The Mariners President Got Himself in Some Hot Water (UPDATE: And Now He’s Out)

If you want to know what mind-boggling tone deafness sounds like, check out what the Mariners president decided to tell the world about his baseball operations.

Lookout Landing has the full transcript of Mariners President Kevin Mather talking openly about service time manipulation, overpaid players in his own organization, unsafe neighborhoods around his ballpark, and being annoyed that he has to pay for interpreters for his international players. It’s really incredible:

Here’s how frank Mather was about service time issues, to which the union will not take too kindly:

“There was no chance you were going to see these young players at T-Mobile Park [last year]. We weren’t going to put them on the 40-man roster, we weren’t going to start the service time clock.  There were all kinds of reasons that, if we had an injury problem or COVID outbreak, you might’ve seen my big tummy out there in left field.  You would not have seen our prospects playing in T-Mobile Park.”

This set of comments on top prospects Julio Rodriguez and Jared Kelenic are just … off:

“Julio Rodríguez has got a personality bigger than all of you combined. He is loud, his English is not tremendous. But he and Kelenic are very good friends. He’s a year behind Kelenic, he probably…won’t be here till 2022 or 2023. Fantastic kid. We’re really big on social media, he loves to get out in front, he loves the Mariners, and between him and Kelenic, we think we’ve got an outfield that will be as good as any in baseball for the next six years. He’s the real deal. He’s ranked higher than Kelenic, which..as I said, Kelenic doesn’t lack for confidence. Kelenic is not happy that he’s the fifth highest prospect on Baseball America, and Rodríguez is the fourth highest prospect. It’s little things like that bother Kelenic.”

I have no idea what the thinking is for a president to be saying that about his prospects. There’s plenty more that you can read in the transcript, but suffice to say, the calls for his firing are loud and everywhere.

Bonus mentioned by Rosenthal? Mather apparently was previously accused of inappropriate workplace conduct by women employees, and there was a settlement.

I’ll conclude with Mather’s weak sauce apology (via MLBTR), and Julio Rodriguez’s fantastic tweet after the comments came out:

“I want to apologize to every member of the Seattle Mariners organization, especially our players and to our fans. There is no excuse for my behavior, and I take full responsibility for my terrible lapse in judgement.  My comments were my own. They do not reflect the views and strategy of the Mariners baseball leadership who are responsible for decisions about the development and status of the players at all levels of the organization.

“I’ve been on the phone most of the day today apologizing to the many people I have insulted, hurt, or disappointed in speaking at a recent online event.  I am committed to make amends for the things I said that were personally hurtful and I will do whatever it takes to repair the damage I have caused to the Seattle Mariners organization.”

UPDATE: He’s out:

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Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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