Seattle Mariners superstar continues troubling trend to start season

Rodriguez, 24, debuted for Seattle on April 8, 2022. He would go on to play in 132 games that season, posting a .284/.345/.509 line with 28 home runs, 75 RBI, and a 147 OPS+ across 560 plate appearances. It would be good enough to earn the young outfielder his first All-Star nod, a Silver Slugger, and the aforementioned American League Rookie of the Year, while he also finished seventh in AL MVP voting.

The OPS+ is what we need to focus on here. For those unaware, OPS+ is a metric that measures a player's offensive contributions and normalizes the number across the entire league. An even 100 indicates league average, while anything above that is above league average, and anything below 100 is below league average. For 2022, Rodriguez performed 47 percent better than league average.

Since 2022, Rodriguez has seen his OPS+ fall year-over-year each year. In 2023, he posted a 130, and last year it finished at 114. That troubling trend has even continued into the early stages of this year, with the outfielder holding a 99 in that metric entering play Saturday. He has struggled so much at the plate this year that he has been benched for Saturday's contest against the Toronto Blue Jays despite not missing a game to this point.

While it is not entirely correlative, the Mariners have seen their record for each season fall along with Rodriguez's OPS+. In 2022, they finished with a 90-72 record, making the postseason, though they would lose in the ALDS. In 2023, they finished 88-74, and in 2024, they finished 85-77, missing the postseason in each year. This year, they have played to a 10-10 record across their first 20 games.

Rodriguez is still a spectacular defensive center fielder and could win a Gold Glove soon. He has posted 30 Outs Above Average at the position throughout his career, with one OAA already this season.

The outfielder is still popular across the league and is one of the most popular players on the team. Seattle should still receive a 20-20 season from the youngster, but any more 30-30 campaigns may be out of the question.