It all came so naturally to them, the connection from one Mariners star to another.
Julio Rodriguez and Ichiro hit it off immediately when Rodriguez, then 19, made his first appearance in the Mariners’ big-league spring camp four years ago.
They gravitate toward one another still, playing catch or hitting in batting cages next to each other. Even at 50, Ichiro is ever-present around the club, and it’s a friendship Rodriguez cherishes.
“That’s just something that no one can replicate. It’s Ichiro. That’s the one and only,” the Mariners center fielder, now 23, said Thursday afternoon.
Julio and Ichiro were, then, a natural choice to turn to when the Mariners’ marketing team decided to reintroduce the team commercials, a popular annual tradition for decades.
The commercials took a hiatus after 2019, in part because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and in part because of the retirement of their lead collaborator at the ad agency Copacino + Fujikado.
The club’s marketing team committed to bringing them back this year, brainstorming initial concepts in November and then pitching the ideas to players early in spring training.
The Mariners unveiled the three new commercials — they’re calling them digital shorts — earlier this week on their website and social media accounts. In addition to social media, the team hopes to have them air on ROOT Sports this season.
One spot featured Cal Raleigh and the “Big Dumper Trucking.” Luis Castillo starred in another as “The Rock,” and Julio and Ichiro teamed up in the third one titled “No Fly Zone,” a play on the hand signal the star center fielder makes whenever he hauls in a highlight catch.
The Mariners, for the first time, produced the commercials in-house, and all three spots have received overwhelmingly positive reviews online.
“They’ve always been such a big thing with Mariners fans, and we wanted to tap into that early in the offseason,” said Tim Walsh, the Mariners director of digital marketing.
Walsh is entering his fifth season with the Mariners; before that, he worked in a similar role with the New York Mets.
“We definitely drew off inspiration from the old commercials. Even when I was with the Mets, we would always look to the Mariners as, OK, that’s the industry standard that you want to get to,” he said.
Julio is no stranger to commercials; he starred last year in national ad campaigns for T-Mobile and Topps baseball cards, among others. He is, indeed, a natural in front of any camera. But for this one, he said he could not stop giggling while shooting the skit inside the Mariners’ spring-training clubhouse in Arizona.
Ichiro, as you’d expect, fully committed to his part as the master “fly” catcher.
“He took me off guard with how serious he was. He was into it,” Julio said.
It was Ichiro’s suggestion, as part of the big reveal in the skit, that he catch the house fly with two fingers — between his pointer finger and thumb — instead of with a clenched fist. The Mariners’ hit king never misses, still.
“Once we got Ichiro, that’s what brought that one to the next level. He was all in,” Walsh said. “The two of them together, the relationship they have, it’s just incredible.”
Ichiro has never been one to volunteer advice to other players, but he is happy to share if someone is seeking it. And in Julio, he has an eager student.
“He just has so much to offer to me,” Julio said. “I feel like, OK, I can be talented, I can work hard and all that, but there are just so many things he learned throughout his career that I can learn at the beginning of mine. It’s pretty cool — it’s cool to have him around.”
On opening day, Ichiro made a surprise appearance during pregame ceremonies Thursday night to present Julio with his 2023 Silver Slugger award. They stood together and posed for pictures behind home plate.
Early in the spring, Julio was dealing with a minor ailment in his left wrist, delaying his start to Cactus League games. But he said Thursday afternoon he was feeling good, and then he doubled in his first plate appearance of the season.
“You talk about our guys taking a step forward, and he’s our best player,” manager Scott Servais said pregame. “And if he can do a better job of passing the baton — not feeling the weight of the world or [that] it’s on him every time to come through with the big hit. And he shouldn’t feel that with the veteran guys we have behind him.
“It doesn’t have to be a one-man show.”
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