Mariners' Julio Rodríguez has a fresh perspective after viral ALCS Game 7 moment

There are any number of things the Mariners and their fans can point to, which highlight the devastating feeling following the gut-wrenching conclusion to Game 7 of last season's ALCS loss versus the Blue Jays.

However, perhaps best encapsulating it all was the pained, raw, emotional scream from someone in the background while Bryan Woo was being interviewed by the media postgame:

At the time plenty of people, including SoDo Mojo's Tremayne Person, latched onto a rumor that it was Julio Rodríguez who let out the almost blood-curdling scream, but we never really got official confirmation of this. That is until now, courtesy of MLB.com's Daniel Kramer this week, as he said:

"For some, like Cal Raleigh, the sting of last season’s end will never fade. But for Rodríguez, who was the one shouting in the background of that viral video of Bryan Woo’s postgame interview in Toronto, he quickly turned the page to 2026."

Daniel Kramer

For many great athletes, the pain of defeat can linger with them for an almost unhealthy amount of time afterwards, with a couple of prime examples after quick thought being Michael Jordan and Manchester United legend Roy Keane. However, as much as this undoubtedly played a part in their ability to continually dominate in their respective sports, you can also contend it ruined or at least compromised their ability to be able to enjoy and soak in what they were doing.

Julio Rodríguez is just built differently

Rodríguez however is of a different breed when it comes to his mentality, with a mindset which has always allowed him to move on easily from any type of adversity. At the same time, he also manages to maintain his enthusiasm for playing baseball and a determination to be the best in the game.

As much as this still doesn't answer why Rodríguez always starts each season slowly, it does at least explain his ability to be able to deal with it better than the average person, and not self-implode or sabotage his chances of success later on in the campaign. In many ways, effectively the polar opposite of former teammate and previously fellow highly-rated prospect Jarred Kelenic.

Now though, Rodríguez has been able to move on from last season's soul-crushing end to the campaign with the added plus of 12 more postseason games of experience, more than double his previous go-round in 2022. Best of all is the positive impact this has had on him, as he said:

"It's addicting. So, I feel like that's what kind of allowed me to kind of get over my emotions on that, and kind of get ready to compete again and get back to the playoffs."

Julio Rodríguez

From this, the read we get is that while the three-time All-Star seems more determined than ever to succeed with the Mariners, he's also looking to have more fun as opposed to wanting revenge for how last season ended. Again more healthy than Jordan and Keane, who would both on occasion go beyond talking about wanting revenge, resulting in some ugly incidents on the court/field. (Just to be clear, again not taking away from the fact they were both extremely successful with their approach.)

Mariners can only benefit from the new and improved J-Rod

Objectively, we appreciate there will be plenty of people arguing the pros and cons for the different approaches to competition by athletes, but we don't have any issue with Rodríguez's attitude. As much as you remember his awful final at-bat in Game 7 of the ALCs, he did also homer and score another run in the contest and overall had a perfectly solid .809 OPS and four homers for the playoff run as a whole.

What really comes across in general from Kramer's article is that Rodríguez really feels like 2025 was a journey of self-discovery for himself, leaning a lot about who he is as a baseball player. This follows on from what SoDo Mojo's Zachary Rymer wrote at the end of last month, about how much the two-time Silver Slugger's approach changed in the latter half of last year.

Rodríguez joked with Kramer and the rest of the mainstream media in Peoria about how he now feels old after being called a veteran despite only turning 25 in December. However, this is something the Mariners appear set to benefit from, with his experience, positive youthful but also more mature approach and five-tool talent capable of providing a lethal combination, which should scare the rest of Major League Baseball.