Julio Rodríguez's struggle to defeat his annual Mariners slump is ongoing

The 2026 MLB season is still in its first half, so perhaps nobody needs to be told that Julio Rodríguez isn't off to a good start for the Mariners. He may be a three-time All-Star, but he and first-half slumps have gone together like peanut butter and jelly since his debut in 2022.

By way of extra spring training at-bats, there was reason to hope that Julio would finally slay his first-half demons in 2025. And this year, there was the hope that maybe the World Baseball Classic would prove to be the launching pad he had been missing.

Nope.

Julio has been part of the problem as the Mariners have gotten off to an 8-13 start. His OPS is a mere .586, the second-lowest of his career through the first 21 games of a season. He also has just one home run and one stolen base, putting him well off-track of achieving his standard 30-30 excellence.

As Julio himself noted in rather hilarious style, the weather in Seattle has indeed been less than favorable. But given that he has a .629 OPS in home games compared to a .521 OPS on the road, that doesn't exactly excuse him. The root cause of his annual slow start remains a mystery, even if the evidence that it is A Thing is overwhelmingly strong by now.

Julio Rodríguez is putting in the work, and it might be paying off

All the same, it's never been for lack of trying that Julio has yet to have a hot first half. And the work he puts in does eventually pay off, with last year perhaps serving as the ultimate example of that.

Even so far this year, his 11.0 walk percentage stands out as a major positive. It's a big improvement on the 6.2 walk percentages he posted in 2024 and 2025, and generally a nice change of pace for a hitter who can be his own worst enemy at the plate.

And while we had our doubts initially, the stance change that Julio adopted on April 7 has coincided with better returns at the plate:

Julio has been hitting the ball at an average of 91.4 mph, which is right in line with his norm for the last two seasons. And while a 50.0 ground-ball rate represents the catch, at least that's lower than the 57.1 ground-ball percentage that preceded his new stance, in which he rests his bat on his shoulder instead of holding it aloft with the barrel over his head.

One hesitates to put too much stock into this, and not just because of the small sample sizes of 10 games and 43 plate appearances. Julio has been known to have moments like these in his cold first halves, getting warm for just a minute before the apparent law of his universe calls him home again.

Still, any sign of progress is always welcome. And with the Mariners as lifeless as they've been so far, this one is especially welcome.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow