The problems with the 2026 Seattle Mariners have been plentiful. At 74-84 with four games to play, the Mariners are one of the most disappointing teams in baseball. Though they are not mathematically eliminated from the playoff conversation, they could be as early as Thursday.

Among the biggest frustrations for the M's have been the regression of Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodriguez both. The former has picked it up over the final 50 games of the season or so, but Rodriguez has never really gotten going outside of a very solid May.

Let's take a look at Rodriguez a little closer here, because as the season draws to a close, there is something interesting going on.

Rodriguez is hitting .249 this season with 21 homers, 68 RBIs and 22 stolen bases. His OPS+ is 105, suggesting that he's been only a slightly above average offensive player this year.

Last season, he hit .267 with 32 homers, 95 RBIs and 30 stolen bases. He finished in the top six of MVP voting. He had a 128 OPS+. His batting average has dropped every year of his career. His OPS has dipped nearly every year of his career as well.

As for more some more underlying metrics that are important:

In 2026, Rodriguez is in the ninth percentile of chase rate, chasing 38.4 percent of pitches. He's in the 46th percentile of strikeout rate at 22 percent and in the 22nd percentile of walk rate at 7.3 percent.

In 2025, when he had a very good year, he chased 35.9 percent of the time. He struck out 21.4 percent of the time, and he walked 6.2 percent of the time.

So, the strikeout rate has stayed nearly the same, his walk rate has actually gotten a little better and his chase rate has gotten a little worse.

I don't have any analytical data to tell you exactly when this started, but it's clear that Rodriguez is making an approach change over the final few weeks of the season.

He's starting to swing less overall. He's taking more pitches. It seems to be a concerted effort on his part.

Well, we've asked Rodriguez to chase less. The way to do that is by swinging less. Taking more pitches will allow Rodriguez to see more pitches, which gives him a chance to eventually get a pitch exactly where he wants it within the strike zone, and to get more mistake pitches that he can do damage to. Swinging early in the count - out of the zone - is a benefit to the pitcher.

With the reward, comes some risk. If you're taking more pitches, you are going to take more strikes. If you take more strikes, you have a chance to fall into more 0-1 and 0-2 pitchers counts, which means you might be more prone to the strikeout. However, you also have a chance to get ahead more often, which can lead to more pitches that you can do damage to, or can lead to a walk. There's nothing wrong with that.

We spoke with ESPN's Paul Hembekides on the 'Refuse to Lose Territory' podcast in mid- August and he mentioned simply "swinging less" as a remedy for Rodriguez. However, with that, you also have to be prepared to hit that one pitch you're looking for when you get it.

Take two at-bats from Wednesday night's 6-5 win against the Houston Astros as an example.

In the bottom of the third inning, Rodriguez clearly went up looking for something hard - and in - and he jumped on it, wrapping it for an RBI double. It wasn't a strike, but Rodriguez had a plan and was prepared to execute it.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, Rodriguez took two fastballs in a row to start the count, putting him at 0-2. He eventually did single on pitch No. 7, but that's not the point. If you're going to swing with a more calculated plan, you have to be ready to do damage when the pitcher gives you a first pitch fastball in the zone. Those two pitches that Rodriguez passed on are two pitches he could have handled better than the pitch he singled on.

It should be noted that Rodriguez had three hits, two RBIs and a walk on Wednesday.

We've asked Rodriguez to become a more disciplined hitter, so we'll see if this approach is something that sticks heading into 2027.

For now, the Mariners will play the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday night for the start of the final series of the season.