Seattle Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto and coach Scott Servais are handling the damage to players who were directly mentioned or referenced by former team president and CEO Kevin Mather in an online video that led to his resignation.
The message in the past two days to the people affected was: You have every right to be upset.
“We are very open with our players and we ask them to do the same. And if they want to be angry, they should be, frankly. They should be insulted,” said Dipoto on Tuesday. “But at the same time, they are collectively directed at what we are trying to do here as a team.”
The video posted over the weekend showed Mather expressing his views on the club’s organizational strategy and making controversial comments about players to the Rotary Club of Bellevue, Washington, on February 5. Dominican Republic’s potential for his knowledge of English. He also admitted that the team may be manipulating the service of some of its young players.
Mather apologized on Sunday and abruptly resigned the next day, but not before throwing a shroud over the organization when she started full-team training in Arizona.
Dipoto and Servais are angry.
“I am ashamed that this is the way we are seen, because for those of you who were close to me, Scott or this team, this is not how we are programmed,” said Dipoto. “It is embarrassing to be categorized or to deal with the stigma to which we are stuck and we have to get rid of it. It is our responsibility and now we have to be responsible for it, and then find a way to overcome it.”
Mather’s most fiery comments were about the English skills of former All-Star pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma and potential candidate Julio Rodriguez, and got the strongest responses from Dipoto and Servais.
Servais mentioned his winter baseball experiences in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela and the Mariners’ opening trip to Japan two years ago.
“It’s a revelation. You really appreciate what foreign players have to face. Not just communicating, but then trying to figure out how to play the game at the highest level,” said Servais. “So no one appreciates that more than I do and it is a subject to which I am very sensitive.”
Mather undermined the baseball side’s strategy, admitting that the team was possibly manipulating seniority for Jarred Kelenic and Logan Gilbert. Mather also released information about contract negotiations with Kelenic and pitcher James Paxton and called veteran Kyle Seager “overpaid”.
Mather drew the ire of the MLB Players’ Association by saying that neither Kelenic nor Gilbert would be with the major league club on Opening Day as a means of maintaining control of the club any longer.
But Servais and Dipoto said that decisions on the lineup had not been made and that plans for Kelenic and Gilbert were outlined and communicated to both.
“All of our players know what their path is, what their development plan is and we are very direct in the way we share it,” said Dipoto.
Servais said he met with several players directly mentioned by Mather.
“I would say the temperature was very high with a lot of guys that certainly had their names mentioned for a number of different reasons,” said Servais. “It was no surprise. But I feel very good about this group and I am proud of the way they have handled things so far. We could talk about it all day and our players will continue to handle things the right way.”