It's at the point where the Ms have to limp to the All-Star break by starting Tommy Milone, but that's worked before. I'm not especially worried, because eventually people are gonna start coming back and helping out. Maybe getting rid of Flexen was an ill-advised idea for a team with so few healthy starting options, but he also wasn't doing the team many favors. 

I still think this team, and Julio are capable of impacting the story of the season later on, as I feel like there's too much going on here for this team to be completely inconsequential. The 2022 Mariners' best moments came after the ASG break, maybe that'll happen again this year.

Coming Tonight: After a number of disappointing years in a new city, the former Cy Young winner that's finally reclaiming his former consistency.