'Staying on my game': J-Rod details approach

This story was excerpted from Daniel Kramer’s Mariners Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

SEATTLE -- It’d be imprudent to say that Julio Rodríguez is off to a pedestrian start, especially given that he’s been the vessel behind big victories last weekend in Cleveland and on Saturday against Colorado. But it’s not insensible to say that he’s not on the meteoric trajectory that he rode to the AL Rookie of the Year Award, either.

Rodríguez is hitting .240/.296/.453 (.749 OPS) with three homers, 10 RBIs and four stolen bases and has been worth 103 wRC+ (league average is 100), below the line of .284/.345/.509 (.853 OPS) and 146 wRC+ last year, when he crushed 28 homers with 75 RBIs.

Some hiccups come with the territory of blossoming into one of the game’s best hitters, as he’s learned that the book, so to speak, is out on his strengths and weaknesses.

“I can definitely feel that like in all the games,” Rodríguez said. “But I feel I've been doing a pretty good job of just swinging at the right pitches and squaring up balls. I feel like that's where I've been doing a really good job ... staying on my game.”

Rodríguez’s hardest-hit ball was a whopping 112 mph, but a lineout to the first baseman. Six of his hardest-hit balls have been outs, underscoring why his quality of contact metrics aren’t as elite as last year.

“They're always going to try to mix it up,” Rodríguez said of opposing pitchers. “They're always coming up with some plan. But I feel like I'm always trying to see it deep and be ready for any pitch.”

Rodríguez’s approach is straightforward -- massive hacks early in counts attempting to do damage, then tightening the zone with two strikes looking to put the ball in play. It led to his third homer in Monday’s loss to Milwaukee, in an 0-1 count.

“[He’s] always ready to hit,” manager Scott Servais said, which is a correlation to why Rodríguez’s .800 slugging percentage on the first pitch was tied for MLB’s seventh-highest, after homering six times in 0-0 counts.

“At times early in the count, he'll get a little bit big,” Servais said. “But when it's two strikes and there's runners in scoring position, he does narrow it down a little bit and find a way to get the good part of the bat on the ball and good things usually happen for him when he does that.”

First pitch: .400/.455/.800 (1.255 OPS)
Two strikes: .200/.282/.429 (.711 OPS)

Speaking of that two-strike approach -- some of his biggest moments this year have come in those sequences, including a go-ahead homer against the Guardians that led to a win, and the bases-clearing triple that broke open Saturday’s 9-2 victory. Dialing in, and perhaps down, is what prevents him from pressing.

“I feel like this is a game that is really hard, and if you don't take your singles, man, I don't know,” Rodríguez said. “You're going to go crazy.”

Yet his success with two strikes has led to a grander reflection of whether it’d be best served throughout each plate appearance.

“He can dial up the competitiveness deeper in at-bats,” Servais said. “It's something we've talked to him about, maybe doing that a little bit earlier in his at-bats. It might not lead him to be in so many two-strike counts. But he's one of those guys like when his back is against the wall, and he'll even admit it, 'When I'm down 1-2, 0-2, that's when I know I really have to like lock in and really fight.'

“But he's going to get his swings off. There aren't too many at-bats where Julio doesn't get two or three of his best swings off. So he is going to do that early in counts.”

Overall, Rodríguez isn’t getting nearly as many mistake pitches to manhandle, which is part of the calculus in swinging out of his shoes early when he does. But knowing his acumen, he’ll adjust when needed.

“Early, I might take a long hack, but I feel like with two strikes, I feel I kind of become the hitter that I feel I know that I can be and just battle,” Rodríguez said. “And I know that there's just one strike and that he has to be good enough to get that strike [three] by me. So I just go out there and compete with somebody. If I'm no strikes, two strikes, I’m locked in on my pitch.”