Mariners CEO Kevin Mather, criticized for comments, releases statement

Mariners CEO Kevin Mather, criticized for comments, releases statement

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

The Mariners became the primary focus of the baseball world on Sunday when a speech on February 5 by team president and CEO Kevin Mather at the Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club surfaced.

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

The 45-minute video showed Mather giving an opening statement of approximately 20 minutes and then answering questions from Zoom’s audience for the remainder of the recording, which ended abruptly. Throughout the program, Mather addressed a number of topics in a way that drew the reaction of fans, players, agents and members of the national media.

On Sunday night, the Mariners released the following statement by Mather:

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

My comments were mine. They do not reflect the views and strategy of the Mariners baseball leadership, who are responsible for making decisions about the development and status of players at all levels of the organization.

I was on the phone most of the day today, apologizing to the many people I insulted, hurt or disappointed when speaking at a recent online event.

I am committed to repairing the things that I said were personally harmful and will do whatever is necessary to repair the damage I have caused to the Seattle Mariners organization.

On the visit with the BBRC, Mather’s opening statement included a summary of how the 2020 season shortened by the pandemic impacted baseball financially, stating that the Mariners fared better than most, but it was still “a low year” to the club.

“We were at the bottom of our rebuilding cycle, so our payroll was at the lowest possible level,” said Mather. “We also have a television agreement with ROOT Sports and we are well above our weight in the television agreement. We had 60 games and, per game, we received much more than we probably deserved compared to other markets of similar size. Financially terrible year, but we did better than most. “

Mather continued to publicize the Mariners’ plan to bring as many young players as possible to their alternate location in Tacoma last season. In all, 15 prospects were invited to participate. Since there was no secondary league season, this and a small pitching camp held in North Carolina were the only ways to make prospects work. What they would not have, however, was the opportunity to join the big league club, as Mather revealed in the speech.

“As devastating as 2020 was for the development of players and their improvement, we took the risk and brought our potential customers to a high level, we really know them. They received top education in Tacoma, ”he said. “The risk was that if our major league team had an outbreak of COVID or were injured and we had to call people from the taxi squad, we were short of players. Because there was no chance that you would see these young players at T-Mobile Park. We were not going to put them on the list of 40 men, we were not going to start the service point clock. There were all kinds of reasons why, if we had an injury problem or COVID outbreak, you could have seen my big belly there in the left field. You wouldn’t have seen our potential customers playing at T-Mobile Park. “

This, together with comments that predicted the MLB debut of top candidates Jarred Kelenic and Logan Gilbert in April, was interpreted as manipulation of seniority, which will certainly be a central topic in the next collective bargaining agreement between MLB and the MLB Players Association. These aspects of Mather’s speech caught the attention of at least one player agent.

Mather praised several players during the conversation, but in some cases gave ideas that concerned those involved.

“Kyle Seager, this is probably his last season as a Sailor,” said Mather of the Seattle third baseman, who is entering the final year of his contract. “He will, and I already told him, he will be a Mariners Hall of Fame when he finishes playing. Last year he seemed to find the Fountain of Youth, he had a fantastic year, and we expect the same in 2021 ”.

Julie Seager, Kyle’s wife, appeared to respond on her Twitter account.

The main potential customer, Julio Rodriguez, gave a quick opinion on this statement:

“Julio Rodríguez has a bigger personality than all of you put together,” said Mather. “He’s noisy. Your English is not tremendous. Everyone says he will be here in 2021. He will not be here until 2022 or 2023. A fantastic boy. We are really big on social media. He loves to get ahead. He loves the Mariners. And between him and Kelenic, we think we have an outside field that will be as good as any other in baseball for the next six or seven years. He’s the real deal. He is ranked above Kelenic. “

It is worth noting that Rodríguez is very proud of his English, and the native of the Dominican Republic came to present “Vibin ‘with JRod”, an interview program on the Mariners’ YouTube channel this winter. He conducts all interviews in English, including this one happily, since the interviewer does not speak Spanish.

Rodríguez was not the only person whose English was brought up by Mather, who said “it frustrates me” when he started talking about Hisashi Iwakuma, a former All-Star on the team who recently returned to the franchise as a special mission coach. Mather continued: “For example, we just rehired Iwakuma, he was a pitcher with us for several years. Wonderful human being, his English was terrible. He wanted to return to the game, he came to us, frankly we want him as our Asian scout, interpreter, what is happening with the Japanese league. He’s coming for spring training. And I will say, I am tired of paying for your interpreter. When he was a player, we paid Iwakuma X, but we also had to pay $ 75,000 a year to have an interpreter with him. His English suddenly improved, his English improved when we told him that. “

In addition to the comments above, Mather discussed a six-year contract offer that Kelenic declined, called the fact that spring training would not take a month for “embarrassing” and repeatedly called catcher Luis Torrens “Torres”. He also said that Torrens, along with candidate Cal Raleigh, would probably be responsible for the Mariners for the next six years, which would probably be unsettling news for Tom Murphy, who only on Saturday expressed gratitude for the Mariners who brought out the best in him after come from the Rocky Mountains.

Discussing a possible James Paxton or Taijuan Walker signature (both players were still free agents when the speech took place) is great information that was undoubtedly appreciated by the target audience. Admitting that the Mariners “took the position that there were still 180 free agents out there on February 5 unsigned and, sooner or later, these players will turn around and come hat in hand, looking for a contract” , are words that would not be appreciated by any player, however.

Participation in events like the Rotary Breakfast is not uncommon for executives or members of the Mariners’ office front. It is an opportunity to connect with the community and thereby generate goodwill and interest. Although extra insights or internal information is often shared at these events, a little bit of information can help a lot. In the case of the February 5 speech, Mather not only for his own admission needed to apologize to several people, but he went beyond the limits of what would be beneficial to the organization. By the reaction seen online on Sunday, a lot of damage was done.

Mariners are expected to issue a statement early Monday morning.

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