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The Seattle Mariners will be dealing with the aftermath of ousted president Kevin Mather’s comments to a local Rotary club for a while, and that includes desperately trying to ring one of Mather’s loudest bells.
One of Mather’s most important comments was about prospect Jarred Kelenic’s uptime, one of the most sought-after prospects in all of baseball. While speaking with the Rotary Bellevue Breakfast Club, Mather admitted that the team offered Kelenic a long-term contract extension that would have delayed the player’s entry into free agency by three years. The offer was reportedly rejected.
Mather also revealed that Kelenic will be promoted to the majors and become the team’s starting left-back in April, just enough time to limit Kelenic’s service time and delay his free agency by a year. Essentially, the Mariners would have seven years of team control over Kelenic instead of six.
Taken together, the implications are obvious. The Mariners believe Kelenic is already good enough to start playing in the majors, but are willing to give up a month of him as a rookie in exchange for a year of him as a seventh-year player. Mather bluntly admitted that his team did this:
“If our major league team had had a COVID outbreak, or injuries, and we had to call people from the taxi team, we were a bit short of players. Because there was no way you were going to see these young players at T -Parc mobile [in 2020]. We weren’t going to put them on the 40-player list, we weren’t going to start the service clock. “
And now the Mariners have started to claim that Mather’s comments weren’t accurate, as it remains in their best interests, much to the dismay of the player himself.
GM Mariners and top prospect disagree
The second act of the Mariners’ Kelenic drama began when GM Jerry Dipoto was doing damage control after Mather resigned.
Calling Mather’s comments a “one-person interpretation,” Dipoto did his best to apologize to the overwhelming number of players Mather had offended and steer the team away from the man she employed. more, according to USA Today.
It meant trying to convince the public that when Mather said Kelenic was on track for a starting position in MLB, he was wrong. Dipoto reportedly insisted that promoting Kelenic would be a baseball decision based on the prospect’s development. Dipoto characterized Kelenic as a player with little experience above the Class A ball, who the Mariners were really doing a favor by keeping minors.
From USA Today:
“I don’t know how you interpret a manipulation of the serving time with a 21-year-old who played [21] games over A-ball, “says Dipoto,” and who has yet to make 800 home plate appearances as a professional player. It would be an unprecedented event that has not happened for three decades. While Jared is an extremely talented player, we want to make sure he ticks the development boxes as it is incumbent upon us, not just for the sake of the Mariners, but for the benefit of Jarred Kelenic. ”
It should be noted that Kelenic would have appeared in several games above Class A level last year had the coronavirus pandemic not swallowed up the entire minor league season. Instead, Kelenic spent 2020 playing at the Mariners’ alternate site, where his development received rave reviews.
It took Camp Kelenic less than a day to respond to Dipoto’s insistence that he is not ready for MLB. Kelenic and his agent told USA Today that Kelenic has been told on several occasions that he would have made his MLB debut last year had he signed the Mariners extension offer:
“It was communicated to Jarred that if he had signed this contract he would have made his debut last year,” said Brodie Scoffield, who represents Kelenic. “It was made clear to Jarred – yesterday and today – that his decision not to call him is based on duty time.
“There is no doubt that if he had signed this contract he would have been in the big leagues.”
Said Kelenic, who spent the last year in the Mariners’ alternate camp: “It hasn’t been communicated to me once. This has been told to me several times. It is the honest truth of God. He has aged. ”
Dipoto reportedly declined to comment on Kelenic’s claims.
So now we have a frame that says a player needs some extra seasoning, while that player claims he’s been told he’s ready for the big leagues as long as he’s willing to sacrifice a game. of its future earning potential. Of course, only one of those sides asks you to believe in a number of premises that some would say … fragile.
Here’s what Jerry Dipoto wants you to believe
Let’s just list what Dipoto seems to expect everyone to believe when he says Kelenic isn’t ready for MLB and the Mariners aren’t trying to squeeze another year out of their best prospect.
1. Kevin Mather is a liar
It will be a familiar refrain for the Mariners and all of MLB. Mather’s frankness can be taken as a confirmation of what the MLB Players Association has insisted for years, that clubs manipulate players’ duty time not to improve their rosters, but to maximize financial control over those rosters. players. The number of top prospects who will debut in late April over the years leaves no doubt that MLB does and has given rise to contentious grievances in the past.
After Mather’s comments were revealed, MLBPA issued statement claiming they represented an “unfiltered look” at how teams work, while former All-Star Josh Donaldson implicit they would help players immensely in future service grievances.
2. Jarred Kelenic and his agent are liars
If what Kelenic is saying is true, it’s pretty obvious the Mariners are playing the service time game with a player ready for MLB. Publicly undermining one of the most important players in your organization would be a bold move, but avoiding having to pay for it early can be worth it for small market browsers.
3. The Mariners didn’t develop Kelenic last year
It’s quite interesting that Dipoto tells the story of Kelenic’s minor leagues, but that doesn’t mean what he said is inaccurate. Kelenic has only 92 board appearances at Double-A level, and none at Triple-A level. He was decent in those 92 appearances on the board (.857 OPS), but it usually takes more seasoning for a player to make an MLB jump.
However, Dipoto’s comments conveniently ignore the face Kelenic received the seasoning last year, but not in the generally quantifiable way. Even ignoring the approvals Kelenic received for his game at the Mariners’ alternative site, characterizing him as a player whose development essentially came to a halt after 2019 would be either misleading or admitting a staggering failure on the part of the Mariners. Mariners.
4. All the top potential analysts are wrong
Let’s take a look at how all the top lead assessors characterize Kelenic’s ETA to majors.
Obviously, there is a difference between Opening Day 2021, late April 2021, and August 2021 when it comes to development, but anyone who’s been following Kelenic or telling the Boy Scouts about it thinks 2021 is his year, and remember Mather said Kelenic’s ETA was in April. 2021 at the earliest. Athletic’s Keith Law even noted that Kelenic would likely have debuted in 2020 with a full minor league season.
5. Juan Soto does not exist
It might just be a fender bender, but Dipoto is wrong when he says that an MLB promotion is unprecedented for a 21-year-old who has only played 21 games over A-ball and n ‘saw only 800 professional plaque appearances.
Washington Nationals star Juan Soto did almost exactly that in 2018. When the Nationals promoted him due to an injury glut, Soto had played eight games over the Class A ball and had seen 512 total appearances in minors. And he was 19.
What happened next is well known to baseball fans; Soto has found his way to stardom and is now probably baseball’s most feared hitter. But think how much the Nationals would have benefited if they had waited until April 2019 to promote him.
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