There is no better time to catch up with a hitting coach than during the offseason, as once spring training begins there is always work to be done, most often out of sight in the batting cages.

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This time last year, Seattle Mariners assistant hitting coach Bobby Magallanes was busy with homework and reaching out to players as he and hitting coach Kevin Seitzer prepared for their first season with the Mariners after leaving the Atlanta Braves. This year there was time for a Hot Stove visit, providing a chance to look back.

“That was one of the most exciting postseasons I have been blessed to be a part of,” Magallanes said. “I wish the finish had been better, it was a punch to the gut, no doubt it hurt. It hurt a lot. The excitement that is in the guys I have been talking to is we can’t wait to come back. We’ve got some unfinished work to take care of.”

In Year 2, Magallanes will work with a group that is much more familiar. Building trust with the hitters was an essential priority No. 1 last year for Magallanes and Seitzer, who along with senior director of hitting strategy Edgar Martinez formed the Mariners’ hitting group. It was a group that appeared to work well together and have impact, something Julio Rodríguez pointed out during the postseason.

“I feel like working with all of them, they are all really good at something different,” Rodríguez said. “Bobby is really good at the swing side of things, Seitz and Edgar are really good at the approach and experience. That dynamic they have, it really works for us. I feel like we all have learned how to trust them and what they do. I feel like that’s something really good when you have hitting coaches like that because they put a lot of effort to help us out, to watch our swings, to dive into our mentality as hitters. And that’s something I think is really good for our team, the whole dynamic they have got.”

Rodríguez had perhaps the most dramatic, if not familiar, in-season turnaround for the Mariners last season, flipping a slow start that resulted in a first half slash line of .252/.313/.417 for a .731 OPS to a blistering second half, slashing .290/.341/.560 for a .900 OPS that helped him finish sixth in American League MVP voting. This season, all eyes are on Rodríguez, with the industry and fans once again hungry to learn the answer to what happens if there is a stronger start to the season for Rodríguez, who has a career .260/.319/.418 slash and .737 OPS in the first half as opposed to a .297/351/.552 slash and .903 OPS in the second half.

From what he saw last season, Magallanes believes Rodríguez is in a good place to overcome what has been a first half hurdle in his first four seasons in the big leagues.

“What I saw from him, he gets invited to the All-Star Game and he comes up and tells us he doesn’t want to go,” Magallanes said. “We were like, well, Julio, I mean, that’s a great honor. And he said no. He goes, I don’t deserve it. I need to go home and take these four days to get my swing back. And that’s what he did. He focused on what he needed to work on.”

It was an eye-opening decision that painted the picture of where Rodríguez’s mentality and focus were at that point of the season. He had clearly embraced every aspect of the All-Star experience in the past, and it was certainly curious when the Mariners’ social media post of manager Dan Wilson’s announcement of the team’s All-Stars showed Julio’s reaction being chosen uncharacteristically muted. Days later, he would announce his decision to sit this one out in an Instagram post.

“It’s a pride thing for him,” Magallanes said. “He’s got pride in being a great player – not a good one, but a great player and a great hitter. And I mean, gosh, when a guy like that says I don’t want to go to the All-Star Game because… I don’t deserve it, I need to work on my hitting, I want to get better, I want to get a good second half – and he did it.”

Magallanes was impressed with the work Rodríguez put in, and how he was able to partner with the hitting group to where they were able to get to a place where they could find answers when there were problems.

“OK, this is what we feel you need to do, and then, OK, what do you feel?” Magallanes recalled of the work. “What does he do when he’s going well? What do you do when you’re going bad? And we combine it together to what we’re seeing, and it took off. He took off.”

The work included Rodríguez working off a high tee to help remedy his tendency to get too steep with his swing, which resulted in hitting too many balls into the ground. According to Magallanes, Rodríguez also had a breakthrough on avoiding being a victim of another tendency: chasing a ball down and out of the strike zone.

“I remember one day in the cage we had a conversation where I said, OK, Julio, I want you to do something. I don’t want you taking the bat to the baseball. Don’t take the barrel to the baseball because you’re going to chase,’” Magallanes said. “And he kind of looked at me like, what do you mean don’t take the bat to the baseball? Isn’t that what we want to do? But I said no, because when you’re thinking of taking it from back here to the ball, we’re going to chase. We can’t stop anymore. We’re going to the ball and that’s when we chase.

“I told him, I want you to think of coming right to the middle, right to your hip. Your first move, regardless of where the pitch is, that location. Not from back here. And it clicked. It was like, oh my gosh, I get it. And it clicked and he ran with it. And what a second half.”

The question now, once again, is will that second half be a springboard for a better first half for Rodríguez? From a work standpoint, what perhaps was different in ’25 was that there appeared to be less of a struggle in finding the answers than in the previous year. From a mental standpoint, could we look back and see turning down the All-Star Game as a turning point in Rodríguez going from very good to great? Time will tell, but count Magallanes as one who sees an MVP award at some point in Rodríguez’s future.

The Hot Stove airs from 7-9 p.m. each Tuesday night on Seattle Sports leading up to Mariners spring training.

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