Mariners CEO Kevin Mather is being commented on and statement made public

Mariners CEO Kevin Mather is being commented on and statement made public

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Kevin Mather has been the president of the Seattle Mariners team since 2014. (AP)

The Mariners became a major focal point in the baseball world on Sunday when a speech by team president and CEO Kevin Mather on February 5 at the Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club came to light.

The BBRC posted the footage of the event on YouTube and shared it on Twitter on Saturday night. The video was filmed by Sunday afternoon, but not before copies and transcripts were shared online, including by Lookout Landing.

In the 45-minute video, Mather gave an opening statement of about 20 minutes and then took questions from the Zoom audience for the rest of the recording, which ended abruptly. Throughout the program, Mather addressed a number of topics in a way that drew reactions from fans, players, agents and members of the national media.

The Mariners announced the following statement from Mather on Sunday night:

I want to apologize to every member of the Seattle Mariners organization, especially our players and our fans. There is no excuse for my behavior, and I take full responsibility for my terrible decline in judgment.

My comment was my own. It does not reflect the views and strategy of the Mariners baseball leadership that is responsible for decisions about the development and status of the players at all levels of the organization.

I spent most of the day telephoning today to apologize to the many people I have insulted, hurt, or disappointed during a recent online event.

I’m committed to personally hurting the things I said, and I will do whatever it takes to repair the damage I did to the Seattle Mariners organization.

During the visit to the BBRC, Mather’s opening statement outlined how the pandemic shortened 2020 season affected baseball financially, saying that the Mariners fared better than most, but that it was still a low year ‘for the club was.

“We were at the very end of our rebuild-back cycle, so our payroll was as low as it was going to be,” Mather said. ‘We also have a television agreement with ROOT Sports, and we are more than our weight to the television agreement. We had 60 games, and per game we got a lot more than we probably deserved compared to other similar markets. Financial terrible year, but we did better than most. ”

Mather led the Mariners’ plan to bring as many young players as possible to their alternate spot in Tacoma last season. A total of 15 prospects were invited to participate. Since there was no minor league season, that and a small camp camp they held in North Carolina were the only ways to make prospects work. What they would not get, however, was the opportunity to join the big league club, as Mather revealed in the speech.

‘Just as devastating as 2020 over player development and getting better, we took a risk and brought in our high prospects and really got to know it. “They received advanced education in Tacoma,” he said. ‘The risk was that if our main league team had a COVID outbreak or injuries and we had to call people out of the taxi team, we would have a bit of a shortage of players. Because there was no chance you would see these young players on T-Mobile Park. We would not put them on the 40-man list, but not with the service time clock. There were all sorts of reasons that, if we had an injury problem or COVID outbreak, my big belly might have been seen in the left field. You would not have seen how our prospects play out in T-Mobile Park. ”

This, coupled with comments that predicted the MLB debut of prospects Jarred Kelenic and Logan Gilbert in April, has been interpreted as manipulation of service time, which will certainly be a central topic in the upcoming negotiations between the MLB and the MLB Players Association. . These aspects of Mather’s speech attracted the attention of at least one player agent.

Mather praised a number of players during the conversation, but in some cases provided insights into those involved.

“Kyle Seager, this is probably his last season as a Marine,” Mather said of Seattle’s third baseman, entering the final year of his contract. ‘He will, and I’ve already told him, he’s going to be a Mariners Hall of Famer when he’s done playing. Last year it looked like he found the Fountain of Youth, had a fantastic year, and we expect the same in 2021. ‘

Julie Seager, Kyle’s wife, responded to her Twitter account.

The prospect Julio Rodriguez weighs fairly quickly in this statement:

“Julio Rodríguez has a bigger personality than everyone else,” Mather said. “He’s tough. His English is not great. Everyone says he will be here in 2021. He will not be here until 2022 or 2023. A fantastic child. We’re really big on social media. He likes to come out on top. He loves the Mariners. And between him and Kelenic, we think we have an outside field that will be just as good in baseball for the next six or seven years. He is the right thing to do. He’s taller than Kelenic. ”

It is noteworthy that Rodríguez is incredibly proud of his English and that the Dominican Republic has gone so far as to present ‘Vibin’ with JRod ‘, an interview program on the Mariners’ YouTube channel this winter. He conducts all the interviews in English, including this one, because the interviewer does not speak Spanish.

Rodríguez was not the only person whose English was raised by Mather, who said it frustrated me when he started discussing Hisashi Iwakuma, a former All-Star for the team that recently returned to the franchise as a special coach. Mather added: ‘We just re-appointed Iwakuma, for example, he was a jug with us for a number of years. Wonderful man, his English was terrible. He wanted to get in the game again, he came to us, we honestly want him as our Asian explorer, interpreter, what’s going on with the Japanese league. He comes to spring training. And I’m going to say: I’m tired of paying his interpreter. When he was a player, we would pay Iwakuma X, but we also had to pay $ 75,000 a year to have an interpreter with him. His English suddenly got better, his English got better when we told him that. ‘

In addition to the remarks above, Mather discussed a six-year contract offer rejected by Kelenic, which called the fact that spring training would not be delayed a month ’embarrassing’ and caught Luis Torrens has repeatedly called it ‘Torres’. He also said that Torrens, along with prospective Cal Raleigh, will likely be behind the page for the Mariners for the next six years, which is likely to be the disturbing news for Tom Murphy, who only expressed gratitude on Saturday for the Mariners who are the best out. fetch the land. him after crossing over from the Rockies.

The discussion of a possible signing of James Paxton or Taijuan Walker (both players were still free agents when the speech took place) is good information that was undoubtedly appreciated by the intended audience. The Mariners’ acknowledgment “took the view that there are still 180 free agents out there on February 5, unsigned, and sooner or later these players will turn their hats around and look for a contract with a hat in hand,” are words that are not appreciated by any player.

Participating in events such as the Rotary Breakfast is not uncommon for Mariners or front office members. It is an opportunity to connect with the community and thus generate goodwill and interest. While extra insight or inside information is often shared on these occasions, a little information can help a lot. In the case of the February 5 speech, Mather not only had to apologize to numerous people through his own acknowledgment, but he exceeded the limits that would be beneficial to the organization. Due to the reaction seen online on Sunday, a large amount of damage was done.

The Mariners are expected to release a statement Monday morning.

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