Seattle Mariners prospect Julio Rodriguez leads qualifiers in hits

WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA – JUNE 4: Julio Rodriguez # 18 of the Dominican Republic (Seattle Mariners) hits an RBI single. (Photo by Mark Brown / Getty Images)

Potential Seattle Mariners Julio Rodriguez will represent the Dominican Republic in the Baseball Americas Qualifier, which determines who will compete in the Summer Olympics. Julio Rodriguez has some well-known teammates like Jose Bautista, Emilio Bonifacio and Melky Cabrera, but the young 20-year-old steals the show.

It probably shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that Julio plays well, but I’m not sure if people expected him to play that well. Let’s dive in.

Seattle Mariners Prospectus Julio Rodriguez leads the Baseball Americas Qualifier in hits and runs

In the Americas Qualifier, the USA, Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Canada compete against each other. The USA currently lead the group with two wins and the DR is just behind with a 2-1 record.

Among all these players vying to compete in the Olympics, the shiny Seattle Mariners contender leads the way in hits and runs. In 24 at-bats, JROD has 11 hits, two of which were for home runs.

Rodriguez has scored seven times, ridden in seven runs and has a .458 / .480 / .708 slash line. Another promising thing is that Rodriguez has only struck five times in his 24 strokes.

I think it’s pretty obvious that the level of play in the Baseball Americas Qualifier isn’t very high, but it is a talented group of baseball players who represent their respective countries. So Julio’s success shouldn’t be seen as a reason to get him into the big leagues once he’s done in Florida, but it shouldn’t be overlooked either.

Julio Rodriguez isn’t the only player to represent the Seattle Mariners on the Dominican Republic team

Julio isn’t the only player to represent the Seattle Mariners on the DR team. Luis Liberato, an outfielder in the Mariners organization, also plays for the Dominican Republic and he has played great too.

Liberato owns a .444 / .545 / .944 slash line and has hit three home runs, which is the second most on the team. Liberato played in Tacoma before flying to Florida, hitting .244 with a .763 OPS.