The Seattle Mariners’ offense was the main reason the franchise missed the playoffs for the 22nd time in 23 years in 2024.

The offense, at one point, was on the verge of creating the wrong type of MLB history for most strikeouts by a single team in a season. They ended up avoiding setting a new all-time record in that category, but still finished dead last in the league in that stat with 1,625.

Coinciding with the difficulties of the offensive, that of Seattle The face of the franchise, Julio Rodriguez, had the worst season of his three-year career. He hit .273 with 20 home runs and 68 RBIs. He also missed three weeks with a sprained ankle and was out of the outfield for over a month with the same injury.

Rodriguez finished the year strong and hit .328 with seven home runs and 22 RBIs in September. But it was another season marked by a slow start. It reached 0.267 in April, 0.274 in May and 0.206 in June.

Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto appeared on the ESPN Baseball Tonight podcast hosted by insider Buster Olney on Saturday to talk about Rodriguez’s slow start and offered a possible solution that the team and the two-time All-Star could explore.

“It’s not due to a lack of preparation. No one works harder than Julio. I visited him early last month, shortly after the end of the season. He has a very structured and disciplined plan for the The way he approaches his offseason, over the course of his major league career, it’s more likely to start slowly and end quickly. And our goal is to find a way to extend that over a seven-month period. has proven to be one of the most talented and productive players on the planet. We would like to see this start a little more in April or May and not wait for the weather to warm up so much and I know it will. is a priority for him… It’s not his training programs, it’s not a desire to work and, frankly, it’s not a question of desire. He goes out and wants to take care of it. …We’ve already talked about having more reps in spring training and maybe going back to what it was in the 1990s when the rest of us were playing, instead of doing 40 or 50 plate appearances in preparation for the season, we’re looking at something like 70 or 90.”

Although the offense’s struggles last year extended well beyond Rodriguez, several media figures and analysts said Seattle was going as far as it was going.

The organization would be likely to mitigate the risk of injury to its franchise centerpiece. But they also want to avoid another slow start. More at-bats in spring training could be the answer.

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