Seattle.-Dominican Julio Rodríguez, of Seattle, looks at his numbers and realizes that they paint the picture of a player who has had a slow start, now for the third year in a row.
Rodriguez is also firm in his approach and believes he will soon take a positive turn, pointing to some balls he hit hard in Toronto.
Last week, each of his six hardest balls were outs, including a 114.5 mph line drive to Kevin Kiermaier, easily the highest exit velocity by a Mariners hitter this year. “Right now, I’m just letting things happen,” Rodriguez said.
“I feel like the last few series I’ve been hitting right at someone or they’re just not getting hits.”
Rodríguez came into yesterday’s day with an average of .190, with an OPS of .446, seventh worst in the Majors, in addition, a strikeout rate of 33.3%. His wins above replacement are negative according to FanGraphs (-0.2) and Baseball-Reference (-0.4) metrics.
He is still looking for his first home run and has only one double as an extra base hit. All of those factors were the reason Servais gave Rodriguez his first day off on Sunday, in an effort to “disconnect.”
The Mariners, in many ways, are going the way Rodriguez does, going 7-10. It’s no coincidence that they set a franchise record with 21 wins last August, when he was the American League Player of the Month.
They don’t need him to play at a historic level every night, but more consistently.
Expectations
– Optimism
Rodríguez came forward to face criticism for his poor offensive performance, saying that “many times we forget that we do the most difficult thing in the world of sports, which is hitting.” “I feel like we can’t get so down… so early.”
Follow us on our networks!
2024-04-17 04:11:01
#Julio #Rodríguez #trusts #offensive #slump
