The first time came on June 18 of last season. It was a Saturday and the Mariners were scheduled to play the Angels in a doubleheader at T-Mobile Park.
They came into the day with a 29-36 record and were spiraling into irrelevance.
On that morning, manager Scott Servais put out the lineup for the first game. It had a new name at the top of it. Rookie Julio Rodriguez was in the leadoff spot for the first time in his MLB career.
The Mariners lost that game, the nightcap and the game the next day to the Angels with Rodriguez in the leadoff spot, falling to 29-39 — the low point of last season.
For the next nine games, Rodriguez batted either in the No. 2 or No. 3 spot in the order as the Mariners started to rack up wins.
On June 30, as the Mariners opened up a four-game series at home vs. the A’s, Servais put Rodriguez in the leadoff spot once again. It’s a place where Rodriguez remained for all but one random game on Aug. 17 vs. the Angels in Anaheim.
That changed for Wednesday afternoon’s game vs. the Rangers to close out the homestand.
With his star player in a slump and struggling to re-establish a consistent approach at the plate, Servais dropped Rodriguez to the No. 6 spot and put J.P. Crawford in the leadoff spot. Teoscar Hernandez, who has also been inconsistent to start the season, dropped to No. 7.
It’s a move Servais and his staff had been considering coming into the Rangers series as Rodriguez continued to struggle at the plate. But Crawford fouled a pitch off his left knee in the finale of the previous series and couldn’t play in the first two games vs. Texas. It also didn’t make sense with a left-hander starting in the second game. But it lined up for the finale of the homestand and will continue into the upcoming three-city, nine-game road trip.
Servais met with Rodriguez after Tuesday’s 5-0 victory over the Rangers to alert him about the decisions and the reasons behind it.
“I’m always going to talk to the player first,” Servais said. “It’s not like he wakes up this morning and sees the lineup and he’s not at the top. Talking to him after the game last night, we both agreed this is probably the right thing to do. Just give him a blow and a breather, let him watch four or five guys have an at-bat before he actually walks up there.”
This isn’t necessarily a permanent move. Servais called it a “catch your breath” type of strategy.
“We just want to get him on back on track,” he said. “Maybe it’s today, maybe it’s in Detroit, maybe it’s on the road trip somewhere. I don’t know when it’s gonna happen. But I know it’s not gonna be for lack of effort or making adjustments or trying different things. One of the things we’ll try first his putting him little bit lower in the lineup and see if it helps.”
After going 0 for 4 with three strikeouts in Tuesday night’s game, Rodriguez’s slash line fell to .204/.271/.387 slash line with six doubles, a triple, six homers, 15 RBI, 11 walks and 45 strikeouts in 155 plate appearances. He’s been susceptible to chasing breaking pitches out of the strike zone while not being able to handle fastballs on the inside corner.
“Different teams have attacked him a little bit differently,” Servais said. “Recently, he’s probably missing more fastballs than I’ve typically seen him miss. I don’t know if anybody really hits the breaking ball good in this league. That’s why pitchers throw so many of them. It’s just a matter of being able to lay off them at certain times in games and not getting too anxious up there.”
The solution to his struggles seems simple to Servais.
“It’s getting back to hitting the fastball; that’s the core,” Servais said. “Stay with what you’re really good at. He’s an awesome fastball hitter, it doesn’t matter who’s throwing it or how hard it is. He’s got to get back to squaring the fastball up.”
Rodriguez was in the batting cages early Wednesday, going through his normal and extensive hitting progression.
“He’s handling it a heck of a lot better than I would handle it if I was 22 years old,” Servais said. “He’s handling it much, much better than I’ve seen a lot of players handle it. There’s frustration, no question, but I’m proud of the way he’s handled it. I really am. You wouldn’t know it. He’s the same guy in the clubhouse, going about his work the same way.”
When players press at the plate, trying to push for results in the form of hits, homers and RBI, it can come from a multitude of motivations. But Servais, who told Rodriguez that he cares more about the Mariners and their success than any player he managed, knows it comes from the right place — sometimes to a fault. He understands he’s the face of the franchise and
“Absolutely, he does take probably too much responsibility for the success of our team and our offense,” Servais said. “He’s just one of nine. He just happens to be maybe the most talented of all the nine and he takes that responsibility serious. It’s a lot. Let’s not lose sight of the fact how young this guy is and I think we just need to keep that all in perspective, because he’s handled everything about as well as he could. There’s so much season left to play.”
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