3 things we learned about the Mariners from the month of May

Julio might just be turning back into JULIO

I have to believe we are starting to see a turnaround from Julio. He was striking out less in May all the while hitting the ball harder, seeing his exit velo and hard hit rate both increase to around his career average, if not a bit better. While it's not yet what this team needs from their leader, his May slash line of .281/.322/.370 was a lot better than we saw to start the year.

It's the power that we need to see from Julio, which is sneaking out at times but nowhere near what is needed. Julio has a paltry 9 XBH this season. I swear that Aaron Judge has done that in a series this year, and that's Julio's totals through May 30th.

It's not going to be good enough to just turn in a slash line like that though. Yeah, .280 is a good batting average in today's game, well above the league average. It's actually about his career average of .279. The OBP is a bit low compared to his .338 career average. It's the SLG though, that is sitting 125 points below his career average.

We've seen him start hitting the ball hard, and hitting it hard more often. For the Mariners to be able to succeed this season, they are going to need Julio to find that power again.