Julio Rodríguez (baseball)

Julio Yamel Rodríguez (born December 29, 2000), nicknamed "J-Rod", is a Dominican professional baseball center fielder for the Seattle Mariners of Major League Baseball (MLB). He signed with the Mariners as an international free agent in 2017 and made his MLB debut in 2022. In his rookie season, he was named an All-Star along with winning the Silver Slugger Award and American League Rookie of the Year Award.

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. Before Rodríguez, 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, Julio Sr., 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 (tied for the league lead), 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 2021, 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 2021 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 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 (AL) 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 kept up his great performance in July, during a stretch in which the Mariners won 14 consecutive games and jumped into playoff discussions. On July 15, he hit his first career grand slam to put a game against the Texas Rangers out of reach. In July, he played 19 games, scored 12 runs, and 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.

Rodríguez was selected for the 2022 MLB All-Star Game, the sixth Mariner rookie to play in an All-Star Game. Rodríguez 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. On August 23, Rodríguez hit his 20th home run, making him the sixth player in Seattle 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 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, while leading AL outfielders in both range factor per game and errors (6). He tied for ninth in MLB in steals. At 21 years of age, 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 one of the 20 fastest runners and one of the 10 hardest hitters in baseball.

=Postseason

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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 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 American League Division Series, when he hit a triple and a double, scoring three times in a loss to the Houston Astros. In Game 3, he 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

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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 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 boosted his 2023 salary from a minimum of $720,000 to $21 million, including a signing bonus.

2023: All-Star

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. On July 10, Rodríguez 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 5 four-hit games, a feat that had not happened since 1900. He had 5 four-hit games in August; only Ty Cobb, with 6 such games in 1921, had more in a month.

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.

2024

Rodríguez had his worst offensive season in 2024, batting .273/.325/.409 with 20 home runs and 24 stolen bases. He and Bobby Witt Jr. became the first two players to have 20 home runs and 20 steals in the first three seasons of their MLB career. Rodríguez missed several weeks in July and August after suffering a high ankle sprain crashing into the center field wall, limiting him to the designated hitter role for nine games after returning from the injured list. He had a strong final month of the season, batting .328 with 7 home runs and 6 steals in September, which he credited to hitting coach Edgar Martínez, who re-joined the team's coaching staff in late August after the firing of manager Scott Servais.

International career

Rodríguez played for the Dominican Republic national team in the 2020 Summer Olympics and the 2023 World Baseball Classic. Rodríguez also played in two qualifying tournaments before the 2020 Olympics. He hit 11-for-24 in the Americas qualifying tournament. He hit two home runs in a game against Venezuela and later had a game-winning RBI single against Canada. Dominican manager Hector Borg called Rodríguez the best player at the tournament. Rodríguez was 1-for-10 as the Dominicans won all three games of the final qualifying tournament.

Rodríguez was one of the top hitters at the Olympics, held in Tokyo in 2021. He hit .417 with a 1.069 on-base plus slugging in 6 games, tying for third in total bases in the tournament. In the bronze medal game, he hit a two-run home run in the first inning, adding a double, walk, and hit-by-pitch to help defeat South Korea 10–6 and win his country's first medal in baseball. After the game, Rodríguez said, "We as Dominicans are characterized by baseball. So being here right now is very special, being able to win a medal for the country… It really means the world to me."

Rodríguez and his country were not as successful against tougher competition in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. In four games, he went 5-for-18 with one double and nine strikeouts. He managed just one single and three strikeouts as the Dominican Republic lost an elimination game against Puerto Rico on March 15. In that game, he misplayed a line drive hit by Francisco Lindor, allowing Lindor to score on the play, but later got an outfield assist, throwing out Kiké Hernandez at third base from deep right field.

Popularity and personality

Rodríguez adopted his "JRod" nickname in honor of former Mariner Alex Rodriguez.

Rodríguez began studying English at the insistence of his mother and began posting text and videos in English with his hashtag and nickname "#JRodShow" while he was in the minor leagues. He began conducting interviews with reporters in English, rather than his native Spanish, in 2018. In February 2021, then-Mariners president Kevin Mather spoke to a Seattle-area Rotary club and, among his negative comments about Mariners players, said Rodríguez's English was "not tremendous." Rodríguez responded on Twitter, in English, with a meme stating he took Mather's comments personally. Mather resigned the next day.

Rodríguez was featured on the packaging and advertising of Topps baseball cards in 2023.

In 2023, the Mariners started a fan section for Rodríguez, called the "J-Rod Squad," in three sections behind him in center field.

Rodríguez appeared in a Mariners television commercial with Ichiro Suzuki in 2024. The two outfielders became throwing partners in 2020, when Suzuki, also a Rookie of the Year winner, was a Mariners special assistant and more than twice Rodríguez's age.

Fox Sports produced a documentary on Rodríguez, called "Welcome to the J-Rod Show," which first aired on FS1 on July 16, 2024, following the 2024 MLB All-Star Game.

Personal life

Rodríguez says he's motivated by anime. In his childhood, he would run home from school to watch ''Naruto''. As a rookie, Rodríguez wore a chain featuring title character Naruto Uzumaki on the reverse as a reminder to never give up and "always see the bright side of things."

Rodríguez began dating Canadian professional soccer player and fellow 2020 Olympic medalist Jordyn Huitema in September 2022.

In January 2023, Rodríguez donated an ambulance to his hometown of Loma de Cabrera, which until then did not have an ambulance. He also gave baseball equipment and toys to the children in his hometown. Rodríguez created a personal foundation, the No Limits Foundation, in 2024, which organized a toy drive for children in Loma de Cabrera and the Seattle area in late 2024.

Awards and accolades

*2× Silver Slugger Award (AL Outfielder, 2022–23)
*Rookie of the Year Award (AL, 2022)
* All-MLB Second Team (AL Outfielder, 2022)
*Players Choice Award for AL Outstanding Rookie (2022)
* American League Player of the Month (August 2023)

See also

*List of Major League Baseball players from the Dominican Republic
*List of Olympic medalists in baseball
* List of Silver Slugger Award winners at outfield
*Seattle Mariners award winners and league leaders

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rodríguez, Julio
2000 births
Living people
21st-century Dominican Republic sportsmen
30–30 club
2023 World Baseball Classic players
American League All-Stars
Arkansas Travelers players
Baseball players at the 2020 Summer Olympics
Dominican Republic expatriate baseball players in the United States
Dominican Summer League Mariners players
Everett AquaSox players
Leones del Escogido players
Major League Baseball center fielders
Major League Baseball players from the Dominican Republic
Major League Baseball Rookie of the Year Award winners
Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics
Modesto Nuts players
Olympic baseball players for the Dominican Republic
Olympic bronze medalists for the Dominican Republic
Olympic medalists in baseball
People from Dajabón Province
Peoria Javelinas players
Seattle Mariners players
Silver Slugger Award winners
West Virginia Power players
World Baseball Classic players of the Dominican Republic