Julio Rodríguez concussion news pretty much confirms Mariners' season is cursed

The Seattle Mariners placed Julio Rodríguez on the seven-day concussion IL last Friday, July 3. He's eligible to come off the IL today ahead of Seattle's first-half finale series against the Tampa Bay Rays. But in the latest case of the 2026 Mariners not being able to have nice things, it won't happen.

According to Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times, Julio is still working out at T-Mobile Park and not really feeling normal. Dan Wilson said the team is "in a holding pattern" with its star center fielder, with the general plan being to wait until he has no symptoms.

Right. Good plan. Excellent plan, even. Some us still remember the tragedy of Justin Morneau. All of us should still remember the more recent tragedy of Anthony Rizzo. Maybe bringing these things up amounts to scaremongering, but the point is worth it: Concussions are no joke.

No, the only joke here is the cosmic one being visited upon Julio and the Mariners.

The 78.2 mph throw from Nolan Schanuel that clanked off Julio's helmet last Thursday wasn't a wild one, nor did it hit Julio in a spot where he shouldn't have been. He was where a runner is supposed to run on a short grounder to the first baseman. It's one of those mathematically unlikely plays that was nonetheless bound to happen eventually.

The M's have since dropped four of six, including three straight to the Miami Marlins in an ugly sweep that featured some truly baffling moments. It feels a bit like when their 2025 regular season hit its nadir with a sweep by the New York Yankees right before the All-Star break, though that had a happy ending. It was immediately afterward that Julio went full Julio and achieved a 30-30 season with a career-high 6.6 WAR.

There's still hope that Julio can come to the rescue again, but right now it's all in the abstract. Yes, he will get back eventually. And yes, the season is nearing his second-half comfort zone. But he has to get healthy first, and there's no point putting a timeline on that.

It takes less time to list what hasn't gone wrong in the Mariners' 2026 season

In the meantime, at least Randy Arozarena is an All-Star and Dominic Canzone, Cole Young, Logan Gilbert and Bryce Miller have played like All-Stars. And even though they're just 47-47, the Mariners are somehow just one win away from the No. 2 seed in the AL playoff field.

So, if it's the positive spin on 2026 you want, there it is. And that unfortunately is it.

Save for Young, injuries have impacted the entire Opening Day starting lineup and a good chunk of the bullpen, to boot. The Cal Raleigh of 2025 is nowhere to be found, and the same is true of last year's versions of Josh Naylor and Bryan Woo — at least half the time, anyway. That's a bad talent equation, and the actual baseball equation too often hasn't been much better. More often than not, the Mariners are playing the kind of ball that would make Tom Emanski weep.

Save for firing Dan Wilson and chancing it with someone else, there's no magic bullet that's going to fix all this. At a certain point the Mariners will simply need their luck to turn, and each passing day only makes it harder to believe that will happen.

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