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

Well, that escalated quickly

Well… the Mariners are all over the news for the wrong reasons. You know it’s a bad sign when the Mariners are trending on Twitter. As you might already know, heard, or even watched, there was a video of Mariners President Kevin Mather speaking to a group of people online.

I first saw the thread when Ryan Divish retweeted Darren Gossler early Sunday morning:

The Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club hosted Kevin Mather on February 5th, and they published the online conference on February 19th. Apparently, the club hosts Jerry Dipoto or Kevin Mather every year as a guest, for what seems to be a charity event.

The video has now been deleted, which isn’t much of a surprise. I watched the entire video before it was deleted through a neutral lens, to really break down what was said.

I say neutral because I wanted to watch the video while trying not to have a negative bias against Mather due to his past. It includes a sexual harassment scandal that led the Seattle Mariners to pay two settlements to two former female employees.

Although there are some head-scratching things he says during the speech, conference, or whatever you want to call it, there is also some useful information to fans. He talks about fans in the stadium, prospect timelines, and praises a few players and the team.

So, without further adieu, let’s get into it. We are going to break down the interesting, the bad, and the ugly things Kevin Mather said, and how it might impact our Seattle Mariners.

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 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.