Julio is heating up for Mariners after small change to stance

Julio Rodríguez has typically been a slow starter in his five seasons with the Seattle Mariners, and that’s continued to be the case here in 2026.

But over the last few days, Rodríguez has been showing signs of heating up.

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Entering the Mariners’ four-game series against the Houston Astros that began on Friday, Rodríguez had just a .143 average (7 for 49) with no extra-base hits. But as the M’s beat the Astros in three straight from Friday through Sunday, Rodríguez has looked more like the summer version of himself, going 5 for 13 (.385) with three hits for extra bases.

One of those was especially important – a three-run home run in a five-run fifth inning on Saturday that was crucial to the M’s beating Houston 8-7.

If you’ve been paying close attention to Rodríguez over the last week, you may notice a small change he’s made at the plate that could be a factor in his recent play.

Typically in his career, Rodríguez has held the barrel of his bat up high above his shoulder while anticipating pitches. But over the last week, he’s shown a quieter batting stance, with his bat sitting on his shoulder. You can get a good look at that in the video below of his RBI single from Sunday’s win over the Astros.

Immediately following that game, which saw Rodríguez go 2 for 4 with a walk and a stolen base, he joined Seattle Sports’ Curtis Rogers for an on-field interview on the Mariners Radio Network broadcast and spoke about the reason for the small change.

“Just to be a little bit more relaxed,” Rodríguez said. “Just kind of like be relaxed until I really have to attack, that’s kind of like what has been going on with that. I really like it.”

Safe to say that if Rodríguez keeps building off of his big weekend, the Mariners and their fans will be saying the same about his tweak in the batter’s box.

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