Julio Rodríguez’s wild 2021 was perfect training for MLB’s newest star

By Jake Mintz
FOX Sports MLB Writer

Julio Rodríguez could probably upgrade you to first class.

While nowadays the effervescent outfielder travels from city to city with his teammates on the Seattle Mariners’ charter, his 2021 season was a much different story. As a 20-year-old prospect, Rodríguez spent most of last year either lighting up a baseball diamond or racking up commercial airline miles.

Why?

In an incredibly rare occurrence for such a heralded prospect, Rodríguez spent three stints suiting up for the Dominican National Team in two Olympic qualifiers and the Tokyo Games in Japan. That led to an outrageously hectic travel schedule that, over the course of the calendar year, featured at least 22 flights, 100 hours in the air and more than 40,000 miles traveled.

Through it all, just a year removed from teenagehood, Rodríguez dominated. In 74 games for two Mariners affiliates, he posted a 1.001 OPS, sandwiched around a 10-for-24 performance with a homer in Tokyo to help Team DR secure the bronze, the country’s first medal in Olympic baseball competition.

“Julio is a different type of person,” José Gomez, the general manager for the 2021 Olympic team shared. “He’s just a baseball junkie. The personality is just … it’s amazing, man.” 

Typically, top prospects such as Rodríguez aren’t given permission by their big-league clubs to play international competitions during the minor-league season. The instability can be difficult for young players to adjust to, and the travel can be burdensome.

But Gómez and his front office made the request for Rodríguez anyway, adding him to a long list of affiliated players they hoped would be permitted to join Team DR for their first qualifier in Florida the first week of June. Because 40-man MLB players were prohibited from playing in the Olympics or the Olympic qualifiers, the Dominican roster turned out to be a mix of old, former big-leaguers, such as José Bautista, and career journeymen playing abroad, such as Jumbo Díaz.

“We thought it was highly, highly, highly unlikely that Julio would be allowed to play,” Gomez remembered. He and his colleagues planned their entire roster for the qualifiers with the expectation that Rodríguez — along with other Dominican top prospects including Wander Franco and Ronny Mauricio — wouldn’t be available. 

But Rodríguez was determined to participate.

“I’ve always wanted to play for the Dominican team,” he told FOX Sports in May. “I always wanted to be able to represent that team, but first I wasn’t sure if the Mariners were gonna allow me to do that.”

But once Rodríguez made it clear to his agent, Ulises Cabrera, how much he wanted permission from Seattle, the Mariners made the decision to allow him to take a week off to join his countrymen in Florida.

“When [the Mariners] told me that they were going to support me, I knew I had to [be on that team,]” Rodríguez remembered.

And so off he went, traveling about as far as you can within the continental United States, from Everett, Washington, to Port St. Lucie, Florida. There, unsurprisingly, Rodríguez shined, helping Team DR to a second-place finish and a spot in the next qualifier.

At that point, Gómez and team skipper Hector Borg didn’t expect to have Seattle’s permission for the next round or the Tokyo roster, if they were to qualify. But in Florida, Rodríguez forced everyone’s hand. 

“I remember he came up to me after the last game,” Borg said. “And was like, ‘Borgy, I’m gonna be on this team, I’m gonna come to the Olympics, and we’re gonna win a medal.’”

In the postgame news conference that day, Rodríguez proclaimed that he would be joining the team in the next round of games. 

“We didn’t have permission from the Mariners yet,” Gomez said. “But once Julio just kinda said it, I think they realized how important it was to him and let him join.”

So Rodríguez, after returning cross-country to Everett, then zipped down to Puebla, Mexico, for the final qualifier. Team DR won the event, earning a place in Tokyo. But Rodríguez had little time to celebrate as, while he was in Mexico, the Mariners promoted him from High-A Everett to their Double-A affiliate in Arkansas.

He spent the next few weeks in Arkansas — and made a quick trip to Denver for the 2021 Futures Game — before joining Team DR in Tampa for a few days of practice ahead of their trip to Tokyo.

“He was the last player to arrive because the Mariners didn’t want him to lose too many at-bats,” Gómez remembered. “I picked him up at the airport myself. He landed and wanted to go straight to this Dominican restaurant in Tampa, but right after that, we had to get him all these COVID tests so he could pass protocol in Japan.”

In Tokyo, facing pitchers a decade older than him, Rodríguez flourished as the Dominican team knocked off Korea in the bronze-medal game to etch itself in national sports history. For a country with such a vast and rich baseball history, the Dominican Republic will remember the summer of 2021 for a long, long time.

Rodríguez’s trip back to the U.S. wasn’t so enjoyable. After the Olympic team spent one final night together in Los Angeles, he boarded a plane to rejoin the Mariners’ Double-A affiliate in Arkansas. But when he landed and pulled out his phone, he noticed that something was wrong.

“I was like ‘OK, let me get an Uber,’” he recounted, that trademark grin stretched across his face. “But when I put the address in, it said almost two hours. That’s when I realized I’m in Northwest Arkansas, where the Royals team is, and I was supposed to be in Little Rock.”

“Yeah, that was my fault,” Gómez admitted, laughing.

Rodríguez eventually found his way to the right city in Arkansas, took a single day off and then promptly went 2-for-4 in his first game back. The show goes on.

“I never saw him look tired the entire summer,” Borg said. “He has that youthful energy.”

The entire experience speaks volumes to both Rodríguez’s unique character and the trust the Mariners have in their young superstar. Most teams would’ve played it safe, forbidding the future of their franchise from risking injury in games beyond their purview, but the Mariners let Julio be Julio.

And now, they’re reaping the rewards.

“Maybe I’m biased,” Borg said. “But I think his time last summer helped him adjust to the big leagues quicker. He was always going to be a star, but playing those important games got him used to the moment.”

Rodríguez agreed.

“Obviously, in the minors you play hard every day, but whenever you have that treasure right ahead of you … that’s just different, man,” he said. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime thing for me. I don’t think I’ll be able to play in the Olympics anymore.

“But being able to have all that pressure, having to perform, no matter what — that’s why [the Mariners] allowed me to go and put myself on that stage.” 

Jake Mintz, the louder half of @CespedesBBQ, is a baseball writer for FOX Sports. He’s an Orioles fan living in New York City, and thus, he leads a lonely existence most Octobers. If he’s not watching baseball, he’s almost certainly riding his bike. Follow him on Twitter @Jake_Mintz.