Mariners create new show starring outfield prospect Julio Rodriguez

The Seattle Mariners created a show called Vibin’ With JROD which features the young and highly touted outfielder, Julio Rodriguez

The Seattle Mariners are very excited about its 19-year-old prospect, Julio Rodriguez. So much so that the organization created a show in which Rodriguez stars in. The first episode of Vibin’ With JROD premiered Thursday the 29th at 3 pm on the Seattle Mariners’ YouTube channel.

The first guest of the show was the Mariners’ #4 ranked prospect, Logan Gilbert. The episode was 13 minutes long and not exactly what I had in mind.

The YouTube show was mostly getting to learn more about our top-ranked pitching prospect from an off the field perspective. Rodriguez asked him questions like how did his nickname “El Flacco” come to be? What his go-to karaoke song is and other random fun questions.

Going into it, I honestly thought it would be more centered around Rodriguez and in a podcast style with it being more informative. But after watching the premiere, it felt like it was organized entirely by the Mariners and Rodriguez did not have much autonomy for the show. You do not really feel like you necessarily learned more about Rodriguez and Gilbert after watching it which is a little disappointing, but it was a fun short video.

I think what is particularly cool about the creation of this show revolving around Rodriguez is the amount of trust the Mariners have in him. The #15 all MLB prospect is just 19-years-old and the Mariners are trying to coin a new nickname that they hope will last in Seattle for a while.

Not many 19-year-olds can say they have a well-established nickname created by their organization. I do not think the Mariners #1 prospect Jarred Kelenic even has a catchy nickname.

Rodriguez, “JROD”, recently received positive praise from Mariners manager Scott Servais who made a trip to Arizona to watch some instructional league games. Servais said (via Shannon Drayer):

"I was in Arizona last week seeing Julio Rodriguez play, and Noelvi Marte, Cal Raleigh. The guys down there, I’m super excited about how they are progressing and trying to get the most out of it."

It will be fun to get to know more about the Mariners prospects through Vibin’ With JROD as some of the young talents continue playing in the instructional league.