Julio Rodriguez, 2022 Fantasy Outlook

Prospect Itch’s fantasy baseball top 100 prospects has Julio Rodriguez as numero uno. The big mahoof. The head honcho. The ying and yang. The sun, moon and stars. Here’s what Itch said, “A thunderous power bat with a knack for going the other way. Concerns exist about his ability to handle elite chase pitches on the outer half, and while that’s true of just about every young hitter, J-Rod’s first move in the box is a slight drift toward third base, and his front leg moves that direction, as well. He’s adept at slashing or driving the ball to the opposite field, so I suspect this could be just an aesthetic thing because sometimes the greats just look different and force us to retrain our eyes a little. Might wind up a double plus in hit, and power with just enough athleticism to chip in on the base paths. If only I could ‘double-hit’ Grey’s head.” C’mon, man! Jul-Rod, which sounds like a vaping product, went 13/21 across High-A and Double-A Arkansas in 74 games with a slash line of .347/.441/.560, which is kinda hilarious. His top exit velocity was 117.4 MPH. That’s Vlad Jr.-type top exit velocity, i.e., a top 10 MLB exit velocity. If you’re wondering where he was and why he only saw 74 games, he was leading his Dominican Republic Olympic baseball team to a bronze. During his Olympic experience, he hit .417 and got to find out if inside the metal is white or dark chocolate. *intern whispers in ear* There’s no chocolate? That’s a bummer to hear. I hope Jul-Rod didn’t crack a tooth. So, what can we expect from Julio Rodriguez for 2022 fantasy baseball?

Wanna know how deep the stank stinks? How low the funk funks? How stale it’s in the stall? The Mariners’ beat writers are already writing articles about whether or not Julio Rodriguez could make a run at the Opening Day roster. You have Mitch Haniger, and Jarred Kelenic as locks. Kyle Lewis would seem like a near-lock, unless there’s a setback with his knee. Or if Lewis hits .175 in the spring, I could see him losing his window. Either way, there’s the DH spot for Haniger, and, boom! Julio Rodriguez has playing time. Will that happen? Let’s circle back.

Julio Rodriguez looks like every corner outfielder who is, and has ever been a perennial All-Star with 50-grade speed. Since everything Jules Rod (what very good friends call him) does is beautiful, may as well focus down on the bad. Julio Rodriguez looks like a seven to twelve-steal guy over the course of a 162-game season. I watched some video of him running. It was a small sample of video clips, and I had my good eye shut, but wore a monocle on my bad eye. He kinda reminds me of Manny Machado, a guy who surprises on the basepaths and maybe Julio-Rod will do the same.

Julio Rodríguez puts his wheels on display with an infield single and a stolen base for @ARTravs. pic.twitter.com/NWXLAOhFlr

— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) September 19, 2021

While the clips of him running weren’t as easy to find, there was an abundance of clips of him hitting home runs with relative ease:

After leaving the yard twice on Friday, Julio Rodríguez goes yard AGAIN for @ARTravs. pic.twitter.com/vVmLTK2z07

— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) September 12, 2021

He looks like a 40-homer, 10-steal, .300 hitter. When I say that about someone who will only be 21 years old to start this season, we’re talking about a guy who could be a Hall of Famer in 25 years and will be a perennial 1st to 2nd rounder in fantasy baseball leagues for a decade, even without massive speed. Or if he grows out of his speed, and focuses more on just hitting 40 homers and .320. He might be a 2nd rounder in fantasy after only one season in the majors! He feels like a guy who will be overrated for fantasy for years because he’ll be fun and people will clamor for him, but I’ll be cranky and say there’s not enough speed, and that’s me pre-quoting 2025 Grey! 2025 Grey is a real wet blanket! Guess five years of a pandemic will do that. I kid, please let me be kidding.

With 2022 fantasy, it’s all going to come down to when Ju-Rod (if he converts for the jokes) is promoted. I have no idea. Kelenic was up mid-May and that seems as good a bet as any. So, the M’s make a serious push to have all three of them in the outfield by May 15th. That feels aggressive, but no one calls him July — it’s Juli, if anything. He ended the season in Double-A, and the natural progression of this is five weeks in Triple-A, where he rips the cover off the ball, and one to two weeks of people sarcastically saying, “Yeah, sure, he has to work on his defense, the Mariners are such liars!” Then he magically shows up in the majors, as a superstar, like he learned everything in the final week. For 2022, I’ll give Julio Rodriguez projections of 54/21/61/.282/7 in 413 ABs with a chance for more based on promotion date. Also, if the Mariners are buyers this offseason, which seems odd to say since I don’t think anyone’s going to be a buyer this offseason and the Mariners have never been buyers, that could convince me Juli-Rod is more like an April-Rod.