Mariners 21-year-old rookie superstar Julio Rodríguez left tonight’s game with lower back tightness, furthering the saga that began earlier this week. As reported by Daniel Kramer of MLB.com, Rodríguez did not undergo an MRI when he first experienced the lower back tightness over the weekend in Anaheim, but is now scheduled to receive imaging tomorrow in Kansas City. When asked about Rodríguez after the game, Mariners manager Scott Servais labeled the young star’s back troubles as “concerning.”
Rodríguez is having a fantastic start to his career, slashing .279/.341/.499 for an OPS of .840 and a WRC+ of 143, the second highest for qualified CF, only behind MVP-candidate Aaron Judge. His strong performance earned him a trip to the All-Star game, and he is the favorite to win the AL Rookie of the Year award.
An extended absence would be tough to weather for the Mariners, who recently signed a massive extension with Rodríguez that can run through the 2039 season and are in the hunt for a wildcard spot, currently two games back of Toronto for the first wildcard spot and tied with Tampa Bay for the second spot. The Mariners have also recently placed Eugenio Suárez on the 10-day injured list with a fracture in the tip of his right index finger.
Rodríguez’s presence in the lineup every day has been a much-needed bat for a paltry Seattle offense. Seattle’s team slash line of .227/.311/.388 features the second third-lowest batting average in the league and roughly league-average OBP, SLG, and OPS. Even with these struggles, if the regular season ended today, the Mariners would be in the postseason.
He’ll be back for the 2038 season……seriously wish him a speedy recovery..
Lord Bless You Silas
I was at this game yesterday with a few dozen other fans, and was sorry to see the only player worth watching walk off the field in the bottom of the first inning.
That’s tough and a little scary for 21 year old to have lower back problem. That’s a long contract to live through.
blue – Yes it is scary, but fortunately for him he is already financially set for life thanks to the stupidity of the Mariners front office and ownership.
It never ceases to amaze me how these teams are so anxious to risk hundreds of millions of dollars because they think it will save them a few million down the road. The risk is not worth the reward. The kids getting these mega contracts could easily suffer injuries, or they could be juicing, or they could simply flame out when the league is able to adjust to them.
Looking back, how many position player contracts of 8 or more years have actually worked out? Manny earned his contract performance-wise, who since has?
Jeter, A Rod, Trout, Harper, Betts, Machado? Too soon to tell on J Rod, Tatis or Franco though
Votto
Angels – Jeter signed his extension within about a month of Manny’s contract.
ARod? Absolutely not, he averaged only 88 games during that final extension. and was good for only the first 3 years of that 10-year contract … not to mention all the negativity he brought to the Yankees with his on-field and off-field behavior.
Trout with all his injuries? He hasn’t played more than 140 games since 2016!
Harper has managed to stay healthy just 2 of his 4 years in Philly.
Mookie is in only the 3rd year of his contract, having missed lots of time in one of the seasons. Way too soon to say his contract has worked out.
Machado, so far so good. He’s only on year 4 of a 10-year deal.
All of those players you mentioned proved themselves over several seasons before they got the big contracts. It’s the Tatis, JRod and Franco contracts that seem especially silly considering they were all given despite the players having hardly played at all in the majors.
He had back spasms last week and rushed back too fast. I think we need to relax on the idea that this could have any sort of long-term impact on his ability to play baseball.
Better than the cano contract any day. The kid is special and a great person off the field and a good marketing tool for the team. Good contract.
Pujols technically had an 8 year contract with the Cardinals (when including the picked up option year) that went about as well as it possibly could.
However, they waited until after his third year in MLB to make sure he was for real before giving him that deal. I agree that too many teams are jumping the gun while these guys have less than two or sometimes even one year of MLB service.
Bad news for this kid. Hopefully this is muscular and not a spinal because it will drastically alter his career path if it is (spinal). I know many already crowned him as a generational talent, but all joking aside, dealing with back injury at this stage could be the difference between a HOF trajectory and a DFA in a few years – look at Mattingly, and he had a 6-year HOF-level performance head start.
On a separate note, this really sucks because I had hoped to see the Yankees play each team at their best. Seattle has been out for so many years, this could affect their outcome, potentially. Good luck to Julio and Seattle M’s.
He had back spasms last week and rushed back to help during the playoff hunt. Concerning for the team’s immediate future, yes… but I’d be shocked if this is worrisome for his long-term health.
Signs long term contract and then gets hurt. It’s crazy how many times that happens. Hopefully this one isn’t serious or long term.
Somebody hold my hand
Something wrong on the West Coast. Everyone getting back problems. Maybe it has to do with one guy carrying the whole team on his back? Seriously, get these guys some supporting casts.
It’ll be fine, Edgar Martinez played without knees for 20 years.
But Edgar Martinez was the reincarnation of an old sea captain who went down in the Bering Sea in the 1860’s
And Pujols has been playing with a bad heel for 19 years.
DH is his future. He’ll have the opportunity to be the greatest DH of all time
He’s only ever played 84 games in a single season. He’s played 129. It’s growing pains. He’ll be fine.
Getting my cup of bleach ready to drink. Just in case…
Covid?
not talking about injecting it. So probably bad breath.
Wuff this could be operation dooms-day for the weaker mariners
Jesse Winker to the rescue! ( oof I mean, Jared Kelenic?)
Kelenic’s two-hit game yesterday got his average up to .138!
Injuries are going to happen but it’s the managers comments of “concerning” that are concerning. I’ve seen the spinal injuries detail and end the careers of bigger stars too – Wright, Mattingly, Fielder come to mind immediately. Hoping this kid just pushed it a bit too much and needs some rest. It would be bad for the game if it’s anything bad.
Don’t skimp out on back day young one. That swing is violent. I tell all my kids with big swings to work their back a little harder.
Yes this. Things like deadlifting and kettlebell swings should be foundational to what young athletes are doing, maybe more so than things like pressing and even squats. Im sure the trainers focus on that more than say some chad at the gym, but developing a strong posterior kinetic chain is often overlooked when the focus is on press or squat strength. It’s easier to develop those things if the core and PKC is well developed.
When a tall young man gets back trouble like this in the lower back, it is with him from then on. It doesn’t matter what the trainers say. They’re always trying to beat the odds.
It’s the principles of leverage at work over a long spinal column, and all the strain and pressure hits squarely in the lower end.
More on this:
The longer the lever (spinal column), the more force is exerted at the fulcrum, which in this case is the lower back.
I learned this working in the woods and sawmills in the 1960s. Us short guys didn’t have the bad lower-back problems that the tall guys did.
I’m 6’4″, when I was 18 someone hit with a vehicle while I was walking and took off. I had lower back pain for a few years that required pain medication to deal with at one point. By the time I wa 22 it was completely gone and I have not had issues since and I’m a software developer who spends long hours at a computer, and im almost 45 now, So not 100% that’s what happens here. Yes I’m not running a baseball field every day but I spent a large part of my a adult life running, walking, hiking, weight lifting and what not daily and almost zero issues with my lower back.
That’s different, bloomquist.
You got hit. That is not the same as the forces in a leverage stuation.
As long as the tall guy keeps doing the same ACTIVITY, the injury will keep happening over and over.
Trainers may help it get well for a while, but the only fix is to stop the activity. Cease or keep having back trouble.
How is this so hard to understand?
I didn’t say it wasn’t the case just that I wouldn’t immediately jump to that conclusion about his specific case yet. And I do think back training doesn’t get emphasized enough. It could be exactly as you sat of it or it could be he just needs some rest and possibly training regimen changes. One of the times I did hurt my back since then was doing deadlifts which is a leverage activity and never happened again once I got some rest snd scaled back a little at first. I pushed far past that in terms of max lift after resting it for a while. I understand swinging a bat is not the same activity or trying to disagree just pointing out that its possible he just needs time before assuming his back is done.
I’m sure the Ms brass are very concerned no doubt. They don’t need their latest big investment toast as soon as he signs, and it is concerning, it’s definitely a thing that’s derailed plenty of careers
I also believe a well developed back is better for the exact situation you described than not. I do actually understand what you wrote.
Ans I have no idea what his back strength or health or training regimen is. He may be screwed and it could be despite training. The statement about training is more a generality about what I’ve seen from young athletes, non of which were in a major sport.
bloomquist, I think it just has to do with the quickness and violence involved in the particular activity.
Joe diMaggio had a big powerful swing but it was smooth and not quite so violent. Or at least I remember it that way.
Anyway, I hope Julio can solve this so he can continue his great young career.
I’m on the side of the players in things like this.
Gotta love a smooth swing even just for aesthetic reasons. Watching someone like Jeter or Griffey swing the bat was a pleasure for me beyond the results.
That’s a good point about swing mechanics in general. Something until recently was a little akin to alchemy lol, but that’s come along way. Same with pitching mechanics. You’re right in the fact I’ve seen lots of guys with violent mechanics go down over the years, even if there’s plenty of them had decently long careers and people with seemingly great mechanics get hurt and stay hurt.
Yep.
I could only imagine what watching DiMaggio or say Williams would have been like. I assume a great pleasure
I wouldn’t be too worried I had surgery on my neck and 3 on my back. I am doing ok considering I am permanently disabled. Wait I guess that doesn’t help.
I forget what he did but he hurt it playing. It
could mean he could have long term problems or just a pulled muscle. Haniger missed a couple days with same thing last week. Right now I wouldn’t worry about it unless he has stenosis ( narrowing of the spinal cord ) if he has that there can be a long term problem. Let’s hope it is just a pull. They will keep an eye on it and give him muscle relaxers if need be. I love all the doomsday guy he will never play again. Back spasms don’t mean he will never play again and as NW said do your back exercises build those muscles up.
Anyone that had the problem with getting the error message get it fixed? If so can you help a guy out? Doesn’t seem anyone from the site gives a shiny turd about helping out.
Julio Rodriguez or Michael Harris II ?
I think Harris could get 25/25 if he had similar number of ABs
Softie
There pills for that issue