How Edgar Martinez has helped unlock Mariners star Julio Rodriguez

PEORIA, Ariz. — The last six weeks of success and solid baseball couldn't save the Mariners from watching the MLB playoffs for a second straight season. The last six weeks of strong at-bats where he smashed baseballs with power while swinging and missing at fewer pitches than the previous 4 1/2 months of the 2024 season couldn't salvage the overall numbers for Julio Rodriguez.

Rodriguez struggled to find any consistency in his third MLB season, producing career lows in batting average (.273), on-base percentage (.325), slugging percentage (.409), doubles (17), homers (20), RBIs (68), stolen bases (24) and walks (38) in 613 plate appearances.

To put it in perspective, Dylan Moore (23), Victor Robles (20), Josh Rojas (19) and Luke Raley (19) hit more doubles than Rodriguez, who hit 32 doubles in 2023, despite having at least 200 fewer plate appearances.

When the Mariners free-fall from the AL West lead started in mid-June, Rodriguez took it upon himself to save a horrific offense. He couldn't do it.

"I think Julio put a lot of that pressure on himself early," Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto said. "And a lot of it, frankly, didn't come from him. It was coming externally. That's hard to manage, especially if you're a 23-year-old."

But after Tuesday's first full-squad workout of spring training, an optimistic Rodriguez, now a worldly 24 years old, pointed to those last six weeks of the 2024 as a reason to believe better days and results are ahead for the Mariners this season.

"A lot of us, you can say, we didn't have the best year," he said. "The beginning of the year was like, 'It is what it is.' But I feel I definitely took with me those last six weeks, what we did as a team, what we did as an organization and just kind of how we continued to push forward. We were right there again."

It's something that Dipoto, manager Dan Wilson and several players and coaches are pointing to as a reason to believe in 2025.

"They played their butts off for six weeks," Dipoto said. "We saw something from our team that we really hadn't seen for the previous three or four months. We were one of the best offenses in the league for those six weeks."

So what happened in those final six weeks?

Well, there was obviously the shake-up at manager with Scott Servais being fired and being replaced by Wilson. But another major factor was Edgar Martinez returning as the hitting coach — at the urging request of Wilson.

Martinez's influence on the team's offensive approach, particularly the Mariners' young superstar outfielder cannot be overstated.

"They've connected so well, definitely in the hitting department," Wilson said. "I always say this about Edgar, that the message that he brings is powerful, but it's the way in which he delivers it. And I know our guys appreciate that. Edgar comes at it with such humility. He comes at it with experience. It's the old E.F. Hutton commercials, 'When Gar talks, people listen.' "

Martinez helped convince Rodriguez and other hitters to simplify their approaches, focusing on hitting the ball up the middle and being more resilient with two strikes. For Rodriguez, they simply wanted him to hit the ball with authority and not try to worry about whether it was in the air or to a specific part of the park. Martinez also convinced Rodriguez to move his hands slightly and focus on being more athletic and balanced in the batter's box.

Rodriguez's 91.7 mph average exit velocity on balls in play was in the top 25 of all MLB hitters. Hitting the ball hard is good. Trying to hit the ball hard to a certain height and area is just a little too much to do all the time.

"I don't know if I can remember a specific date or time, but I do remember seeing a lot of balls go to right field, on a line and hit hard," Wilson said. "That's when you knew. He was beginning to use the whole field. When it comes off his bat, he's going to be able to go out of the ballpark in any part of the ballpark."

Over those final six weeks — a span of 34 games and 162 plate appearances — Rodriguez posted a .313/.364/.537 slash line with six doubles, nine homers, 30 RBIs, six stolen bases, 13 walks and 34 strikeouts. Per Statcast data, 59 of the 115 balls put into play were considered hard hit (exit velocity of 95 mph or higher).

"I just wanted to take that into my offseason and focus on those things," Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez seemed to lose himself as a hitter in his struggles. The metrics said he was at his best when pulling the ball in the air, but it didn't feel natural for him to try and pull it. But it also didn't feel right to just focus on hitting in any direction. His swing changes from the previous offseason left him off balance and looking unathletic.

"It's finding his identity," Dipoto said. "And I know that's a big thing for Dan. It's a big thing for Edgar. It's knowing who you are, knowing what your goal is every day, when you go to the ballpark. And really, he was trying to find himself."

Rodriguez found himself again in those final six weeks. He doesn't plan to lose himself again.

"Those last weeks of the season were really productive for me in a lot of for many different ways," Rodriguez said. "I want to keep building on to that because I feel like that's the type of player that I see myself as. You obviously want to improve, but I think that player is pretty good."

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