While Julio Rodriguez is eligible to come off the 7-day concussion IL on Friday, the Mariners are remaining cautious with the outfielder.
It was without question a rough series in Miami, as the Mariners were swept by the Marlins, fell back to .500 and out of first place in the AL West. Now they head to Tampa Bay for their final three games ahead of the All-Star break to face the AL team with the best record, and they will likely have to do it without one of their best players.
Julio Rodríguez is eligible to come off the seven-day concussion Injured List on Friday, but Mariners manager Dan Wilson admitted it’s less likely to happen. Speaking to the media on Thursday ahead of the series finale in Miami, he said:
“He’s continuing to up his level of work on the baseball side, but he still has some minor symptoms. With a head injury, we’re going to be very cautious and want him to be asymptomatic before we would have him join us.”
A smart approach to remain cautious with Julio Rodriguez
As per Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times, Rodríguez is hitting and fielding at varying levels of intensity, but the Mariners don’t want to push him. As such, they remain in a holding pattern with the three-time All-Star and are going to wait until he is completely asymptomatic.
We can entirely appreciate this type of cautious approach, because you can never be too careful with any type of head issues. In fact, when Rodríguez first went on the Injured List last Friday, we suggested it might be best to keep him out until after the All-Star break, to give him more time to recover and make sure he’s okay.
While the approach cannot be criticized (or at least it shouldn’t be), it does leave the Mariners having to face the AL-leading Rays without a player who was leading the team in RBI prior to suffering his concussion in a 1-0 win versus the Angels. And to say the team has struggled to take advantage of scoring opportunities, would be a major understatement.
Mariners not getting it done with RISP
In a series where the Mariners should have taken at least one game from the Marlins, they were undone by going just 2-for-25 with runners in scoring position. Not that this lack of success is anything new, with them last in the majors this season batting just .221 with RISP and 26th with a .702 OPS.
On the one hand, the Mariners have clearly been impacted by a horrendous amount of injuries, highlighted by Brendan Donovan hardly playing and Cal Raleigh affected by his right oblique issue since the World Baseball Classic. At the same time however, this is still a talented roster which should not be struggling to the extent that they are fourth-worst in scoring, averaging 4.05 runs per game.
It is to be hoped that Rodríguez and Donovan will be ready to go sooner than later following the festivities in Philadelphia, as both should provide a big boost to the lineup. In the meantime, fans have to accept the very real possibility the Mariners will enter the All-Star break with a losing record. (Not that we will have any issue being proven wrong with this concern.)
Photos courtesy of Tim Rogers Photography & Mariners media
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