Mariners top prospect Jarred Kelenic already looks right at home in Tacoma
Mariners top prospect Jarred Kelenic hadn’t taken a single swing inside Cheney Stadium before this week.
But, he already looks right at home in Tacoma.
In his first intrasquad game at the ballpark Monday, Kelenic crushed two loud home runs beyond the right field fence, tripled in another at-bat, finished with four hits and made a few solid plays roaming center field.
Though the minor league season was canceled last month, and Kelenic is unlikely to get a promotion to Seattle in this peculiar, shortened big league season, he plans to continue to bring the same intensity each day he works out at the Mariners’ alternate training site this summer.
“It’s the same game,” Kelenic said on a video call with reporters postgame. “Granted, we don’t have a left fielder sometimes, but I never look at the left fielder anyway.
“I think that, for me, it’s just me and the pitcher. That’s who I’m competing against, and it’s the same mentality I’ve always had.”
That unwavering mentality — competitive regardless of circumstance — has brought the 21-year-old nothing but success in his first two professional seasons. He’s hit everywhere he’s been.
With the two long balls Monday morning at Cheney Stadium, Kelenic has now homered at the ballpark of every Mariners full season affiliate. He also launched his first homer at the Mariners’ spring training complex in Peoria this spring, and two at T-Mobile Park in summer camp intrasquad games.
The only stadium tied to Seattle above rookie ball he hasn’t belted a homer in is Everett — and only because he’s never played there. The No. 6 overall pick by the Mets in 2018, Kelenic tore up East Coast rookie leagues that summer before the blockbuster trade that brought him to Seattle’s organization in the offseason.
In 751 plate appearances through two seasons of professional baseball with New York’s and Seattle’s organizations, Kelenic has slashed at .290/.366/.516 with 41 doubles, 11 triples, 29 homers, 110 RBI and 35 stolen bases.
What Kelenic put on display during his Cheney Stadium debut was more of the same.
“He does what he’s always done, which is go in and give you great at-bats,” Mariners director of player development Andy McKay said. “He really knows how to control the strike zone and he impacts the baseball.
“He’s got a competitive nature about him that, whether it’s in T-Mobile (Park) or coming down here for the first time in an environment like this, it doesn’t really matter, he’s competing against the pitcher and he’s taking every at-bat like it’s the last one he’ll ever have. It was a lot of fun to watch him do that today.”
Kelenic made a convincing case to be added to the Mariners’ Opening Day roster with a power-packed summer camp — he went 8-for-20 with two doubles, the two homers, four RBI, three stolen bases, three walks and seven strikeouts in nine games — but Seattle’s staff made it clear they didn’t find it prudent to rush a player with so little experience in the upper levels of the minors.
He tallied 500 plate appearances and climbed three levels last year in his first season in the Mariners system, but only 92 of those were above A-ball. He finished the summer with Double-A Arkansas, hitting .253/.315/.542 with four doubles, a triple, six homers and 17 RBI in 21 games.
During a trip to T-Mobile Park last September, Kelenic made clear his goal to reach the majors at some point in 2020, but that was before the COVID-19 pandemic wiped away the few more developmental months the Mariners wanted to give him before his big league debut.
So, he will spend his summer in Tacoma, working alongside Seattle’s other top prospects, and McKay said Kelenic is on board with the club’s expectations during this odd year. During these two months, he will be challenged against left-handed pitching, get plenty of center field reps to determine if that’s his best position moving forward, and emphasize his base running.
“We had a plan in place for him in terms of the at-bats we wanted in the minor leagues, the goals we wanted him to meet,” McKay said. “And he’s got his own separate set of goals, but the fact he’s playing great creates this type of conversation. … He’s doing his job and we’re also doing our job, which is to be disciplined in our decision-making and understand that this is a player that has had very few repetitions above the Double-A level.
“His opportunity to play in Double-A and Triple-A this year was removed because of COVID. So, I think it’s working out very well. I think we’re sticking to our plan, and he’s doing what he needs to do. He’s maintaining his focus, his competitiveness and he absolutely should want to be in Seattle. I don’t hold that against him at all.”
Kelenic said he plans to arrive each day in Tacoma just “trying to compete and have fun with the guys.”
“And that’s not a cliche answer, even though it may sound like one,” he said. “That is 100% what I’m trying to do. I understand the circumstances, but for me I’m just going to go out there and compete every single day.”
What he’s enjoyed the most so far is the opportunity to build more lasting relationships with the 20-plus teammates he’s training with after spending just two months each with Low-A West Virginia and High-A Modesto last year before wrapping up the season with his month in Arkansas.
“My challenge for myself is trying to get to know this group of guys, because last year was kind of a challenge,” he said. “I went through three different levels, and never really got to build any relationships with the guys just because I was in and out all the time.
“So here, when I know that I’m going to be here the entire time, I get to build a relationship with these guys, get to know what they like and don’t like, and help try to make them better because they’re going to make me better.
“That’s only going to help us down the road when it comes down to Game 5 or Game 7 of the World Series, and you’ve got a buddy on your mound that you were grinding back in Tacoma with, you know, two years prior. And you’re going to go to war for him no matter what, and just having that respect I think is huge.”
