Seattle Mariners did the right thing, finally
Chris Phillips
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Mather’s Undoing
The video of the incident, as of Monday morning, is still available for viewing on YouTube. I would encourage the readers to watch and take their own viewpoint away from the incident. Some of the big points from it are that Jarred Kelenic and Logan Gilbert won’t be up with Mariners until April. Taylor Trammell and Cal Raleigh will be up later this year. None of them were ever going to get called up last year, no matter what. Also, Mather doesn’t know Luis Torrens‘ last name, referring to him several times as Torres.
Kyle Seager is overpaid, and this will most likely be his last season with the M’s. The fans all know that, but still, a bit surprising Mather would say it so publicly. Seattle tried to sign Kelenic to a long-term deal, as they did with Evan White. “Kelenic refused and is betting on himself” is what Mather had to say.
Hisashi Iwakuma and Julio Rodriguez‘s command of the English language is terrible. Get your attention? Mather shared candidly that he did not enjoy paying for Iwakuma’s translator and that once the team wasn’t going to pay the translator, Iwaukuma’s English got markedly better.
He said this with a smile and a light chuckle. Maybe Mather meant the language improvement as a joke, but he didn’t need to make it. Rodriguez is a 20-year old kid; why pick on him. The worst part is the Mariners have a web series featuring Rodgriguez called “Vibin with JROD,” Mather must have missed it.
Mather personifies the American entitlement of people needing to adapt to them. Why couldn’t Mather have learned Japanese or Spanish? The game is growing culturally diverse, so from a business perspective, it makes sense for GMs, coaches, and upper management to learn another language.
For organizations that are always looking to save money, this is cheaper than hiring another employee, then paying them a salary plus benefits. Other points are worth viewing, but these are some of the big ones.