Mariners CEO Kevin Mather leaked video: The interesting, the bad and the ugly

The not so bad stuff

At the start of the video, you just feel like it is another press conference with normal information. How will the Mariners be this year? What is the timeline of the prospects? Will fans sit in the stadium? Stuff like that.

Mather said, “we’re on the verge of something special.” The Mariners have a loaded farm system that should make the team successful for years to come. The division is also in our favor because the AL West is starting its decline.

The Mariners President also talked about some of the players he’s excited about, including Mitch Haniger, Luis Torrens (Mather did not pronounce his last name correctly), and many others.

We also learned that he hopes to have fans back at T-Mobile Park, and told us they are projecting to have 9,870 fans to start the season.

Mather also shared an anecdote about Marco Gonzales‘ leadership, which makes me even more of a Marco fan. Back in 2019, Mike Leake (who Mather did not name) told a coach “don’t tell me how to throw my bullpens yet.”

After the meeting, Marco and a few other bullpen guys pushed Leake against the locker and said “listen, if you want to be a dick, be a dick, but do it quietly.” So yeah, Marco is a legend.

He also told the club that we will most certainly see Jarred Kelenic, Logan Gilbert, and Taylor Trammell in Seattle this season. With all that being said, you might be asking where is the controversy?

Where are all the bad things that Twitter is talking about? To me, Mather was not explicitly racist and he didn’t brag about signing players at a bargain like some are saying, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t stir the pot. It’s more about his choice of words which could be perceived as racist, and he was extremely blunt.

Let’s dig into it.

The “what did you say?” moments

I don’t know where Kevin Mather learned this, but he certainly knows how to piss off people. One of the first things I immediately caught was when he called Kyle Seager “overpaid.”

Like why? Why was that necessary? In what world is that a good thing to say publicly?

Kyle Seager has been the heart and soul of the Seattle Mariners this decade and you want to call him overpaid? It’s funny because Mather even acknowledged that Seager would be a Mariners Hall of Fame member, and appreciated his tremendous attitude and dedication to Seattle.

The aftermath:

Oh, and by the way, Kevin Mather felt like commenting on Julio Rodriguez‘s English. Out of all things, you wanted to critique his English?

Mather was asked about J-Rod and one of the first things he said was his “English isn’t tremendous.” He didn’t even mention how good J-Rod is on the field. Mather also said he has a big personality, he is loud, and he is friends with Kelenic.

Again, why? Here’s Julio’s response:

It’s definitely a little unsettling that the Mariners President is talking about one of the brightest prospects in this way. Another hot topic Mariners fans are digging into is his comment on Hisashi Iwakuma. Apparently paying $75,000 for an interpreter is too much.

“When he was a player, we’d pay Iwakuma X, but we’d also have 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!”

Just prior to that, he also said Iwakuma is a “wonderful human being, his English was terrible.” Like why is that necessary? Is that the first thing that popped up in his mind? Hisashi Iwakuma could be a Mariners Hall of Famer and that’s what you have to say? I don’t get it.

One last thing, which I also thought was sort of funny was when he was talking about the pandemic. “We talked to the national health officials. I’m not supposed to say his name, but the commissioner talked to Dr. Fauci.”

Mather literally said, I’m not supposed to say his name, and proceeds to name Dr. Fauci. I chuckled.

The heck no moments

What is important to keep in mind is that this controversy sheds a negative light on the whole organization. Imagine being a Japanese baseball player and you’re pondering which teams to sign with… Or imagine being a young Latin American prospect…

What would they think of the Seattle Mariners? I don’t want Mather’s comments to represent the Seattle fanbase. That is completely wrong.

More from Mariners News

• What Jerry Dipoto’s trades, comments mean for remainder of Mariners offseason
• Mariners Select Chris Clarke in Rule 5 Draft
• Thank you for a Memorable Year, Abraham Toro and Jesse Winker!
• Winter Meetings Wrap Up: Checking where the Mariners stand
• A Farewell to Mitch Haniger as he signs with the San Francisco Giants

Seattle has one of the best sports fan bases in the nation, and this controversy might really hurt the Mariners in future free agent talks. For example, I wouldn’t dare to sign with the Astros if I were a big leaguer. Why would anyone sign with the Mariners now?

Another big issue, Mather practically admitted to service-time manipulation. Pretty much every team practices service-time manipulation, but it is hard to prove it in court and the Mariners just voluntarily handcuffed themselves and walked into the courthouse.

The MLBPA has been fighting service-time manipulation for some time. A good example, the MLBPA filed grievances following Kris Bryant’s rookie season in 2015.

His statement referred to Jarred Kelenic which isn’t very good news for fans. Kelenic has posted some interesting tweets which have left Mariners fans a little worried about his love for Seattle.

Mather also told the audience that Seattle offered Kelenic a lucrative six-year deal, and Jarred declined it. Now with Mather admitting to service-time manipulation, you wonder how that affects Kelenic’s viewpoint of the Mariners organization.

To sum it all up, Mather’s video conference was extremely harmful to the Mariners organization. Not only did it hurt certain people within the organization, it sheds a bad light on the growing Mariners team.

My co-expert here at Sodo Mojo Willie Keeler tweeted this from our Twitter account.