Mariners place Julio Rodríguez on 10-day IL, recall Taylor Trammell
Sep 23, 2022, 4:56 PM | Updated: 4:59 pm
Julio Rodriguez of the Seattle Mariners leaves the game against the Oakland Athletics in the bottom of the first inning on September 22, 2022 in Oakland, California. (Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images)
(Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images)
The Mariners will be without their star rookie for most of the rest of the year as Julio Rodríguez’s back injury has landed him on the 10-day injured list with just 13 games remaining in Seattle’s season.
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The Mariners announced Friday afternoon that the young center fielder will go on the injured list due to a lower back strain while fellow outfielder Taylor Trammell was added back to the MLB roster in a corresponding move. Trammell was optioned to Triple-A Tacoma on Wednesday in favor of Jarred Kelenic.
Rodríguez, who is the frontrunner for American League Rookie of the Year and was the lone rookie in the 2022 MLB All-Star Game, has been dealing with lower back tightness for roughly a week. He missed three games against the Angels last weekend before returning to the lineup in Oakland on Tuesday.
But shortly after the Mariners took the field defensively in the first inning of Thursday’s series finale, Rodríguez was lifted from the game mid-inning due to lower back tightness. He had a leadoff double and scored in the top half of the inning before being pulled, and manager Scott Servais said the back issue was not due to the swing or running the bases.
Rodríguez has been the Mariners’ best player this year, slashing .280/.342/.502 with 27 home runs and 73 RBIs in 129 games this year, along with a 5.7 WAR total. Rodríguez has been hot of late, hitting six home runs in the month of September.
The first official day of Rodríguez’s injured list stint is Friday, meaning the soonest he is eligible to return is Monday, Oct. 3, which is the first game of the Mariners’ final series of the year, which is at home against the Detroit Tigers.
With Rodríguez on the injured list, the Mariners’ two biggest bats are on the shelf as third baseman Eugenio Suárez, who leads the team with 31 home runs and 84 RBIs, is recovering from a fractured pointer finger.
In 41 games for the Mariners this year, Trammell is slashing .208/.300/.427 with four home runs and 10 RBIs. With Rodríguez out, Kelenic is likely to play center field every day for Seattle until Rodríguez returns.
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