MLB Twitter on Julio Rodriguez' AL Rookie of the Year win: "He absolutely deserved that", "The prince that was promised"

Seattle Mariners young star Julio Rodriguez got the nod for the 2022 Jackie Robinson American League Rookie of the Year award. The superstar edged out fellow outfielder and Cleveland's Stevan Kwan and Baltimore backstop Adley Rutschman.

Rodriguez has displayed excellence and consistency in 132 regular-season games for Seattle. He was also instrumental in snapping the longest playoff drought in US sports history after the Mariners made the postseason after 21 years.

Needless to say, Seattle Mariners fans were elated upon hearing the news that their young star claimed what could be the first of many accolades in the years to come.

With his AL ROTY win, Julio Rodriguez became the second Seattle Mariners player in three years to win the award after Kyle Lewis in 2020. He also became just the fifth greenhorn in the organization's history to win the Rookie of the Year award after Alvin Davis, Kazuhiro Sasaki, the legendary Ichiro Suzuki, and the aforementioned Lewis.

Julio Rodriguez 2022 season stats

Owning a slash line of .284/.345/.509 with an OPS of .854, Julio Rodriguez finished the season with 28 home runs, 75 RBIs and 25 stolen bases. His 25/25 home run/stolen base record was the fastest in MLB history in just 125 games.

Rodriguez also leads all rookies in wins above replacement, home runs, slugging, on-base plus slugging percentage, total bases, and wRC+ or the weighted runs created plus. If those statistics weren't impressive enough, the 21-year-old finished second in runs batted in, runs scored, and total bases amongst all first-year players around the league.

The Dominican star started hot off the gate, earning Rookie of the Month for the months of May and June and became the sole rookie in this year's MLB All-Star game in Los Angeles.

If the Mariners can build a successful team with Julio Rodriguez as their centerpiece, they might just fancy themselves a deep postseason run come 2023.

About the author

Daniel Santiago is a journalist who has been reporting on baseball at Sportskeeda since 2022. He was drawn towards the sport after the underlying statistics and the analysis surrounding it grabbed his attention.

Daniel particularly enjoys furnishing reports about historic events in baseball and analyzing the game through a statistic-based outlook, based on Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference. This is in line with how he enjoyed watching baseball as a pastime. As a writer, he is very particular about cross-checking from reputable sources and doing his due diligence.

He became a lifelong Hideki Matsui fan after his exploits in the 2009 World Series for the New York Yankees. Among the current generation, Daniel's favorites include Shohei Ohtani and Jung Hoo Lee. Daniel is a huge follower of Asian baseball and both Ohtani and Lee have been in the top echelon of their respective leagues during their time with the NPB and KBO.

His favorite moment as a baseball fan was the final at-bat of the 2023 World Baseball Classic between Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout. He believes there aren't many words to fittingly describe the intensity of the moment.

As an avid sports fan, Daniel watches other sports and Esports when not writing about baseball.

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