Mariners’ Julio Rodríguez will get big-time contract from Seattle

As of scripting this, Mariners’ outfielder and 2022 All-Star Julio Rodríguez has performed in 109 profession video games. He’s had 463 profession plate appearances and has already earned himself $210 million assured, and doubtlessly greater than $450 million in complete. Over what number of years? We don’t actually know.

It may very well be eight years, 13 years, 16 years, 18 years. We don’t actually know. What we do know is that the Mariners made a really sensible transfer. Not solely does this deal safe the most effective younger skills in baseball for doubtlessly greater than a decade, nevertheless it additionally comes with so many clauses and circumstances that ought to Rodríguez show to be a letdown after his rookie season, the deal gained’t snowball right into a Bobby Bonilla or Chris Davis scenario.

Certain, it will be an enormous disappointment if Rodríguez doesn’t reside as much as the hype he’s constructed throughout his rookie season, and it will actually burn a gap within the Mariners’ pocket, however I’d be keen to guess that Rodríguez might be value each penny.

Why? Effectively, within the live-ball period of baseball (since 1920), there have been solely six gamers to have earned a 130 OPS-plus or higher in addition to 20 stolen bases of their age-21 season or youthful. 4 of them are Corridor of Famers (Ricky Henderson, Rock Raines, Joe Morgan and Orlando Cepeda). One is César Cedeño, a four-time All-Star and five-time Gold Glove winner with a profession 123 OPS-plus, and the ultimate participant on that listing is Mike Trout, who did it twice, in each 2012 and 2013.

In 2022, his rookie season, Rodríguez has already change into the seventh participant to hitch that membership, and his workforce nonetheless has 37 video games left to go. Rodríguez isn’t a standout amongst any of the gamers I simply talked about of their breakout seasons. Hell, Rodríguez at the moment holds a 132 OPS-plus. Trout posted a determine of 168 in 2012, however to be in such firm because the names I discussed is a testomony to the expertise that Rodríguez is, and by that argument, the Mariners bought him for an absolute steal, ought to he pan out.

Rodríguez’s $210 million assured stacks up fairly effectively with Braves third baseman Austin Riley’s $212 million extension signed earlier this month. Nevertheless, Riley is 25. Rodríguez is 21. Second, Rodríguez’s deal contains large multipliers that might drastically enhance his payout relying on his play. At what the contract is at the moment value, Seattle will preserve Rodríguez on their workforce for much lower than the Padres can pay Fernando Tatís Jr. (not too long ago suspended for testing positive for PEDs) over the subsequent 14 years: $340 million.

The No. 3 total prospect in baseball coming into 2022, Rodríguez has carried out nothing however exceed expectations his rookie season. He’s the quickest American League rookie ever to succeed in 20 dwelling runs and 20 stolen bases in a single season, doing so in simply 107 recreations. That’s a celebrity. That’s somebody value preserving round for the subsequent decade-plus. Good work, Mariners!