Mariners top prospect Jarred Kelenic belts 2 intrasquad homers
There’s nothing that beats hearing the loud crack of the bat on a long home run, Seattle Mariners top prospect Jarred Kelenic says.
Except maybe hearing it twice.
Kelenic, the coveted former first-round pick by the Mets, who powered his way through the Mariners’ minor league system last summer, announced his presence at T-Mobile Park on Monday with two booming homers during an intrasquad game.
Both made that loud crack, sailed into the empty seats beyond the right field fence, and perhaps even foreshadowed what is to come.
Kelenic doesn’t turn 21 years old until later this week. He has never played a game above Double-A, and wasn’t projected to make Seattle’s Opening Day roster this spring with the club continuing to focus on his development instead of rushing him to the big leagues.
But, even before making his much-anticipated Major League Baseball debut, Kelenic continues to rise as a central figure of this Mariners rebuild, and showcase what baseball in Seattle could look like in the summers ahead. He’s ready for that future to arrive as soon as possible.
“My expectations are so much higher than everyone else’s,” Kelenic said on a video call with reporters after Monday’s game. “That’s really got me here. It’s got me to where I am and it continues to push me day in and day out to be the best.
“I think if you don’t have that mentality, I think things can slip away sometimes. Your work ethic is so important in this game. When you have goals and aspirations to reach — whether it’s the Hall of Fame or winning World Series’ — I think you need to have goals that are above and beyond, because then it gives you something to work for day in and day out, and it makes you dig that much deeper.”
Kelenic was still a teenager when the Mariners cleared out their roster during the winter of 2018, and acquired him, along with up-and-coming pitching prospects Justin Dunn and Gerson Bautista, in the trade that sent Robinson Cano and Edwin Diaz to New York.
The No. 6 overall pick by the Mets earlier that year, he rapidly rose to the top of Seattle’s prospect list and raked his way through three rungs of the minor league system in 2019, wrapping up the year in Double-A Arkansas.
He was invited to big league camp this spring, showed confidence against major league pitchers and even belted his first Cactus League home run at the Mariners’ stadium in Peoria a few days before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down baseball.
“He wasn’t intimidated by the situation at all, and really felt like he shouldn’t be making outs even though he was facing guys with big league experience,” Mariners hitting coach Tim Laker said back in April.
“He felt like he was better than the competition. ... He really believes that. That kind of confidence is, I think, rare. … He has a lot of natural ability. For a kid that age, it’s special. It’s different.”
Part of what has always kept Kelenic ahead of the curve during his baseball career — both physically and mentally — is how committed he’s been to putting the work in.
When the pandemic shut baseball down, he returned home to Wisconsin and just kept training at the facilities he had access to. There wasn’t much to do during that period other than practice, he said, so he woke up each morning, went to the gym and worked out “like crazy,” he said.
He said he arrived at summer camp feeling even stronger than he did coming into spring training in February, and spent the first several days of camp arriving for the afternoon workout session early to get his running in on the outfield grass.
“I’ve always kept in the back of my mind that where I want to get to, especially in this game, is something that means a lot to me, and it’s more important than anything else,” he said. “I’ve always stayed so laser focused on what I want to get to.
“The distractions of going to parties or going and hanging out with friends — that’s not a bad thing — but I would much rather be in the cage working on my swing.”
Mariners manager Scott Servais noted last week how Kelenic has approached his at-bats during camp without fear.
“He looks forward to the challenge, and that’s part of our job to keep challenging him and keep pushing him,” Servais said. “He has a very high motor, he keeps it revved up all the time.
“Every time he’s on the field, he wants to show people how good he is and how good he can be.”
Servais has encouraged his players to keep up the intensity and remain competitive with each other in camp, and pitchers have expressed interest in facing Kelenic.
Before launching the two homers Monday, Kelenic went head-to-head with Seattle starter Taijuan Walker, who has been one of the leaders of the playful chirping happening in the clubhouse.
Walker got the best of the exchange, getting Kelenic to fly out to left, but thought he got lucky after leaving the pitch up.
“He’s not going to miss that very often, so I think I got away with one on him,” Walker said afterward.
Kelenic responded later in the game with the dingers against Nestor Cortes Jr. and Carl Edwards Jr.
“I’m comfortable at the plate right now,” he said. “ … It’s feeling really, really good. I feel like I’m on everything.”
Seattle general manager Jerry Dipoto commented last week about how tough it has been not to stick Kelenic straight in the big leagues, given how well he’s performed in recent months.
“He’s an exceptionally gifted player,” Dipoto said. “He’s so fun to watch. So advanced — not for his age, but just advanced. He can hit. He’s got a great idea about how he is, how to manage an at-bat. He does so many things well — from defense to throwing, throwing accuracy, base running.
“He’s just a good baseball player, and when you see him in this environment, he fits. You see him out there and it looks like he belongs.”
That’s when Dipoto has to remind himself Kelenic is still young. Though Kelenic ended up hitting .253/.315/.542 with four doubles, a triple, six homers, 17 RBI and three stolen bases in 21 games after his promotion to Arkansas late last summer, it’s still a small sample size.
“You have to remind yourself he’s still 20 years old, and he has yet to pile up 100 plate appearances above A-ball,” Dipoto said. “We do want to be aware of what is best for his development, and not hold him back artificially, but as aggressive as I want to be — and understand that we are standing in the place where Ken Griffey Jr. did his business for so many years — that’s an exceptional track.”
Maybe it’s not prudent to push Kelenic too far, too fast, but with how he continues to produce — he bounced another homer off the windows of the Hit It Here Cafe in a live batting practice session last week — Dipoto’s decision must be getting tougher.
“We’re just going to let the days tell us what the right thing is to do,” Dipoto said last week.
The plan has been for Kelenic to join most of the other up-and-coming prospects on the taxi squad at Cheney Stadium in Tacoma when Seattle trims its roster down to 30 players, but his showing in camp is certainly giving the Mariners a lot to consider.
Asked if he could continue to be patient if the Mariners do send him to Tacoma at the end of camp, Kelenic paused.
“You know,” he said, “I’m just taking it one day at a time.”
This story was originally published July 13, 2020 at 8:47 PM.
