Seattle Mariners: Ripple Effects of the Jarred Kelenic Situation
The Arguments
Kelenic’s Side
Essentially Jarred Kelenic is trying to create leverage to speed up the clock on his service time. There aren’t a lot of legitimate reasons to speed up his clock. In fact, there are more reasons to wait and discover than to actually pursue.
What Kelenic is doing, thanks in large part to Kevin Mather’s big mouth, is to pit Mariners fans against Mariners management to put pressure on Dipoto to bring the phenom up to the Majors. Mariners fans desperately want to see a good product on the field, and Kelenic’s agent (Brody Schofield) is using that desperation against M’s management.
Kelenic weighs in as a top-five prospect across nearly all prospect lists. Typically a prospect rated that high is a star in the making. The Mariners have had them before, and fans know most of the names of the top five prospects from the last thirty-five years.
Most importantly for Kelenic, getting to free agency quicker means more money.
Mariners prospect Jarred Kelenic says the organization is punishing him for refusing to sign a contract extension that was proposed to him nearly 14 months ago. A USA TODAY Sports exclusive. https://t.co/YdoD0FHzcY pic.twitter.com/YdzQhAdNaj
— USA TODAY Sports (@usatodaysports) February 24, 2021
The Mariners Side
Kelenic is loaded with talent. Unfortunately, he is still unproven against elite arms and advance scouting that comes with being at the Major League level. Whether or not Kelenic will be a star depends on proper development and earning promotions based on performance, not confidence.
The Mariner’s would gain an additional year of control with Kelenic by holding him out until the second half of April, but that doesn’t make him any cheaper in the long run. By the time Kelenic hits his arbitration years (’25, ’26, ’27), he should be a star.
Mookie Betts holds the record for the highest salary from an arbitration-eligible player at $27 million. Betts broke Nolan Arenado’s record of $26 million from 2019.
The Mariners also have to consider that they have amassed an incredible wealth of talent down on the farm. They will need to do a financial balancing act through the arbitration years of Kelenic, Logan Gilbert, Emmerson Hancock, George Kirby, Julio Rodriguez, and Noelvi Marte, should they all pan out.