Julio Rodríguez
Julio Yamel Rodríguez, nicknamed "J-Rod", is a Dominican professional baseball center fielder for the Seattle Mariners of Major League Baseball. He signed with the Mariners as an international free agent in 2017. In his rookie season in 2022, he was named an All-Star along with winning the Silver Slugger Award and American League Rookie of the Year Award. Rodríguez has been selected to three All-Star Games, won two Silver Sluggers, and made the All-MLB Second Team in 2022 and All-MLB Team in 2025.
Early life
Rodríguez was born and raised in Loma de Cabrera, a town of 20,000 people in the Dominican Republic. While many MLB players are from the Dominican Republic, relatively few are from Loma de Cabrera, which is located near the border with Haiti. The most famous player from the town was Rafael Furcal.Rodríguez's father was an agricultural engineer, his mother was a dentist, and he has three siblings. At ten years old, he began competing in a local baseball league with children three to four years older than himself. His father began coaching him at 12 years old, training him to play catcher because of his build. When he had a growth spurt the following year, he moved to the outfield. He first caught the attention of scouts when, at only 12 years old, he hit a ball to the outfield wall against a hard-throwing 17-year-old pitcher in a local tournament. When he was 14, Rodríguez left his family for a baseball academy in Santiago de Los Caballeros. The Mariners discovered him at his tryout for the academy in Santiago.
Professional career
Minor leagues
Rodríguez signed as an international free agent with the Seattle Mariners as a 16 year old in July 2017, receiving a $1.75 million signing bonus. He made his professional debut with the Rookie-level Dominican Summer League Mariners in 2018, playing primarily right field and batting.315/.404/.525 with 50 runs, nine triples, five home runs, 36 RBI, and 10 stolen bases without being caught in 59 games. He was named both a DSL mid-season All-Star and a Baseball America DSL All-Star. He ended the season with a foot injury, and he traveled to Arizona for additional treatment.Rodríguez started 2019 with the Class-A West Virginia Power in the South Atlantic League. He missed almost two months of the season with a fractured left hand. He was promoted to the Class A-Advanced Modesto Nuts in the California League in August, becoming one of only three 18-year-olds to play in High-A ball in 2019. He was more than three years younger than the average player in both leagues. Rodríguez played in the Arizona Fall League for the Peoria Javelinas after the 2019 regular season. As the youngest player in the league, he hit.288/.397/.365 in 63 plate appearances. He was named an AFL Rising Star.
In 2020, with the minor league season canceled, Rodríguez was ticketed for the Mariners alternate training site in Tacoma, but he broke his left wrist during a workout in July. He later participated in the fall instructional league in Arizona, then played 18 games for Leones del Escogido in the Dominican winter league, batting just.196 against much older competition. He also began training with former football player Yo Murphy to improve his speed, allowing him to play center field and steal more bases. In the minors, Rodríguez played mostly as a right fielder and did not steal more than 10 bases in a season before 2021.
Rodríguez started 2021 with the Everett AquaSox. In June, he was promoted to the Double-A Arkansas Travelers. Rodríguez was selected to play in the All-Star Futures Game. In August, he was ranked as the best Mariners prospect and the second-best prospect in baseball by MLB.com. He missed almost a month of the minor league season due to his participation in the Summer Olympics. In 74 games in 2021, Rodríguez hit.347/.441/.560 with 13 home runs and 21 stolen bases. The Mariners added him to their 40-man roster on November 18 to protect him from the Rule 5 draft. After the season, he was a consensus top 3 prospect.
Seattle Mariners
2022 season: Rookie of the Year
The Mariners named Rodríguez their Opening Day center fielder on April 4, 2022. He was the second-youngest major leaguer to start the season. He debuted in the majors on April 8 against the Minnesota Twins. After starting the season 1-for-21 with 12 strikeouts, Rodríguez took off. On May 1, Rodríguez hit his first career home run, a three-run shot off Miami Marlins ace Sandy Alcántara. He was named American League Rookie of the Month consecutively for May and June. In 29 games in June, he scored 22 runs and hit.280/.361/.542 with seven home runs, 16 RBI, and five stolen bases.Rodríguez was selected for the MLB All-Star Game, the sixth Mariner rookie to play in an All-Star Game. He also participated in the Home Run Derby, where he hit 81 home runs across three rounds, besting Corey Seager and Pete Alonso before losing in the final round to Juan Soto. He kept up his great performance in July, during a stretch in which the Mariners won 14 consecutive games and jumped into playoff contention. On July 15, he hit his first career grand slam to put a game against the Texas Rangers out of reach. In July, he hit.267/.337/.547 with five home runs, 18 RBI, and two steals. He did not win Rookie of the Month in July, which went to Jose Miranda.
On August 23, Rodríguez hit his 20th home run, making him the sixth player in Mariners history to join the 20–20 club and the fourth player in MLB history to have 20 homers and 20 steals in their first MLB season. On September 11, he hit a game-tying home run off Kenley Jansen of the Atlanta Braves with a 117.2 exit velocity, the ninth hardest hit homer of the season. On September 14, he became the first player to join the 25–25 club in his debut season. September was Rodríguez's best month, as he hit.394 with 7 home runs in 19 games.
In 2022, Rodríguez batted.284/.345/.509 with 84 runs, 28 home runs, 75 RBI, 25 steals, and 140 strikeouts in 560 plate appearances. In his first professional season playing primarily in center fielder, he led AL outfielders in both range factor per game and errors. He tied for ninth in MLB in steals. At 21 years old, he was the youngest qualified batter in the majors. Rodríguez won the Silver Slugger Award and the AL Rookie of the Year Award. He was named to the All-MLB Second Team. He was the 16th fastest baserunner in the majors.
Postseason
Rodríguez led the Mariners to their first postseason appearance since 2001, at the time the longest active playoff drought amongst the four major North American sports leagues. He led off all five Mariners postseason games, collecting five hits, three walks, and two hit by pitches in 28 plate appearances. He was hit by an Alek Manoah pitch to lead off Game 1 of the AL Wild Card Series against the Toronto Blue Jays, coming around to score the first run of a 4–0 win. Manoah hit Rodríguez again in the fifth inning of that game. Only five other players have been hit twice during a Wild Card game.Rodríguez's best game in October was Game 1 of the AL Division Series, when he hit a triple and a double, scoring three times in a loss to the Houston Astros. He and Brandon Nimmo were the only players to hit a triple in the postseason. In Game 3, Rodríguez made two difficult catches to prevent the Astros from scoring but was only 1-for-7 and made the final out in Seattle's 18-inning home loss.
Contract extension
On August 26, Rodríguez signed a long-term contract extension with Seattle. The contract lasts at least 8 years and, depending a team option in 2028 and a potential player option in 2030, that could last up to 14 years and be worth $470 million. Rodríguez's minimum guaranteed earnings on the contract are $209 million, though he could opt out in 2030 if the team declines its option. The contract includes a no-trade clause and bonuses for winning awards. It raised his 2023 salary from a minimum of $720,000 to $21 million, including a signing bonus.2023: All-Star, 30–30 club
On April 7, 2023, Rodríguez hit a tiebreaking two-run home run in the sixth inning against the Cleveland Guardians. With this home run, Rodríguez became the fastest player in Mariners history to 30 home runs, doing so in 140 games. In July, he was named to the All-Star Game for the second consecutive season. On July 10, he hit 41 homers in the first round of the Home Run Derby against Pete Alonso, breaking the Derby record for most home runs in a single round.In August, Rodríguez went on a tear at the plate that matched or surpassed marks not achieved since the early 20th century. From August 16 to 19, Rodríguez broke the MLB record for most hits in a four-game span with 17, the most since at least 1901. During those four games, Rodríguez went 17-for-22, hit 2 home runs, recorded 8 RBIs, and stole 5 bases. He had 28 hits in 10 games, a number not reached since Kenny Lofton in 1997. During that 10-game stretch, Rodríguez had five four-hit games, a feat that had not happened since 1900. He had five four-hit games in August; only Ty Cobb, with six such games in 1921, had more in a month. He won the AL Player of the Month Award.
In early September, he became the first player in MLB history to hit 25 home runs and steal 25 bases in his first two seasons. On September 11, Rodríguez hit his 30th home run of the season, making him the 44th player to join MLB's 30–30 club.
In 2023, Rodríguez batted.275/.333/.485 with 32 home runs. He led the AL with 29 infield hits, was second with 180 hits, second with 37 stolen bases, third with 103 RBIs, and tied for third with 175 strikeouts. He won his second consecutive Silver Slugger Award and was a finalist for the AL Gold Glove Award in center field. He finished fourth place in AL Most Valuable Player voting. That MVP result added $20 million to a potential club option beginning in 2030.