Mariners' trade deadline excitement is hiding a huge in-house breakthrough

The Seattle Mariners news cycle has seen a flurry of activity recently. Seattle recently acquired Josh Naylor to bolster their offensive production at first base, Ichiro Suzuki became the most recent franchise legend to be inducted into the hall of fame, and the rumors of who gets to stay and who could be sent off to a different team have continued to fly.

However, as hard as it might be to believe, the regular season is still very much ongoing and the Mariners aren't out of the woods just yet.

The Mariners have gone 5-5 in their last 10 games, which has coincided with a six-game win streak for the Texas Rangers, making the two teams tied in the standings. Ahead of the Mariners in the Wild Card standings are the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, and still standing atop the AL West despite crucial injuries and a four-game skid are the Houston Astros. That's why it's all the more important to acknowledge that the face of the franchise is beginning his annual hot streak.

Julio Rodríguez has started to put it together at the plate at just the right time

After his rookie of the year campaign in 2022, it was theorized that Julio would be a streaky hitter. Now that he's in his fourth big league season, we have enough data to prove that hypothesis correct. Here is his OPS by month throughout his entire career.

Prior to July, he's about a league average hitter and afterwards, his career numbers are some of the best in baseball. This year, he's hitting his stride at his usual time, posting a 1.249 OPS with seven home runs since July 11. The most noticeable difference is the return of his power, a tool he struggled to tap into consistently earlier in the season.

The Statcast metrics agree. His average exit velocity of 93.4 mph and hard-hit rate of 56.5 percent in July are his highest marks a single month so far this year. This is the first season that his average exit velocity hasn't sat comfortably in the top quartile of qualified hitters, but if he continues trending in the right direction, he'll be back to his career norms.

This jump in offensive productivity didn't just happen for no reason. It was reported that Julio began to adopt some of Cal Raleigh's hitting regimen to improve his ability to get more lift on the ball. Since Rodríguez has a 48.9 ground ball rate, elevating the ball would be a big step forward in his ability to turn batted balls into extra bases.

The Mariners' most recent series against the Angels seems to have been a major inflection point for the young center fielder. In a recent report by Tim Booth of The Seattle Times, Julio acknowledged his shift in approach and how he thought it would benefit the team.

"I’m able to do all those things like drive the ball opposite field, and I also hit a ball left center gap...so I just feel like that’s just the type of hitter I am. And when I do that consistently I can definitely help the team win a lot more."

Julio Rodríguez

Even during his first-half "slump," he was still one of the most valuable center fielders in baseball. He has already been more valuable this year than he was all of last year by rWAR and although he hasn't been quite as dominant offensively as his first two major league seasons, you can never count him out.

With another hot streak or two, Rodríguez's numbers will be back to superstar status just in time to push the Mariners over the edge and into the postseason.