Julio Rodríguez Is Here to Save the Mariners

He's not the next Ken Griffey Jr. He wants to write his own story — starting with ending Seattle's playoff drought. September 11th, Mariners chase the Braves in the bottom of the ninth. They already lead 6-1 in front of a roaring, near-capacity home crowd. Many attendees have only recently returned to T-Mobile Park, filled with cautious optimism born of better knowledge as they once again reach for their emotional credit cards. If the playoffs started today, the Mariners would be and end the longest playoff drought in professional sports. But there's still a month to go, which means there's still plenty of time for another promising season to collapse. The face of M's closer Kenley Jansen, a three-time All-Star, and their center fielder chase the dugout whistling, yelling and waving their arms. We compete! Faith! We got it! This is Julio Rodríguez, human helium; an electric, soulful newcomer; and future franchise savior. He is so young that his teammates called him Simba during spring training. He's so talented that the All-Stars wax poetic about his tools—all five of them, all sharpened—and his ceiling is higher than the Space Needle. His life also spans the Mariners' postseason drought, revealing a potentially transformative matchup. His age of 21 is in the infancy of baseball importance. Seattle's 20-year absence from the postseason is nearly half of its 6 seasons. According to this, the drought and the star are of the same age. Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated This Sunday, Julio stands in the on-deck circle and watches Sam Haggerty miss the bases. When Julio steps to the batter's box, the crowd rises and the anticipation heats up. Then: Yuu-leeee-oooooo. Jansen drops the knife and leaves. Hit one. Yoo-leeee-oooooo. Jansen provides the slider. Outside. Ball one. The music hits. Hearts are beating. Yoo-leeee-oooooo. Another slider, but this one hangs low, in the middle of the board. Julio sways, the next blow is nosebleed and sharp, like lightning cutting through wood. The ball whistles into left field, hits the scoreboard and returns to the court. Radar confirms what the eyes and brain could barely process. That shot traveled up to 117.2 mph; it's the hardest ball Julio has ever hit in a pro game and the hardest anyone has hit at Jansen Field since Statcast started tracking such things in 2015. This is Julio's second day and 25th of the season. The sailors win. Again. This special moment, deep in a season defined by must-see, incredible moments, is old Juu-leeee-oooooo, from the dugout call to the clutch home run to the backdrop that's impossible to ignore. This is their moment when history meets the prodigy, and with all his promise, drive and talent, expectations are immediately heightened and compelling. (The biggest issue for Julio and Seattle, with 12 days left in the regular season, is a mild lower back strain that has plagued him for about a week and forced him to miss Thursday's game at the A's in Oakland. Several Mariners officials told Sports. Illustrated that the team would put Julio likely to go on the 10-day injured list to rest, but they expect him to return before the season is over.) They need him. Seattle won 33 single games last season. But many require some sort of magic. "That's the difference between this year and last year," says CEO Jerry Dipoto. "We now have a more complete team and a star who can just go up and hit a shot off the scoreboard." In other words: July is now their magic. And the goal is not just to get back to the playoffs. This is to beat the whole salad. The man of the moment arrives a few minutes late for lunch, slipping into a black leather booth at Centra Bar in downtown Bellevue, a short drive from Seattle. He is oblivious to the opulence around him, ignoring the craft cocktails, glittering chandeliers and dressed-down executives on his lunch breaks. As Julio orders steak tacos, his wallet and high-quality casual men's thongs tell the story of his moment—young, comfortable, and expensive! But when he speaks himself, he becomes much older. Smart, persistent. July is like his last six months. It doesn't make sense to many. It makes perfect sense to him. Yes, Julio leads the American League in Rookie WAR ( .9), per FanGraphs; he is the 16th rookie age 21 or younger to hit at least 25 home runs, joining Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams and Albert Pujols; he's just the third rookie with at least 25 home runs and 25 stolen bases (hello Chris Young, Mike Trout!). However, Julio's elite was expected. In one of the Mariners' evaluations in May 2016, a scout wrote "15-year-old OF with big upside." Before 19, the evaluator wrote a second "Statement of Impact" report after the potential superstar. The elite are not surprised. If the elite is. That's how fast it is. In more ways than one, it is. The Mariners expected versatile skill, endless potential and in-game impact. They must have expected something else. And there's a lot of everything else. Julio shares a laugh with some Mariners fans who waited out the rain delay in Cleveland. Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated At the end of a short road trip in Cleveland, the rain continues for more than four hours.

Author: Greg Bishop - 2022-09-23 12:45:00

Source: "https://www.si.com/mlb/2022/09/23/julio-rodriguez-daily-cover