Julio

Rodriguez

J-Rod roped an RBI single to score Victor Robles in his final at-bat of 2024. It was an uneven season for the 23-year-old, but an uneven season that saw him hit 20 homers and steal 24 bases despite missing a month of the year with his ankle injury. You’d like to see more consistency, but the highs of Rodríguez compete or beat all but a select few. He should still be a first-round pick in 2025.

It’s his sixth in his last 12 games. Rodriguez hit 28 and 32 homers in his first two seasons, but 20 still seems like an accomplishment after all of his issues this season. At age 23, he’s already turned in three 20/20 seasons in his young career.

Rodriguez was a consensus top five pick in drafts, remember that? Well, it was easy to forget in the first five months of the season. Rodriguez is 40-for-107 (.373) with eight home runs, 23 RBI and six stolen bases in his last 24 games. It’s basically just a hot month, but it’s enough to job the memory of what Rodriguez can be when everything is clicking.

J-Rod is on one right now, and it’s something we’ve seen from him over his three seasons in the majors. When it’s bad, it can be ugly, but when it’s going right, there’s very few better. He took the first pitch he saw deep for his 19th homer of the season, and he broke a 2-2 tie with an opposite-field single in the fifth. His third and fourth runs driven in gave Seattle an 8-4 lead in the ninth and the wunderkind 63 RBI on the year. Rodríguez has seen his OPS increase from .660 to .736 since August 27. That’s still a disappointing number considering where he was draft, but a reminder that he’s capable of someday being the best fantasy player in baseball.

Rodríguez also singled. He’s now up to 18 homers on the year, and he hit a three-run homer to the pull side and a two-run shot to the right. The overall numbers for the 23-year-old — worth pointing that age out — aren’t where fantasy managers were hoping they’d be, but the talent is unquestionable.

Randy Arozarena had the game-ending hit after Rodríguez was intentionally walked in the ninth. Rodríguez’s homer was hit 446 feet off Max Scherzer. He’s 7-for-13 with two homers in the series against the Rangers, and his current .711 OPS is his highest mark since he went 2-for-7 with a double in the first two games of the season back in March.

The Mariners were down 4-2 when Rodríguez sent a David Robertson curve 419 feet down the left field line for his 15th homer of the year. It gave Rodríguez his first four-hit game since July 9 and first three-RBI game since May 26. Rodríguez wound up with the three hardest-hit balls of the game, all of them right at 112 mph.

Rodríguez has stolen 21 bases on the year with that theft. The outfielder now has a modest nine-game hitting streak, and in three of those contests he’s picked up multiple knocks. That has helped him improve his batting average from .251 to 262, and his OPS from .660 to .698. It’s still not what fantasy managers were hoping for, but improvement is improvement.

J-Rod absolutely clobbered a mistake from Joey Estes for a solo homer in the third to give Seattle a 3-0 lead. The outfielder also scored after drawing a walk on a Luke Raley homer in the ninth. It’s the 14th homer of the season for Rodríguez, and his 49th RBI. A disappointing season to be sure — some of it due to injury — but a friendly reminder of just how talented the 23-year-old is.

That makes back-to-back games with homers for Rodríguez, and he’s up to 13 with the two-run shot. The outfielder has mostly struggled since returning from his ankle injury in late July, but we’ve seen the 23-year-old has been capable of going on scorching hot streaks in his first three seasons. Seems like this might be the start of another.