Mariners notes: Kelenic, agent discuss frustrations about delayed debut; Paxton responds to Mather’s comments
Mariners top outfield prospect Jarred Kelenic and his agent outlined frustrations regarding the 21-year-old’s major league arrival time in a story published Wednesday morning by USA Today.
In the story, both Kelenic and his agent Brodie Scoffield assert Kelenic has not yet made his debut because he did not accept an offer for a long-term deal from Seattle’s club, which acquired Kelenic in a trade with the Mets following the 2018 season.
“It was communicated to Jarred that had he signed that contract, he would have debuted last year,’’ Scoffield told USA Today. “It was made crystal clear to Jarred — then and now — that his decision not to call him up is based on service time.
“There’s no question that if he signed that contract, he would have been in the big leagues.”
“It wasn’t just communicated one time to me,” Kelenic said in the story. “It was told to me several times. That’s the God’s honest truth. It got old.”
The comments to USA Today come days after the tape of former president and CEO Kevin Mather’s conversation with the Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club earlier this month surfaced online.
During the Zoom call, Mather singled out Kelenic, among several other players, and spoke about contract negotiations with Kelenic, as well as his big league arrival timeline.
“Jarred Kelenic, we’ve been talking about him for a year-and-a-half now,” Mather said in the footage. “He will be in left field in April. He’s a 21-year-old player who is quite confident. We offered him a long-term deal, six-year deal for substantial money with options to go farther. And after pondering it for several days and talking to the (players) union, he has turned us down.
“In his words, he’s going to bet on himself. He thinks after six years, he’s going to be such a star player that the seventh, eighth, ninth year options will be undervalued. He might be right. We offered and he turned us down.”
Mather said Kelenic would likely be at Triple-A Tacoma for a month to start the 2021 season before an eventual promotion to Seattle.
“Then he will likely be in left field at T-Mobile Park for the next six or seven years, and then he’ll be a free agent,” Mather said. “He won’t commit beyond his free agent years. I wouldn’t say he’s unhappy, he appreciates the offer, he just refused to sign it. He thinks he’s going to be that good. And he thinks he will be a very well-paid player after six years, and I think he might be right. Hopefully with us. But, we’ll see where we end up.”
Kelenic, who is considered Seattle’s top prospect by MLB Pipeline, and among the top 10 prospects in all of baseball by both MLB Pipeline and Baseball America, has often seemed frustrated by the situation when speaking to reporters about his arrival time in the past.
He likely believed his impressive showing at camp last summer was deserving of a spot on the big league roster, but instead, he was sent to the club’s alternate site in Tacoma to play in intrasquad games and work out alongside the club’s other up-and-comers for the remainder of the summer.
“I was extremely disappointed,” Kelenic told USA Today. “I worked extremely hard all offseason. And last year, here you have a team that is one game out of the playoffs going into the last weeks of the season. I know for a fact I could have helped that team out. Not just me, but there are other guys who could have helped that team out.
“Not to be given that opportunity was so beyond frustrating. I feel that guys should be rewarded for their play, and have the best guys on the field, especially when you talk about a team that hasn’t gone to the playoffs in 20 years, and your best prospects are just sitting there watching.”
Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto responded to Kelenic’s comments to USA Today during an interview with 950-KJR on Wednesday.
“I’m sorry Jarred feels that way,” Dipoto said.. “We feel that that is the furthest thing from the truth. Our primary concern with all of our players is developing them to the best of our ability. We’ve laid out a plan for Jarred. We’ve been very transparent in sharing that with him along the way.”
Dipoto further addressed the situation with Kelenic with reporters Tuesday morning, and 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.”
PAXTON RESPONDS TO MATHER’S COMMENTS
Mariners starter James Paxton, who signed a one-year deal to return to Seattle earlier this month, addressed Mather’s comments during a video call with reporters Wednesday from Peoria.
“Obviously what happened was disappointing, and some of the some of the things said were unacceptable,” Paxton said. “I don’t think that’s who the Mariners are as an organization as a whole. The players, what we’ve talked about is we need to make it about each other, focus on playing for each other, playing hard for each other and for the fans.
“We want to get better, we want to win here and we’re building that culture and we think that this can really bring us together, and as we prop each other up just become an even more unified group moving forward.”
Paxton was one of the players specifically named in Mather’s answer to a Rotarian’s question about whether the Mariners might see the return of Paxton or Taijuan Walker in 2021.
“We have taken the position that there are 180 free agents still out there on Feb. 5 unsigned, and sooner or later, these players are going to turn their hat over and come hat in hand looking for a contract,” Mather said in the conversation from Feb. 5. “We think Walker is one of them. James Paxton made $12.5 million last year, and his agent has told us that he’s going to make more in 2021. Interestingly, we started a conversation with Paxton yesterday, and it is for substantially less than he made (in 2020).
“There’s a chance. We’re having conversations. And Walker thinks he’s going to get a three-year deal. I don’t think he’s going to get a three-year deal, and there’s a chance he comes back as well.”
Walker eventually signed a two-year deal with the Mets with a player option for 2023, while Paxton has returned to the Mariners for 2021 on an $8.5 million deal that could reach $10 million with bonuses.
Paxton said Mather’s comments about free agency specifically were frustrating.
“He didn’t necessarily have his facts straight,” Paxton said. “I did have other offers, and I did have more lucrative offers. But, I decided to come here anyway, because this is where I wanted to be.”
ICHIRO VS. JULIO
Former Mariners star right fielder Ichiro Suzuki is in Peoria with the team, and has resumed his role as one of the club’s batting practice pitchers.
“He came in the other day after going through the intake testing and his physical, and I sat down with him and Allen Turner, his interpreter, and just talking (about) what’s he been up to, and he quickly let me know that over in Japan he had a mound built right next to his house to make sure he would be in great throwing condition,” Servais said with a smile. “He has been throwing every day, and as Allen put it, he’s on fire right now.”
Ichiro threw batting practice during the first full squad workout Tuesday, including to the group that included top outfield prospect Julio Rodriguez.
“Ichi throws great BP,” Servais said. “It’s firm, it’s usually right there, and he missed on a couple pitches that Julio didn’t swing at, and in typical Julio fashion he says, ‘What, are you afraid of me?’ And I said, ‘Julio, do you know who you’re talking to?’ He said, ‘I got it. I got it, Skip. I got it. It just came out.’
“So, that’s the kind of atmosphere we have going around here. Our young players are enjoying it.”
SHORT HOPS
Servais said the biggest highlight from the Mariners’ first full squad workout was seeing Mitch Haniger’s first live at-bat. “He got in there and smoked a 97 mph fastball to left field for a base hit like he never got bumped off the saddle,” Servais said. “He’s ready to go.”
Haniger is expected to resume his role as Seattle’s starting right fielder after missing more than 150 games the past two seasons and undergoing three surgeries since he was initially injured in June 2019. … Catcher Luis Torrens is limited after injuring the middle finger of his throwing hand while working with weights, but the injury is minor. “Just going to let that calm down and heal up here for a couple days,” Servais said. …
