I had a small pile of cards that didn’t have names on them, and for years have been meaning to start going through and identifying who I could and tossing the rest. Most were nothing special. But when I got to this card I was like like “Wait a minute…I…know this autograph.”
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Julio Rodriguez‘s rookie season was a revelation for the Mariners: .284/.345/.509 with 28 HR and 25 stolen bases, good for a 146 OPS+. He was selected to the All-Star game, won a Silver Slugger, landed seventh in MVP voting, and was the American League Rookie of the Year. It was…quite a year. Lots of Ken Griffey Jr. comparisons and that is something I have not seen much of since the days of Jose Cruz Jr. I assume Mariners fans don’t toss around that comparison lightly.
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While he will most likely have a bit of a sophomore slump in 2023, there is no reason to think that J-Rod is not one of the best young players in the game. And it’s hard to not like the guy–and I will certainly continue to follow him until he plays some sort of major role in knocking Cleveland out of the playoffs. I hope that he isn’t my next Kris Bryant, who I thought was a very cool prospect and player until…it happened. Now I can’t even type his name without getting sad.