Jason Kanzler can steal Cubs' Seiya Suzuki magic to fix Julio Rodríguez for Mariners

The Seattle Mariners are coming out of 2026 in need of a magic touch, and they're making a blind bet that Jason Kanzler can provide one as their new manager. He's never managed before, so he'll have to draw on whatever experience he does have to get the job done.

There's a laundry list of items for Kanzler to tackle, and we won't pretend that Julio Rodríguez's defense is at the top of the list. But unless the Mariners are going to move their three-time All-Star off center field -- not likely, given their financial stake in him -- he does need to get better in the field.

Of all the things that went wrong for the Mariners this year, Julio going from a Gold Glove finalist to a guy with -6 Defensive Runs Saved and -9 Outs Above Average was one of the more damning developments. Too often, his defense was downright cringe-worthy.

Kanzler is a former outfielder in his own right, and there's a video from 2022 making the rounds in which he preaches efficiency on the grass to a group of amateurs. Promising stuff! And yet, we're more interested in his more recent background with the Chicago Cubs and how it might benefit Julio's defense.

What the Cubs did for Seiya Suzuki, the Mariners must do for Julio Rodríguez under Jason Kanzler

Since Kanzler's former role as the Cubs' director of player development involved working on the minor league side, one doesn't want to oversell his relationship to the success the Cubs had at the major league level this year. It's nonetheless fair to hope that some of the good stuff rubbed off, specifically as it relates to Chicago's outfield defense.

Their outfield ranked second in the majors for both DRS and OAA, and it wasn't all Pete Crow-Armstrong. Fellow Gold Glover Ian Happ also put up strong metrics and, even more surprisingly, Seiya Suzuki did as well. Nobody thought of him as a plus fielder before 2026, yet he ended up finishing behind only Wilyer Abreu with +14 DRS.

Davy Andrews of FanGraphs dug into Suzuki's defensive surge in September, and specifically noted how the 32-year-old got a lot better with his reaction time on fly balls. It wasn't a fluke. It was the intentional result of coaching from Quintin Berry, who worked with Suzuki on honing his pre-pitch routine and first-step quickness.

Which brings us to the following comparison:

• Seiya Suzuki's Reaction Time: 6th-best among outfielders
• Julio Rodríguez's Reaction Time: Tied for 9th-worst among outfielders

This is something we flagged at the end of the year as an increasingly hard-to-ignore flaw for Julio on defense. Among the outfield jump components, his burst and route scores thankfully still rate well. Because of his poor reaction time, however, even that good stuff is liable to go for naught.

Well, Suzuki's example goes to show that better reactions can indeed be taught. That's the attitude Kanzler needs to take toward Julio's defense, with the obvious hope that he proves to be a willing recipient.

There are, of course, other points that should be stressed to Julio. As tempting as it is to write off this year's 103 OPS+ as a fluke that traces back to his July concussion, it's harder to explain away his worsening plate discipline and its ramifications. His OBP has declined every year since his Rookie of the Year breakout in 2022.

Yet as bad as Seattle's offense was in 2026, the defense was somehow worse. Pretty much everyone not named Cole Young needs to be better, and Julio's name looms large than most.

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