Mariners Top Prospect Jarred Kelenic Is Fed Up With Management
A Major League Baseball season so bizarre led to an offseason capped by uncertainty. In the process, one minor leaguer views what occurred as what he thinks is unfair in his eyes. 21-year-old outfielder Jarred Kelenic has his focus on the reason why he hasn’t yet made the big league club yet. He believes it has to do with everyone’s favorite issue and that is money.
In the wake of lewd comments made by now-former Mariners team president Kevin Mather, Kelenic has more to say on what he thinks is the real issue at stake. This stems from Mather elaborating on contract negotiations stating that Kelenic and another minor leaguer wouldn’t be called up for Opening Day in order to keep club control for longer.
This led Kelenic to say that his actions could’ve been used last season. The Mainers at the time were in playoff contention until the last week of the season.
“I was extremely disappointed. 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…,” Kelenic said.
Outfielder Kyle Lewis was the big Mariner’s call-up last season and delivered in big was for the club. I don’t think many expected Seattle to even do as well as they did last year, and Lewis was the benefactor, even winning Rookie of the Year.
Mariners General Manager Jerry Dipoto responded to Kelenic’s beliefs specifying that there was certainly no manipulation on the Minor Leaguer’s service time. The truth is, Jarred hasn’t even played 200 games in the Minors, nor has he made it above Double-A. Yes, COVID-19 was extremely difficult for minor league players as the league was obsolete. This resulted in so many others who didn’t receive opportunities to help out their big league teams. But Kelenic is one of many and I think the issue here is that he still has boxes to check off in the Minors before he arrives on the big league roster.
