Seattle Mariners: 2022 Top 10 Under 25
1. Julio Rodriguez (21)
Remember the name. By the end of the 2022 season, Julio Rodriguez may have put himself into the conversation as one of the best 25 and under players in the Majors, not just the Seattle Mariners. He might’ve been born in Loma de Cabrera, Dominican Republic, but Seattle fans and baseball fans, in general, will witness the birth of a superstar in 2022.
The question always is, will a minor-league superstar’s numbers translate? Who knows, but based on what this young ballplayer has accomplished, he doesn’t have much left to prove. He batted .347 in two stops in 2021 with a 1.001 OPS, 21 stolen bases in 26 attempts, and he walked 43 times against just 66 strikeouts in 291 at-bats.
The only knock so far is that he has been injured a couple of times, nothing significant enough to cause concern from the Mariners brass, but he’s had moments where he has struggled to remain healthy. 2022 is his time.
The Message is Clear, the M’s FUTURE is Now
When the lockout ends and a new CBA is in place that potentially incentives teams to promote players out of spring training, we might get a full season of four of the top five under 25 players on the Seattle Mariners. The M’s might have more upcoming moves to make (adding Kris Bryant, Seiya Suzuki, and/or Luis Castillo, for example). Still, it would shock me by the end of 2022 if Kirby, J-Rod, Hancock, Deloach, Williamson, and Brash haven’t joined Kelenic, Gilbert, and Munoz at the Major League level. Probably can’t graduate them all, but who knows.
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Joe Swenson is an award-winning playwright whose play “The Final Out” will be produced in November for the University of North Carolina Wilmington Theater School. You can see his play “Right as Rain” in September at The Footlights Regional Theater in Falmouth, Maine, and his play “Crossing Lines” at Stage Left Theater in Spokane, Washington, in January of 2023.