3 Seattle Mariners Who Would Like To Forget April

April was challenging for the Seattle Mariners as they finished with a 12-16 record. While the team played some strong opponents last month, it's no excuse for the team to underperform. Multiple players struggled in the opening month, but here are 3 Seattle players that I am particularly critical of and hope to see improvements from.

Julio Rodriguez didn't meet his superstar standards

I'm going to start off with a bit of a hot take... Julio certainly wasn't the most disappointing Mariners player in April, but he certainly didn't live up to his hype and he knows that himself.

Julio, the face of the Seattle Mariners and arguably the MLB, hit an underwhelming .239 with five home runs, and 13 runs batted in. Rodriguez also struggled in the first 20 games of 2022 so maybe he's just a slow starter?

The 22-year-old talent's advanced metrics aren't showing major red flags but there are areas that are below his 2022 numbers. His barrel percentage was down 3%, wOBA was down 40 points, hard hit rate was down 5 points, and strikeout rate was up 2 points. Like I said, no major red flags and it's still too early in the season to draw conclusions.

Last year, Rodriguez quickly turned things around in May so I am looking to see if he can bounce back in a similar way. The Seattle Mariners certainly need some life after a rough first month and J-Rod needs to lead it. It also doesn't help that Robbie Ray is out for the year and Julio himself is experiencing back tightness.

If Julio Rodriguez isn't able to turn things up a level, the Seattle Mariners are going to be in a lot of trouble because he is the spark plug for this offense. Our typical offensive producers like Ty France, and Eugenio Suarez have been alright, but not good enough to the point where they can carry the entire offense.

For the Seattle Mariners to be a legitimate offensive threat, they need Julio, Ty, Eugenio, Teoscar, and Kelenic to be firing on all cylinders.

AJ Pollock... you play for the Seattle Mariners

AJ Pollock at one point in his career was one of the top players in baseball; in 2015, he was selected to the All-Star team, won a Gold Glove, and finished 14th in the NL MVP race.

Since then, he's been a respectable player much like Kolten Wong, but better. However, Pollock's 2023 start has made him unrecognizable. Although he's getting up there in age, he played very well for the Dodgers as a role player and had a decent season with the White Sox in 2022.

While he was with the Dodgers from 2019 to 2021, he was a .260+ hitter, .800+ OPS, and hit at least 15 home runs. I mean, that's exactly what the Seattle Mariners needed to boost up the lineup, right?

So far, AJ Pollock has hit two home runs but that is about it. You thought Kolten Wong is struggling? Well, Pollock is hitting worse than Wong.

Just like I did for Julio and Kolten, I looked at their career monthly numbers. For Pollock, there isn't as much hope as I was hoping to find.

The former first round pick hits best in May, July, and September but his April numbers aren't all that bad. In his career, he hits .260 in April with a .740 OPS which is better than what Julio and Kolten tend to produce in April.

So, what is next for AJ Pollock? For me, we need to cut his playtime and make him earn a spot. With how well Jarred Kelenic has been playing, we can no longer treat left field as a platoon situation and Scott Servais has already been doing that.

And now with Taylor Trammell back we might not need to rely on Pollock that often. Lucky for us, Trammell made quite the entrance on his 2023 debut so things are looking up. But, if Pollock can turn things around in May and be the player we had hoped for, it will be a massive boost. It would ease the pressure on Scott Servais to start the same 9 players every day, which often leads to wear and tear.