How Mariners’ new hitting coach plans to help Julio Rodríguez

Feb 25, 2025, 1:30 PM | Updated: 1:30 pm

Seattle Sports

One of the biggest tasks facing new Seattle Mariners hitting coach Kevin Seitzer will be to help maximize Julio Rodríguez’s superstar potential.

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Rodríguez burst onto the scene with an exceptional first two seasons in the majors, hitting 28 home runs with an .853 OPS in his American League Rookie of the Year-winning season in 2022, then 32 homers with an .818 OPS in 2023. But the star center fielder took a step back in 2024, finishing with 20 homers and a .734 OPS after sputtering through a rough first few months of the year.

How does Seitzer plan to help Rodríguez achieve more consistency at the plate in 2025?

Seitzer pointed to the impact Edgar Martinez had on Rodríguez after taking over as Seattle’s interim hitting coach last August. Prior to Martinez’s arrival, Rodríguez hit .260 with 11 homers and a .675 OPS over the first 109 games of the season. After Martinez’s arrival, Rodríguez hit .313 with nine homers and a .902 OPS over the final 34 games.

Martinez is now the Mariners’ senior director of hitting strategy and will work closely with Seitzer this season.

“My focus is continue to build off the path (and) direction that Edgar put him on at the end of the season, because he finished really strong,” Seitzer said when he sat down with Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk at the Mariners’ spring training facility in Arizona.

“When (Rodríguez) came up crashing on the scene, all of a sudden pitchers start making adjustments, (and) sometimes hitters can try and make the wrong adjustments in order to be ready to hit what they’re trying to do to you. And I feel like what Edgar did with him is really get him locked in on a consistent approach and plan to where he was staying in the middle of the field.”

Seitzer then explained how a consistent middle-away approach can help bring down Rodríguez’s chase rate, which has been among the highest in the league. According to Baseball Savant, Rodríguez had a 33.5% chase rate (19th percentile) in 2022, a 37.4% chase rate (8th percentile) in 2023 and a 37.3% chase rate (6th percentile) in 2024.

“Guys are going to have chase,” Seitzer said. “Chase comes with this game because of the electric pitching that we see nowadays – the high velos, the late-breaking stuff, the strike-to-ball stuff. If you get on hitters too much about ‘don’t chase,’ then you’re making them late on 90% of the fastballs they’re gonna see.

“So being consistent with the approach – the more you think middle of the field to opposite field – the better you see the ball. You’re able to check off the secondary stuff that are chase pitches more often than you were if you were just in (the mode of) ‘see ball, hit ball and swing at thrown ball.'”

Another endorsement for D-Mo

When asked about the hitters he’s most excited to work with, Seitzer mentioned an interesting name: Dylan Moore.

Moore, who won a Gold Glove as a utility player last season, is primarily known for his defense and versatility. But with the 32-year-old in line for regular starts at second base this season, Seitzer believes there’s more to unlock in Moore’s bat. Former Mariners outfielder and current team broadcaster Jay Buhner echoed a similar sentiment last week.

Seitzer has a brief background with Moore, as the latter spent the 2017 season in the Atlanta Braves’ farm system while Seitzer was the big league team’s hitting coach.

“I feel like there’s so much untapped in his ability,” Seitzer said. “In Atlanta, he was in Double-A and he was one of those kids that comes over just for a fill-in in a big league (spring training) game. And there’s probably in all my years as a hitting coach, there’s been about five (minor league) kids that when they come over, I get excited to see them.

“That sucker was a little get-after-it gamer, grinder, fighter when he was just doing his flips in the cage. Had a smile on his face, intensity, work ethic. And he just lit my day up.”

Listen to the full conversation with Mariners hitting coach Kevin Seitzer at this link or in the audio player near the top of this story. Tune in to Brock and Salk weekdays from 6 to 10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.