Mariners fans have ample reasons to expect huge 2025 rebound from Julio Rodríguez

It is not a secret that the Seattle Mariners win the most when Julio Rodríguez is at his best.

During his standout rookie season, he posted a 147 OPS+ with 6.2 rWAR, serving as the Mariners' most valuable player as the team ended a playoff drought that had spanned 20 years. He played well enough in 2023 to earn his second All-Star nod and place fourth in MVP voting. And though 2024 ended up being his worst statistical year thus far, he's still one of the best players in baseball and there are quite a few signs that he'll soon return to his All-Star form.

The first adjustment to his preparation is simple: get more at-bats.

Julio has always been a slow starter and, earlier in the offseason, general manager Jerry Dipoto shared his thoughts on how the organization planned to rectify it. Now that spring training is in full swing, MLB.com's Daniel Kramer covered how that plan will be realized through extra spring reps for Rodríguez.

To his credit, inflammation in his left hand delayed his Cactus League debut in 2024. But this year, it seems like he'll have no such obstacles.

When asked about intrinsic changes to Rodríguez's approach, manager Dan Wilson discussed keeping a cool head at the plate, especially in bigger spots.

“It's not just about the middle of the field -- it is -- but it's finding the right intensity with the swing,” Wilson said, per Kramer. “And oftentimes, we get big when we get into bigger situations in the game, so it's finding that happy medium where we can stay, the old saying, 'Stay within yourself,' and find that right tempo and use the whole field, and that's what we saw.”

While Julio's numbers in medium and high leverage moments are actually quite good, he often puts himself at a disadvantage by making bad swing decisions. His 2024 chase rate of 37.3% placed him in the sixth percentile of qualified hitters and his whiff rate of 30.9% landed him in a similar bucket. This has led more opposing pitchers to attack him outside of the strike zone and utilize more off-speed, often putting him in less advantageous counts.

To provide further detail on how the Mariners are helping Julio avoid his usual in-season ups and downs, new hitting coach Kevin Seitzer discussed with Cameron Van Til of Seattle Sports how he plans to continue the work Edgar Martínez started in 2024. In the latter portion of the season, the focus was hitting to the middle and opposite field, adjustments that resulted in an OPS increase of 128 points from the first half to the second half. In 2025, Seitzer hopes to make Julio's approach even more consistent to deal with the onslaught of high-level pitching prevalent in today's game.

Julio has only gotten eight spring training plate appearances so far, providing insufficient concrete data to determine whether he's officially turned a new leaf. However, if the success of his teammates is anything to go off of, 2025 may be the year that Julio Rodríguez becomes the franchise player this team needs to return to the playoffs.