Ken Griffey Jr. on Julio Rodriguez and Seattle’s chances of snapping playoff drought
The Mariners won 116 regular-season games in 2001, winning their division by 14 games and tying the major league record for most wins in a season.
They haven’t been back to the postseason since.
This isn’t a new revelation, of course. At 20 years now, Seattle owns MLB’s longest current playoff drought, but it’s not just the longest in baseball. The NBA’s longest active playoff drought belongs to the Kings, who last made the postseason in 2006. In the NFL, the Jets own that dubious distinction; they haven’t made the second season since 2010. In the NHL, the Sabres haven’t made an appearance in the chase for the Stanley Cup since the 2010-11 season.
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It’s not exactly a point of pride in Seattle, but it’s not like the M’s have been consistently awful since 2001. They’ve won at least 88 games five times in that stretch — including two seasons of 93 wins — a total that’s often good enough to get in, but Seattle’s timing has been terrible.
Sometimes in baseball, you need to catch a break — the Braves won 88 games and the 2021 World Series — and that just has not happened the past few decades for Seattle.
So when I had a chance to talk with a Mariners’ icon — THE Mariners’ icon — I asked him what he thought about this Mariners team’s chances of breaking the drought.
And here’s what Ken Griffey Jr. said: “We’ve got a good young team. They’ve just got to understand that it’s a marathon, not a sprint. That was one of the things the veterans taught me, ‘Hey, rook. It’s a long year. If you want to run 40-yard dashes, that’s cool, but I’m going to go ahead and run these two miles to get ready for this marathon.’”
Through 10 games, the Mariners are 5-5. Not great, but not a disaster. The White Sox, at 6-3, have the AL’s best mark. In the AL West, the Astros have the best record at 6-4.
Even though the playoffs have been expanded by one team per league for the 2022 season and beyond, finding a spot in the top six of the very tough American League will not be easy. Last year, seven AL teams won at least 90 games — the Mariners (90 wins) and Blue Jays (91 wins) missed the postseason — and all seven of those teams have rosters capable of winning at least 90 again in 2022.
That absolutely includes Seattle. They added 2021 Cy Young winner Robbie Ray to a rotation that includes reliable starters Chris Flexen and Marco Gonzales plus youngsters Logan Gilbert — who has a 0.90 ERA in his first two starts — and Matt Brash.
“I think they’re going to be fine,” Griffey said. “Like every other year, you’ve got to be consistent and stay healthy. Most of the teams that win it are the healthiest. And usually it’s the team that’s hot at the end of the year. If you can hang in there … once you’re in there, it’s only a 10-team race. Once you’re in there, you’re fine. But you’ve got to stay healthy and consistent.”
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And there’s another reason Griffey likes what the Mariners could be, not just in 2022 but for the next several years: Julio Rodriguez.
The uber-talented rookie was ranked as a top-three prospect by just about every publication that ranks prospects, and for good reason. He played 74 games in the minors in 2021 — 28 in High-A and 46 in Double-A — and produced a .347/.441/.560 slash line, good for a 1.001 OPS, to go with 13 homers, 47 RBIs and 21 stolen bases.
“I just start laughing, because he’s such a great kid. He’s so fun to watch,” Griffey said. “What he does is he brings back that youthfulness that we need in this sport. And it doesn’t matter what color you are, when you show that type of excitement and have fun, that’s important. It’s going to carry over, not only with his teammates but to other teams, and it’s also going to carry over to the kids outside that locker room that watch him, who want to star wearing No. 44.”
Griffey would know a thing or two about kids wanting to be like a ballplayer, eh?
It’s been a bumpy start to his rookie season. Through Rodriguez’s first nine games, he’s batting .125 with 16 strikeouts, but he does have a pair of stolen bases and picked up his first big league RBI on Sunday. Also, when he does make contact, it’s typically smoked. He’s in the 90th percentile among MLB hitters in the StatCast HardHit% category. In the Sunday game against Houston, Rodriguez made contact three times with exit velocities in triple digits: 111.5, 110.3 and 105.0.
Rodriguez has done his best to embrace expectations, on and off the field. While I was in Phoenix this spring, Rodriguez took advantage of a night game to meet with Mariners’ fans around the spring training complex in the morning, so of course I had to ask him about it.
Just more proof that, as Griffey said, “He’s that kid that you want to go see.”