Mariners fans' toxic Julio Rodríguez discourse ignores his season's turning point

Julio Rodríguez has made some bad plays this season. There's no getting around it. Including his recent mistake on Monday against the Boston Red Sox, his season is looking a little worse for wear.

In case you missed it, Rodríguez slid for a catch and couldn't come up with the ball. Immediately afterward, he found himself at the center of criticism from Mariners fans for his performance. While the play was ugly, the reaction felt a little out of pocket, and likely came from a place of frustration. Julio made a mistake, that's certain, but the question is why he has made so many mistake lately?

While there is no clear answer to that question, any consideration for what might be going on comes the nagging feeling that something isn't quite right with Seattle's center fielder. The feeling has grown enough to make it worth looking back at when things began to change.

The turning point of Julio Rodríguez's season is hard to miss

Back on July 2, Rodríguez suffered a concussion after taking a ball to the back of his helmet in a game against the Los Angeles Angels. As Rodríguez ran from first to second on a ground ball, Angels first baseman Nolan Schanuel tried to throw to second for the double play and ended up hitting Julio in the back of the head as he slid into second base.

The Mariners then made the decision to put Rodríguez on the seven-day concussion IL, and he returned on July 18 to kick off the series against the San Francisco Giants. But, since his return, things haven't quite been the same.

Pre-concussion, Rodríguez posted a .747 OPS with 14 home runs and 20.9 percent strikeout rate. Since his return, those numbers have fallen to a .628 OPS, with six home runs, and a 26.6 percent strikeout rate. His underlying numbers have also taken a hit. His expected wOBA dropped from .350 before the concussion to .313 afterward.

While the concussion might not be the reason behind his decline, its hard to ignore the timing of it. Especially when you look at his recent mental mistakes, which didn't begin with the misplay in Boston. Think back to the brutal 22-0 loss to Milwaukee, when he threw the ball into the stands with two outs in the inning, allowing even more runs to pile onto an already ugly blow out. Plays like that understandably frustrate fans and the clubhouse. They happen from time to time, but when they start to add up, it's natural to wonder if something else might be going on.

Post-concussion symptoms can persist long after an athlete has been cleared to return, which makes Rodríguez's post-injury decline an important piece of the bigger picture, rather than something to ignore or dismiss.

That isn't an excuse, especially for a star player like Julio. But there is a difference in holding a player accountable and blowing every single bad moment way out of proportion. The Mariners don't want Rodríguez to be perfect, they want him to be healthy, confident, and playing his best baseball, something he still has the potential to do this season.

Julio Rodríguez's typical late-season surge might be near

Historically, Rodríguez's best months have come later in the season. If there's a time of year to look for the Julio Seattle knows, it's now. He has a career .909 OPS in September, his highest for any individual month.

Maybe Monday's mistake was just a bad play, and maybe his recent choices were just part of a slump. There might be more to his post-concussion struggles than we can see from the outside. Either way, the answer won't come with piling onto him after every mistake.

Instead, the answer will come from watching Rodríguez as the season soldiers on. September has historically been his time to shine. If he can find that version of himself again, he has a chance to remind everyone not only what good baseball looks likes, but exactly why the Mariners believe in Julio Rodríguez in the first place.

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