Death, taxes and Julio Rodriguez going off in the second half. Back from the IL following a short stint in recovery for a concussion, Rodriguez rejoins the Mariners lineup having a solid but unspectacular season, but as we’ve seen with many of his years before, the best is still to come. He’s significantly underperformed his peripherals across the board, but I’m just as intrigued by the obvious talent that exists with Rodriguez, and his track record of breaking out in the second half of seasons.

It’s impossible to know how much of this is coincidence versus something that tangibly changes to produce these results, but the fact of the matter is that Rodriguez holds a nearly .900 OPS in his career after the All-Star break, and has performed at a superstar offensive level for months at a time in the past. When he’s on, his power and speed combination is as good as it gets, and it’s not horrible now; he’s still on a 20/20 pace.

Because of the name value associated with Rodriguez, it might be tougher to trade for him than most, but the reality is that his bat hasn’t been as premium as his reputation for most of his MLB career. With the upside that he can produce in the second half, I would suspect that most fantasy managers would be more open to dealing him, and I think the dynasty price tags may also be dropping with yet another season of offensive inconsistency.

It’s not worth giving up established major league stars to get Rodriguez, but he stands as a terrific target to acquire either for an aging star, for a couple of solid prospects in dynasty. In re draft, there are plenty of ~.780 OPS OF you could use to acquire Rodriguez; someone like Brandon Marsh would be a perfect piece of trade bait.

Luis Robert Jr.