Julio Rodríguez

BIOGRAPHY

Julio Rodríguez was born December 29, 2000, in Loma de Cabrera, Dominican Republic. He is an outfielder in the MLB.

Rodríguez played in the Arizona Fall League for the Peoria Javelinas following the regular season, at 18 the youngest player in the AFL, and batted .288/.397/.365 in 52 at-bats. He was named an AFL Rising Star.

In June 2021, Rodriguez started play with the Everett Aquasox. After a few months he was promoted to the Double-A Arkansas Travelers. Rodríguez was selected to play in the All-Star Futures Game. As of August 2021, he is ranked No. 1 on the Mariners prospect list and No. 2 on the MLB top 100 prospect list. The Mariners added him to their 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 draft after the 2021 season.

Rodríguez made his major league debut on Opening Day, April 8, 2022, as the starting center fielder versus the Minnesota Twins. He was named American League (AL) Rookie of the Month consecutively for May and June, 2022. In June, he played 29 games, scored 22 runs, and hit .280/.361/.542 with seven home runs, 16 RBI, and five stolen bases.

Rodriguez was selected to the 2022 All-Star Game roster making him the sixth Mariner rookie to do so. Rodriguez also participated in the 2022 Major League Baseball Home Run Derby where he placed second behind Juan Soto.

During a game on August 23 against the Washington Nationals, Rodríguez hit his 20th home run of the 2022 season, making him the sixth player in Seattle Mariners history to join the 20–20 club, and the fourth player in MLB history to do so in their first MLB season. On September 14, he became the first player to join the 25–25 club in his debut season.

On August 26, 2022, Rodríguez signed a 14-year contract extension worth up to $400 million with the Mariners.

In 2022 he batted .284/.345/.509 (8th in the AL) with 84 runs, 28 home runs, 75 RBI, 25 steals (fifth), and 140 strikeouts in 511 at-bats, with a 26.4 power-speed number (second), while leading the AL outfielders in both range factor/9 innings (2.88) and errors (6). At 21 years of age, he was the youngest qualified batter in major league baseball.

On November 10, 2022, he was selected as one of the three AL outfielders to win the Silver Slugger Award, his first time receiving the award (as it was his rookie season). He became just the 4th rookie outfielder to ever win the award, joining Ichiro Suzuki (2001), Mike Trout (2012) and Aaron Judge (2017)..

On November 14, 2022, he was selected as the AL Rookie of the Year, becoming the fifth Mariner to win the award, joining Alvin Davis (1984), Kazuhiro Sasaki (2000), Ichiro Suzuki (2001), and Kyle Lewis (2020).