This story was excerpted from Daniel Kramer’s Mariners Beat newsletter, with MLB.com's Josh Kirshenbaum filling in for this edition. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
SEATTLE -- The soundtrack of the Mariners’ clubhouse before games is the pretty standard mix for an MLB team. Sometimes it’s country music. Sometimes it’s reggae. Sometimes it’s rap. Sometimes it’s Julio Rodríguez pumping electronic music from a turntable in a side room, while the lights flash on and off, a disco ball twirls and a man in an alien mask dances to the beat.
You know, normal stuff.
“That started last offseason,” Rodríguez said. “I bought this little mixer last offseason, and after the season was over, I started messing around a little bit. That’s what made me realize that DJs have a really tough job. It’s really tough being a DJ. So I started to learn. It was a little rocky at the beginning, but I started to have a lot of fun with it. I love music, and I think it’s a great hobby and something to do off the field. I’m liking it a lot.”
Rodríguez said his teammates have been fans of his new raves. The Mariners are certainly fans of the results that have come with them.
“There are some hitters that are really, really good at doing one thing. He’s really good at doing a bunch of different things,” Bryan Woo said. “I’ve talked to some of the other hitters and some of the veteran guys we have, and I’m like, ‘What does he do so well?’ And they’re like, ‘I could go down a list of a number of things.’”
In recent years, the calendar flipping from May to June has been a positive sign for the Mariners’ star center fielder mainly as a reminder that his inevitable summer breakout is nearing. In 2026, though, Rodríguez might wish he could stay in May, because the hot streak may have started early.
In 28 games in May, Rodríguez slashed .274/.309/.590. His 10 home runs were his most in a single month in his career. His .899 OPS was both the seventh highest in the Major Leagues and higher than all but three other months in his career (minimum 100 at-bats).
The three months in front on that list? Two Augusts (2023 and ‘25) and a June (‘22). Those strong summers were more his standard. This spring has been, well, it’s been as different as a clubhouse rave.
Prior to this season, Rodríguez’s highest single-month slugging percentage before June was .527. This May, he finished at .590.
But when asked directly about his previous slower starts, Rodríguez didn’t shy away from anything. The opposite, in fact.
“I feel like I don’t start this year like I did if I don’t have those years,” he said. “It’s always a learning process for everything, and everybody matures in a different way. Thanks to that, I’m able to feel better today.”
A good amount of Rodríguez’s success can be seen in his batted-ball profiles, particularly how he’s keeping the ball off the ground. His 42.2% ground-ball rate is on track to be the lowest of his career, while his 23.8% line-drive rate is on track to be the highest. Adding direction to the mix, he’s pulling the ball in the air -- generally the best combination for power -- 19.5% of the time, by far the highest clip of his career.
The last series of the month showed just how right things can go. In Friday’s series opener against the D-backs, Rodríguez got started with a grounder to the left side that he legged out for an infield single. Then, he brought out the power, pulling a 113.6 mph bolt of lightning that came off his bat with a 16-degree launch angle, never got higher than 44 feet off the ground, and didn’t land until it had cleared the dugout at the back of the bullpen in left field.
Rodríguez followed that with a double down the left-field line that had a 112.3 mph exit velocity. It was the third game in his career he’d had two exit velocities over 112 mph. The other two both came in September (one in 2024, one in 2025).
On Saturday, he followed it up with another home run to dead center -- giving him a homer in three straight games for the fourth time in his career -- and a double the opposite way.
“I think I’m a really good hitter who can hit the ball to all fields on a line,” Rodríguez said. “But I’m also strong enough so I can hit those out. That’s what I’m trying to do on the field, just put a good swing on it and have a good approach.”
If he can keep doing it at this rate, he’ll be giving the Mariners much more to rave about.