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Mariners CEO Kevin Mather leaked video: The interesting, the bad and the ugly
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
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- 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.
Mather has to be fired and I think he will be. If he’s not fired and forced to speak and says the same bs again like in 2018 that “he’s learned from his mistakes” it’s just not going to cut it. His comments about foreign players were racist and he has showed yet again that...
— SoDo Mojo (@SodoMojoFS) February 21, 2021
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