LOU
Julio Rodriguez, OF
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Scouting report
I thought it made more sense to draw on Rodríguez's stint with Escogido rather than whatever he did at the Mariners' alternate site last year after he returned from his broken wrist (which he suffered in mid-July, Julio's second fracture in his left hand/wrist area), where he saw the same handful of pitchers over and over again in a non-competitive environment. His approach and plate coverage in the Dominican were bad, and his swing's front foot variability, which I wrote about last year, was gone. Julio became a bucket strider, striding open like he was trying to pull everything. Some hitters can do this and still manage to really get their arms extended to cover the outer half of the plate (Eddie Rosario, Alex Kirilloff), and Rodríguez absolutely has the strength to do damage the other way if he turns out to be this kind of hitter. But he swung inside of an awful lot of well-located sliders in LIDOM. Not nasty sliders, mind you -- a bunch of fringe big leaguers and indy ball guys pitch in LIDOM -- just well-located ones, something there's no shortage of in the big leagues. He either needs to be in position to dive and spoil some of those, or just do a better job of laying off them entirely. A swing change has been made and was evident early during 2021, as Julio's hands are loading further away from him body, which has altered his posture through contact. His torso is hanging over the hitting zone now in a way that looks more like Mike Trout's posture, and I think this will help Julio at least spoil those breaking balls away from him. The calling card power and makeup are still present, and Rodríguez's 35-plus homer, All-Star slugger ceiling remains the same. He also showed up for 2021 spring training having lost a bunch of weight and running a full grade better than he did in 2019 and '20; he's once again an average runner from home to first. His swing-happy 2020 was an indication that adjustments might slow his ascent through the system but he's already begun to make them. (Alternate site, Fall Instructional League, LIDOM)