The Seattle Mariners have one of the best bright young stars in all of baseball in outfielder Julio Rodriguez. He is only 21 years old and is probably going to win the American League Rookie of the Year. Rodriguez, according to sources telling ESPN’s Jeff Passan, will receive a 14-year contract extension and he will receive $210 million guaranteed and this money has the ability to grow to over $400 million in that time span.
This is a great deal and a great day for the Seattle Mariners organization. The future looks bright for them though. Free sports betting picks have him potentially as the betting favorite to win the American League Rookie of the Year over Baltimore Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman. What does this Julio Rodriguez signing mean for the Seattle Mariners franchise moving forward?
A Potential Playoff Contender
The Seattle Mariners have not been to the MLB postseason since 2001, when they were 116-46 and lost in the ALCS. Seattle is currently the sixth and final wild-card spot in the American League with a 68-57 record so far this season. The Mariners are in this spot because of Julio Rodriguez. He has a .269 batting average with 20 home runs and 64 RBIs, along with 23 stolen bases in 108 games played.
Seattle has changed as a franchise because of this man and Julio Rodriguez is going to be one of the top players in all of baseball sooner rather than later. He has the potential to be an MVP candidate for a long time to come. Seattle has been wanting a playoff team for 21 years and they are finally most likely going to taste some postseason baseball.
The Mariners future is bright because of him. They can win a World Series with him at the helm, but Seattle is not there just yet as a franchise. It will be interesting to see what will happen down the road with him in the immediate future.
Locking Up a Star
The Seattle Mariners decided to do this now because it looks like they learned their lesson as a franchise from letting go third baseman/shortstop Alex Rodriguez and outfielder Ken Griffrey Jr. long ago. They didn’t want to potentially do that a third time with outfielder Julio Rodriguez. He gets what he deserves now and they don’t have to worry about it later.
They also did this because they saw what happened with outfielder Juan Soto. He wasn’t signed to a contract extension right away and they let a generational talent walk away. Soto was traded at the trade deadline from the Washington Nationals to the San Diego Padres, even though Juan Soto won a World Series title with Washington in 2019 against the Houston Astros in seven games.
Julio Rodriguez now set up the market for him actually. Future star players are going to be making that much money moving forward to be stars in this sport and could maybe be the next face of baseball for a long time to come.
The Future Market
The future market of the MLB will have players receiving $450 million or more if they are big-time superstars. Teams are going to want to pay them earlier than wait. Juan Soto might make more money than Julio Rodriguez when Soto gets paid.
Julio Rodriguez actually had a team-friendly deal in this situation because he is only getting $210 million guaranteed but all of the extra stuff can get up to north of $400 million, which is quite possible moving forward. Not all of the time big contracts turn out to be very good.
In the recent past, players like outfielder Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels and outfielder Giancarlo Stanton of at the time Miami Marlins now New York Yankees received big contract extensions. Speaking of which, how much will outfielder Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees get paid now that outfielder Julio Rodriguez of the Seattle Mariners has received that much money?
Stay tuned. It is going to be interesting to see because the baseball market keeps going on up and won’t go down.
