Kevin Mather
The offseason is always problematic for not only the Seattle Mariners but all teams. Players aren’t formally practicing and don’t have required training. Most players participate in their own offseason training regimen. For the rest of the organization, there is more free time than during the season. Free time can be dangerous.
Any time news breaks about a player or coach, management holds their breath with weighted trepidation. “Please be good news. Please be about some other team.” They say with their fingers crossed. Unfortunately, for the Seattle Mariners, this time, it was about them. The M’s made headlines this week for all the wrong reasons.
Former Mariners President and CEO Kevin Mather’s 45-minute meeting with the Seattle Rotary Club went public. Those may be the worst 45 minutes of Mather’s life. Before diving into this topic, Mather was incredibly transparent, honest, and forthcoming with his statements and answers to the questions. In listening to the tape, it’s obvious he’s an astute businessman. But like all people, he made a dumb mistake. His was in public.
Some mistakes just can’t be made, in the first place, especially when representing a staple of the community like a Major League Baseball team. This is one of those such examples. In reviewing Mather’s comments and having time to reflect on them, it feels like, on some level, he wanted out.
The former team president went after just about everyone in the organization. Sunday, wasn’t the first time Mather brought shame and a black eye to the organization. (his sexual harassment settlement). There’s a lot to unpack here.
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.
After this event went public, everyone knew an apology was coming. You can expect the standard “I’m sorry for what I did. This does not reflect the organization. I will work to be better.” But Mather’s apology was on a whole other level. He came off as incredibly lazy and disingenuous. It appears he found some apology template, copied it, made the appropriate updates, and then shared it. It makes him look like he either 1) doesn’t understand the gravity of his mistakes or 2) doesn’t care.
Not long after Mather’s apology made it to the public, he resigned from his position. Resigned, not fired. It may have been challenging from a contract and financial standpoint, but firing him sends a different, arguably stronger, message than letting him resign. By terminating Mather, it tells everyone, from within the organization to outside of it, that the Seattle Mariners won’t tolerate this type of culture. Again, we’re talking about money. In today’s climate, money is king.
Majority owner (and now acting President) John Stanton released an apology of his own on behalf of the Seattle Mariners. Stanton’s statements ring a bit hollow as well as also being a bit disingenuous. Mather as president IS the organization. So, Mather’s comments about “not reflecting the Mariners” are curious. You run the team, and the organization takes direction from you. So, how are we to believe Mather’s statements don’t reflect the organization?
The organization promoted Mather many times over, thus allowing him to build the organization’s values.
Now on to Stanton’s apology. Stanton’s apology is more of the generic apology stars make. It was full of vague promises to be better and acknowledge they have a lot of work to do. But these apologies lack an essential ingredient, definition. How will they get better? What will they be doing to get better?
Stanton also failed to apologize to the specific people Mather named personally. With that being the case, maybe Stanton and the M’s didn’t want to leave anyone out. But couldn’t he have said, “We’d like to apologize to Jarred Kelenic, Logan Gilbert, Hisashi Iwakuma, Kyle Seager, Julio Rodriguez, their families, and everyone else that is a part of and supports the Mariners organization that is affected by the words of Kevin Mather. They were wrong.”
However, expecting this sort of statement is probably too much to ask for from the Mariners organization. Not too long ago, they stated they would “utilize our voice and our resources to join with all those working to end systemic racism.” But they continued to employ Mather at the top of the organization.
So, how contrite is Stanton? Hopefully, Stanton is going around and personally apologizing to everyone within the Mariners organization. Apparently, GM Jerry Dipoto and manager Scott Servais are working the phones hard to alleviate any hard feelings.
So, where does all of this leave the Seattle Mariners? What is the damage done by these words? Make no mistake words have meaning. There isn’t a crystal ball that we can use to see the future. Time will let everyone know. M’s fans should hope for the best and prepare for the worst.
The best is that in time and through actions (words are cute and cheap, actions speak louder), these events don’t dissuade any free agents from joining what is otherwise a good organization. Current players will want to re-sign with the Seattle Mariners when their contracts are up. Or these events in late February don’t impact the players in the regular season. Finally, that the blatant service time manipulation comments don’t come with too big of a punishment.
The worst being any remaining free agent turns the Mariners down. Kelenic, Trammell, Raleigh, and Rodriguez leave at the first opportunity they get. That Mather’s words haunt the players during the season and beyond; possibly, forcing the Mariners into overspending on every free agent to get them to play in Seattle. The loss of draft picks as a penalty. All of Dipoto’s hard work to build up the franchise could be undone in literally 45 minutes.
Mariners fans around the world should expect the fallout to be somewhere in the middle of these outcomes. Some free agents and current players may forever be turned off. Current M’s players may take longer to get going in the year because of these unfortunate words.
Consequently, some players may brush this off and say it’s only one man’s view, thoughts, and opinions and doesn’t represent everyone within the organization. Stanton’s actions will tell if the apologetic words used are genuine or just nice, pretty words meant to patronize.
Maybe the most comical and classic Mariners part of all of this is that Mather did this all within the confines of a casual chat with the Rotary Club. It wasn’t like Mather was on trial or under fire. He offered all of this up freely. It’s hard to imagine what Kevin Mather might have said if he was under oath in court.
Certainly, because of Mather, everyone got a look inside the inner thoughts of how big-league clubs think. Surely, all organizations don’t think and operate as Mather and the Mariners. But more than fans would like to believe. Many others, to some degree, may also operate in a similar manner.
Even worse for MLB, Mather made his comments in the same year that the current collective bargaining agreement expires. MLB Players Association Executive Director Tony Clark just received a reload of ammunition needed to battle Rob Manfred.
It was a sad day for the MLB and the Mariners. It’s an even sadder day for everyone that feels hurt and victimized from Mather’s words. Baseball is entertainment and a distraction from the real world. Sports are an opportunity for fans to put their troubles aside for a few hours. Enjoying a kids game played at the highest level by the very best. Mather’s words took that away.
While this season was set a-buzz with hope, enjoyment, and prosperity, all of that was trampled by Mather. The pleasure of watching the young players getting the call-up and helping the Mariners end their playoff drought has come crashing down. The voices saying, “We trade our best players away for prospects. This team is pathetic to watch.” grow louder as the fear of possibly losing the young generational talent now looms in the background like the ominous grim reaper.
This is a sad time for all affected by the cruel words of an arrogant bigot.