Mariners' star Julio Rodriguez featured on Sports Illustrated cover
SEATTLE — The J-Rod Show has made its way to Sports Illustrated.
The renowned American sports magazine is featuring Seattle Mariners All-Star outfielder Julio Rodriguez on its 2023 baseball preview edition. SI Senior Writer Tom Verducci profiled the reigning American League Rookie of the Year.
Robinson Canó, in 2014, was the last Mariners player to appear on an SI cover.
"Nobody better represents the ideal version of this new era of baseball than the J-Rod Show," Verducci writes in his profile. "Faster. More athletic. More daring. More unencumbered. More fun.
"His perpetual smile is a happy contagion. His joy is a burst of neon light. More than sprint speed or exit velocity, the gift of this 22-year-old is a je ne sais quoi that makes him simultaneously swaggy and endearing."
The 6-foot-3, 228-pound center fielder from the Dominican Republic shined in his first major-league season, belting 28 home runs with a .284 batting average, 84 runs scored, 75 runs batted in and 25 stolen bases. Rodriguez, 22, signed a 12-year extension with the Mariners in August that guarantees him $210 million and could balloon to $470 million over 17 years. The contract reportedly locked Rodriguez in through 2029 for $120 million.
Rodriguez, who most recently played for the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic, helped the Mariners snap the country's longest active postseason drought in men's major professional sports (21 years) last season as 90-win Seattle claimed an American League wild-card spot. The Mariners beat the Toronto Blue Jays in the opening round before falling to the rival Houston Astros, who went on to win the World Series.
Following the successful 2022 season, Baseball America named the Mariners the Organization of the Year — a first for the club — on Dec. 1.
The Mariners announced on Feb. 23 their opening-day matchup against the Cleveland Guardians on March 30 was sold out. Seattle opens the season with a four-game, weekend homestand against the Guardians, followed by three games against the Los Angeles Angels at T-Mobile Park.
Tickets to opening day can still be purchased on the secondary market on websites like Ticketmaster, StubHub and SeatGeek.
Verducci's feature shares an anecdote about one of Rodriguez's long days that began with an 8:30 a.m. workout and included additional training, media interviews and photo shoots. When he was finally free to leave, the Mariners' star went up to each of the six people working on the photoshoot, shook each one's hand and thanked them.
“I’m just a guy who came from Loma de Cabrera, a town in the Dominican Republic with 20,000 people, and one day I can be hitting in front of 50,000 people in Dodger Stadium with the whole United States watching it,” Rodríguez told Verducci. “I want to inspire those after me. You can get there if you work hard. If you dedicate yourself, you are able to live out your dreams.
