Jerry Dipoto, Scott Servais address comments made by former Mariners president and CEO Kevin Mather
Instead of diving into the first full week of spring training and preparing for the upcoming season with pitchers, catchers and the rest of their position players now all reported to camp in Arizona, general manager Jerry Dipoto and manager Scott Servais had to turn their attention elsewhere.
After footage of disparaging comments about the club and its players made by former president and CEO Kevin Mather — who has since resigned — surfaced Sunday on Twitter, Dipoto and Servais, like many other leaders in the organization, have spent much of the past two days addressing the aftermath.
Mariners chairman and managing partner John Stanton — who will be Seattle’s acting president and CEO while the club searches for Mather’s replacement — spoke to the press Monday afternoon.
Both Dipoto and Servais discussed the situation with reporters at length Tuesday morning from Peoria.
“It’s been a difficult couple of days … for our players, for our staff, for me, our baseball operations team and all of the Mariners,” Dipoto said. “That’s the reality. I think the most important thing was to spend some time with you, answer the baseball questions and just re-humanize our players.
“I know there were a number of players that were specifically cited, and then truly entire communities of players that we need to be sensitive to and make sure that they understand where we are, and frankly, to address the stigma that is now associated with our team, which I don’t think is the way we see ourselves, and that includes our players and our staff.
“This is something I hope we’re able to shed pretty quickly and get back to who we are. But, we can’t we can’t get beyond the situation that exists today, and we have to address it head on.”
Dipoto said he was first made aware of Mather’s comments Sunday, watched the footage of the call with the Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club that was recorded Feb. 5, and read through the transcript.
“It was tough to watch,” he said. “And it was tough to then figure out how to go down and build a bridge with our players, because many of them, rightfully, should have been insulted by what they heard, and they were.”
Dipoto addressed many of the unfiltered, insensitive and insulting comments Mather made about both current and former players, reiterating several times they were the comments or interpretations of one person, and do not reflect the thoughts of the Mariners as a whole.
“Our players understand that Kevin’s comments do not define who we are,” Dipoto said. “The culture, especially in our clubhouse, is something that we’re proud of, and that has been developed over the course of time, and it’s driven by our players. … Many of them were brought up in a minor league system that stresses community and truth telling and doing the right thing.
“They watched a circumstance where we didn’t as an organization do the right thing, and we have to be accountable to that.”
Dipoto said he has had conversations with several players since Sunday, and the club has encouraged them to share their frustrations and vent about what was said.
Servais echoed that and said “the temperature was very hot with a number of guys” who were mentioned specifically in Mather’s comments, but he is grateful for how his players have responded to and handled the situation.
“Our players are frustrated,” he said. “I certainly want them to voice their frustrations. Let’s talk it out. But, at the end of the day, the people that our players deal with on an everyday basis — myself, the coaching staff, the training staff, the analysts, the scouts, the front office people — they know who we are.
“It was comments made by one person, and it’s not reflective of how we treat our people here and how we think about them. So, I am grateful that our players have handled the way they have.”
Dipoto said he has spoken to Julio Rodriguez about the comments made about the 20-year-old top outfield prospect specifically, and responded to the troubling comments made about the language skills of both Latin American and Japanese players, while also addressing the importance of diversity in the clubhouse.
“We have an inclusive mindset,” he said. “We always have. … We have one of the most fertile international programs in the industry. … We celebrate our ethnic diversity in our clubhouse, and we have since the day we arrived … and this this includes our players from Japan, from Korea, from Taiwan, from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, the United States.
“We are from everywhere. We embrace players from everywhere and those cultures.”
Servais also stressed the importance of the diverse group the Mariners have in their clubhouse.
“That’s the beauty of baseball,” he said. “It’s a global sport. We bring the best in the world together, and it doesn’t matter what language they speak. You’re respectful of everybody, and we’ve always been that way here, and we’ll continue to be that way here.”
Dipoto also addressed the comments made about the projected big league arrival times and contract negotiations of top prospects like Jarred Kelenic. He said the contract offer Mather referenced was made to Kelenic more than a year ago, and it’s “unfortunate” that those details became public.
“Frankly, any discussions on contracts between us and our players should remain between us and our players,” he said. “We have signed players to extensions. We’ve offered players extensions that they have not accepted. And that’s their right.”
Dipoto also stressed the Mariners speak with all of their players about individual development.
“This not a scenario where we have not spoken with Jarred Kelenic about his development,” Dipoto said. “And I could say the same thing about Logan Gilbert, about Cal Raleigh. We are very open in the way we talk to our players and the truth we tell, and sometimes they like it, and sometimes they don’t.
“But, all of our players are aware of what their path is, what their development plan looks like. And we’re very direct in how we share that.”
With regard to the reaction from the club’s fan base, Dipoto said he is embarrassed about how the Mariners are viewed as an organization in the wake of Mather’s comments.
“It’s embarrassing to be categorized or deal with the stigma that we are now pinned with,” Dipoto said. “And we have to shed it. It’s ours to bear, and we have to be accountable to that and find a way to grow beyond it.
“I apologize on behalf of our organization for the comments that were made. Again, it’s a single person’s interpretation. And it doesn’t, truly, represent the way I feel, Scott feels, our 26 players feel, our system worth of players feel, and a lot of the wonderful, high-character people that work for the Mariners.
“ … And the only thing we can say to our fans is: We’re sorry, we will do better.”
Servais said he personally felt angry, embarrassed and frustrated by the footage because of how hard the Mariners have worked in recent years to create a culture they’re proud of.
“I feel very strongly we’ve done a lot to do that, and again that’s why the last couple days have been so hurtful,” Servais said. “That being said, I made the comment when we opened up camp — I love this team. I really do.
“And the reason I say that is because the character of the group of people that we have in our clubhouse and around our team, starting with the players — it’s a special group. And we talked about how talented they are, and they’re young and they’re coming, but it’s a special group.
“I see the frustration on their faces and rightly so. That’s what has been hard to deal with here the last couple days.”
Servais does believe the Mariners’ clubhouse culture is “strong enough to withstand all this.”
“I’ve made the comment in the past I believe that average teams are led by managers and coaches, elite teams are led by the players,” he said. “Our culture has shifted now where our players are holding each other accountable.
“The bar has been raised (so) there’s a certain standard here. … We saw it developing last year, and it hasn’t backed off at all, it really hasn’t. … It is player driven, and that is what excites me as much as anything, because it hasn’t always been that way here and it’s not that way on a lot of teams, but the elite teams have it.
“If you look at the teams who win and they sustain winning for a long time, the culture is player driven, and it’s my job to make sure that the players have the platform to do that, and it’s something I enjoy doing, and I’ll continue to do.”
As spring training progresses, Servais believes the Mariners “will move forward” from this and look to have a productive 2021 season.
“We are going to have a special year ahead of us,” he said. “We’re going to see players continue to grow. We’re going to be very competitive. We’re going to play really good baseball. I’ve got a feeling we’re going to play really important games coming down the stretch.
“That’s the goal, and we’ll get ready to go do that.”
This story was originally published February 23, 2021 at 12:01 PM.
