This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider.
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For heavens’ sake, please tell us what the hell is wrong with Julio Rodriguez?
-- Ed Q.
I get the frustration, but this is actually one of the best starts of Rodriguez’s career. A 110 OPS+ is way ahead of where he was in 2022 and 2024 at this point, and not far from where he was in 2023. The process stats are within his normal range, his average exit velocity and max EV are as well. He’s getting murdered on balls in play, a .246 BABIP that’s 90 points off his career level. Per Statcast he’s missing 40 points of BA and 65 points of SLG. so this really looks like a guy hitting into bad luck.
There’s a disconnect between his swing-and-miss rate, which is one of the worst in the game, and his strikeout rate, which has actually gone down slightly. He’s swinging through a lot of strikes, more than ever before. I’m loath to dig too deep into this on April 24, to be honest — it’s just something to keep an eye on.
--J.
