Julio Rodríguez has a new favorite phrase in English, one he said a couple of times at a pregame media availability on Friday: the devil’s in the details. Interestingly, it’s a newer phrase, not appearing in Bartlett’s until the latter half of the 21st century, likely as a permutation on a saying most notably linked to the fussy, fastidious German architect Mies van der Rohe that “God is in the details.”
Today, “the devil’s in the details” is a cautionary phrase, warning against how seemingly insignificant
details can mushroom in importance and ruin an enterprise. It’s not an inapt way to look at the 2026 Seattle Mariners season.
While there were disappointments up and down the roster – Julio’s loss of roughly half the wins he accrued last year wasn’t even the biggest delta change on the roster, a dubious distinction belonging to Cal Raleigh – it was still a huge step back for Seattle’s 25-year-old centerfielder, who posted his worst season by wRC+ and lowest power numbers since 2024, when he lost over two weeks to an ankle sprain.
This year it was a concussion that zapped Julio’s value, holding him back from his typical late-season push. Julio has finished the second half strong his entire career:
Obviously, the pre- and post- concussion numbers are essentially baked into that data, since the injury occurred on July 3, but just to break them out specifically:
Julio pre-concussion: .259 average, .424 slugging, 21% K, 117 wRC+
Julio post-concussion: .239 average, .383 slugging, 24% K, 93 wRC+
Julio declined to divulge all the details of how the concussion affected him, but said it was a “new and different” experience that he had to adjust to on the fly.
“It’s something that —when you play a game where you have to react, be sharp, and that has to do a lot with balance and your eyes and all that, it’s definitely different.”
“Being through that process has shown me how much I actually use my brain to hit, and how much my body actually goes through while I’m playing baseball. It made me appreciate the things I do a little bit more, grateful for the talent and all the things I get to do on the baseball field. Because what we do is not normal, and it’s not normal for the human body to be doing it at this level. And I’m just grateful that I got back on the field, and that I got to play again.”
What professional athletes do is not normal, but Julio is adamant this won’t be his new normal. While he’s pleased with his preparation and ability to stay healthy overall – the concussion notwithstanding, and certainly not his fault – he’s not happy with the results, saying his big takeaway from this season is learning to pay attention to details.
“There’s a lot of little things I could have done better, personally…Results-wise, I feel like I could have done more. I could have done more, I could have impacted the team a little bit more.”
“I know we cannot control results. This is a game of process and all that, but I believe in my talent. I believe in the the way that I play the game, and I just think I have more in the tank. I feel I have more, and that’s something that I’m gonna try to bring more of next year.”
One thing that has been a constant for Rodríguez even when his bat is slower to heat up is his defense. Once tagged as a big-bodied corner outfielder/DH type, Julio dedicated himself to improving his speed and defense. While his stolen base numbers did decline slightly this season – also a career-worst but still over 20, giving him his fifth consecutive 20-20 season and making him the first player in MLB history to start his career with five consecutive 20-20 seasons – his defense, for the first time, looked porous. In each of his four previous seasons, Rodríguez ranked in the top 10% or better for center field defense by Statcast’s Fielding Run Value; this year, he’s fallen below the 40th percentile. The eye test has agreed with his poor defensive numbers: there have been multiple instances this season where Rodríguez’s play in center hasn’t looked anything like his past self. He’s been tentative on certain fly balls, overly aggressive on others, and other times has just flat out lost the ball while trying to track it, plays he would have made easily in other years.
Reading over his comments about the concussion, specifically the ones about reaction time and using your eyes, points toward the fact that even when returned from the concussion IL, his ability to process and track balls and MLB speeds was negatively impacted. But Rodríguez also says he got away from his defensive approach – maybe leading to him being caught in-between on some of those fly balls – and needs to refocus this off-season on what he knows works for him.
“Just getting back to the basics,” he said when asked about how he – and the team as a whole – can improve defensively. “I feel like that’s what it is for me. I tried some things, didn’t work out, and then I got back to my basics, the things I do really well on defense, and feel like that helped me to even it out a little bit.”
“Team-wise, we need to continue to bring the focus in, continue to take care of the little things. We all know that we’re better than this. We all know it, and it didn’t show. Now, it’s about how we respond. Progress isn’t linear, and I do believe you have to struggle in order to realize who you are, and then what do you do about that?”
Those devilish details again. In addition to the defense, Rodríguez also noted what went wrong for him offensively, and how he tried to turn his season around.
“I wish I had the answer right right then and there. But I feel like with time, you know, it kind of showed me. I started being a little bit more late. I started chasing a little bit around the zone. Little things here and there. I feel like that’s what got me away [from my approach].”
“But like I said, we had a lot of lessons [as a team], and I’m looking forward to putting things in motion. The things I learned this year to try to be better for next year.”
Like his teammates, Julio looks forward to starting fresh next year and putting this miserable season behind them. One of the biggest lessons he and his teammates learned? Past success doesn’t guarantee future results. Maybe the pre-season noise about how winnable the AL West was caused the team as a whole to look too far in advance, take things for granted.
“At the end of the day, you can be as good as you were like last year, but each year is a new year. I have learned this,” said Rodríguez. “This this is my fifth season. I have learned that it doesn’t matter what you did the year before, the game is gonna touch you differently. It doesn’t matter how you prepare; the game is always gonna have a new a new question for you.”
“You know, when you focus so far ahead, you can miss some little details. There’s a saying that the devil’s in the details, and I think that’s true. It’s something that I had to learn personally for myself too, and we all should continue to focus on and get better.“
Even with the disappointing season, Rodríguez says he believes in the team and their talent level. The job now is to pick themselves up and understand why this happened and how to stop it from happening again.
“When you get hit in the mouth, you either cover up or you do something about it. That’s what happened to us. We got hit in the mouth. So how do we respond to that? And I do believe we have the pieces. I do believe we’re gonna be doing the right things to to ascend from this. But it’s all about that response.”
“Nobody can avoid getting hit, in life or in baseball. It doesn’t matter where it’s at. But it’s how you take that hit and continue to move forward. That’s what sets people apart.”
As for how this can this team move forward and fix its lackluster execution, Julio has his new mantra in mind.
“The devil’s in the details,” he repeated, taking care to emphasize each word.
“Take care of the details, and I feel like everything is going to be fixed. Stop waiting for things to happen. Actually do the things I live for that creates those those opportunities. Take care of the little details, and you’re gonna be fine.”
The devil’s in the details. Maybe, as Van der Rohe was fond of saying, God is, too.
