Seattle Mariners: M’s and Jarred Kelenic – Storm clouds brewing
Our Chris Phillips delves into the future to give Seattle Mariners fans a glimpse of what lies ahead for the team and Jarred Kelenic.
Welcome to a day that Seattle Mariners fans dreaded for years. It’s February 2025, and Jarred Kelenic gets his first taste of the MLB arbitration process. Five years passed since former president and CEO Kevin Mather made his damaging tirade. The biggest, in this case, was to let the world know that Kelenic would start his 2021 season in the minors. It didn’t matter how good of a spring training the then 21-year-old had. He wouldn’t be on the opening day roster. A move designed to get another year of team control over his contract.
Having Kelenic on the cheap for all these years while watching him produce at such a high level has been a blessing to a mid-market team. The Seattle Seahawks once had the Legion of Boom on defense. The Mariners have the No-Fly Zone. The nickname isn’t as catchy but just as impactful. Opposing players know that baseballs hit to the area between Kyle Lewis and Kelenic only have one landing-place, their gloves. The last time Seattle had a pair of outfielders this good, for this long, was Mike Cameron and Ichiro back in the early 2000s.
The unfortunate part is the storm cloud hovering in the background of all Kelenic’s success since he came to the show in May of 2021. Every hit, home run, stolen base, and run saved ran up his price tag. Add in the comments made by Mather and Kelenic is looking at quite easily the largest, financially speaking, grievance case in MLB history.