How Mariners' Julio Rodríguez is fighting back against slow start narrative in 2026

Since he debuted in 2022, Julio Rodríguez has been known for two things. He's one of the game's best five-tool players, and he's a painfully slow starter.

Over the course of his five major league seasons, he has a .734 OPS in the first half of the season and a .902 OPS in the second half. This season was shaping up to be more of the same but fortunately, there are signs that he's making the right moves to start heating up earlier.

Despite a lack of power, Julio Rodríguez is turning a corner offensively in other areas

With just two home runs and a .349 slugging percentage after 140 plate appearances, his cumulative OPS of just .678 still leaves plenty to be desired, but he has made improvements in other areas. His walk rate of 8.9 pecent is just slightly above the MLB average, but it's significantly higher than his career average of 6.6.

In addition to improved plate discipline, Julio's last two weeks have been a marked improvement in his contact abilities.

The first step to hitting a ball with authority is being able to hit the ball at all. Prior to April 15th, Julio was missing quite often and failing to make contact in the zone, leading to more strikeouts. Since then, he's upped his zone contact rate to 94.3 percent. He's also getting better launch angles and is pulling the ball in the air more often, a trait that should unlock more extra base hits with consistency.

The lack of pop is concerning, especially since it took him more than 60 plate appearances to notch his first extra base hit of the season, but it's likely that he's gotten a lack of pitches to hit. Just 44.8 of pitches against him this season have been in the strike zone and with his chase rate, there wasn't a reason for opposing pitchers to risk going anywhere near the zone. With improved swing decisions and more contact, it should only be a matter of time before the power begins to follow.

Cumulatively, Seattle's offense has performed at a league-average level, but its best bats on paper got off to a rocky start. The team's production has been kept afloat by some unexpected heroes and when the likes of Julio and Cal Raleigh finally do start to hit their stride, fans will finally get to see what the run-scoring ceiling of the squad truly is.

Julio recently expressed a similar sentiment, claiming that the Mariners are one of the best teams in baseball when playing at their best and even with their middling start, industry insiders still have overwhelming confidence in Seattle's chances at winning the division. If the team is going to live up to their lofty expectations, Julio Rodríguez will be leading the charge.

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