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Seattle Mariners Make Drastic Decision with Star Julio Rodriguez

Julio Rodriguez, who won the American League Rookie of the Year in 2022, is being taken out of the leadoff spot and bumped to the No. 6 spot before Wednesday's game against the Texas Rangers.
Brady Farkas|
Seattle Mariners Make Drastic Decision with Star Julio Rodriguez
Seattle Mariners Make Drastic Decision with Star Julio Rodriguez

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Seattle MarinersTexas Rangers

The Seattle Mariners are making a drastic lineup change before Wednesday's series finale against the Texas Rangers, moving reigning American League Rookie of the Year Julio Rodriguez out of the leadoff spot and into the No. 6 spot.

JP Crawford will return to the lineup and assume the No. 1 position. Ty France will hit second, then Jarred Kelenic, then Eugenio Suarez, Cal Raleigh, Rodriguez, Teoscar Hernandez, AJ Pollock and Kolten Wong.

It's a major shakeup to the M's lineup, which has been anemic for most of the season. The Mariners are currently 18-18 and rank 20th in runs scored, 29th in team hits, 21st in home runs, 29th in strikeouts, and 29th in batting average.

Rodriguez has been a part of the problem also. His batting average is down to .204 and he's struck out 45 times already versus just 11 walks.

Rodriguez is critical to what the Mariners do so hopefully this will help him reset a little bit. The team, which came into the season with World Series expectations, cannot win the American League West if he's not the leader of the offense.

Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times tweeted comments from manager Scott Servais about the decision and a conversation he had with Rodriguez.

Servais said he talked with Julio last night about moving him down in the order and that Julio understood the reasoning and wanted what’s best for the team. It’s something they considered before this series.

Servais: “he does take probably too much responsibility for the success of our team and our offense. He’s just one of nine. He just happens to be maybe the most talented of all the nine and he takes that responsibility serious.

The Mariners and Rangers finish out the series on Wednesday at 3:40 p.m. ET.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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