THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: An idea to fix what's slowing J-Rod

This is a case where we have two facts.

At first glance, they appear to state the opposite.

In the weird, wild world of baseball, however, we’ve reached a point where it could be necessary to accept contradictory truths.

Start with the struggles of Julio Rodriguez.

The Mariners’ megastar is bursting with talent, and he’s proven it through two his first two seasons in Major League Baseball.

It seems impossible that Julio has forgotten how to hit.

And yet, cold, hard numbers argue that to be the case.

If Julio had fought through a slump for a week or 10 days, hey, that happens to everyone.

As Mariners manager Scott Servais puts it: “People forget that baseball is a really hard game.”

Fair enough.

If Julio were hitting somewhere around .210 — like many of his teammates — it would look like the problem of many long-ball artists before him.

Swing and miss.

Feeble ground ball.

Tape-measure home run!

In those cases, you get some explosions — and then back to routine fly balls.

But that’s not what’s happening with Julio Rodriguez.

He’s actually putting the ball in play, scratching out enough base hits that he might finish the season with an unspectacular — but hardly catastrophic — batting average around .250.

HITTERS can do big damage by giving you one hit in four at-bats, if they make it make it loud as hell.

The crazy thing about Julio, though, is that somehow he’s lost his power.

Worse yet, he seems to have hit a stretch where nothing’s happening at all.

In his last 14 games of June, Julio posted a .143/.200/.196 slash line in 60 plate appearances.

Of his eight hits, he had one homer, three RBIs, four walks and 12 strikeouts.

What’s truly odd is that Julio hasn’t gone up and down.

He’s hit like Josh Rojas from the first week of this season, right up until opening this series against Baltimore on Tuesday night.

That’s not exactly a wild exaggeration.

Julio was sitting on a .247 average, and of his 83 hits to that point, he had six doubles, seven home runs and 29 RBIs.

This is roughly the halfway point of the 2024 season, for a player who hit 32 homers with 103 RBIs a year ago.

Oh, and I was just lightly kidding about Rojas.

The six-year infielder is hitting .253, with 13 doubles and four homers.

The only true damage on the roster was coming from Cal Raleigh (14 homers and 50 RBI), and the Big Dumper was hitting .202.

The difference?

Julio’s array of skills produced an 11.6 WAR over his first two seasons — and that number has dropped to exactly one this year, mostly on the basis of his defense.

Speaking of defense, that’s been Julio’s problem at the plate.

He certainly MEANS to be on offense with the bat in his hands — almost no one swings harder — but the combination of his long, fierce pass at the ball, and the

fact that he’s often trying to catch up to serious velocity, leaves his bat just barely making much contact.

IS THERE a remedy for Julio’s woes?

Well, I have an idea, but it’s more than just a tweak or another night in the batting cage.

I think Julio should spend two or three weeks — maybe between now and the All-Star break — at Double-A Arkansas.

Note that I’ve bypassed Triple-A Tacoma, because a lot of pitchers at that level are getting along on finesse and command.

Julio needs to deal with gas.

He has to step into the batter’s box every night, and KNOW that there isn’t a pitcher in the game who can just stand there and throw the ball past him.

Which is true, by the way.

J-Rod already has homered off a 102.5 mph heater delivered by Oakland flame thrower Mason Miller.

The key to that blast, however, is that Miller got caught up in a man-to-man duel, and threw nothing but gas.

Julio was prepared for it.

Still, that might explain what’s at the bottom of all this.

If the Mariners’ staff doesn’t feel his swing or posture need changing, then Julio simply needs to prepare for fastballs and FORGET everything else.

Sure, protect the plate with two strikes, but other than that, think heat.

That’s why some time in Double-A, where Julio can relax and just swing, could be so valuable.

It’s the equivalent of visiting a spa.

He could come back crushing the ball.

And I’ll send the club a bill.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press four times each week, normally Tuesday through Friday unless, you know, stuff happens.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”