Julio Rodríguez, Ryan Mountcastle and other hitters surging due to better batted-ball quality - The Athletic

At the beginning, I was like wow, I’m in the big leagues now — but now I’m doing what I want to do,” Rodríguez said recently. “I feel confident and take my best swing now, instead of being protective at the plate.”

The electric Mariners center fielder added a few other reasons for his power surge — he said he started to understand what pitchers were trying to do to him, and found a way to do what he wanted to do and “stick to his strengths more” — but generally it’s that process of getting used to the big leagues that helped Rodriguez hit seven homers in June, a top-25 number for the month, after hitting zero in April.

“I need to calm down and become who I am,” he said with a smile.