Jarred Kelenic, Seattle Mariners.
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.
A quick recap of that terrible day. In an online discussion with members of a local Rotary Club, Mather made some disparaging comments about current players and employees. If that wasn’t enough for him to lose his job, he openly admitted the Mariners were manipulating the service time agreement for their young players. Jarred Kelenic and starting pitcher Logan Gilbert wouldn’t join the team for several weeks. Following these comments, and a less than sincere apology, Mather resigned.
While many players have argued this is the case for their delay, there has never been any concrete proof. That is until Mather opened his mouth on a recorded video for posterity. He said the unsaid but highly suspected. MLB teams were weaponizing service time to keep control of their young stars longer.
To counter this type of statement, Seattle Mariners General Manager Jerry Dipoto went on record. He said it’s hard to move a player up to the big leagues, especially when the player only has 21 games of experience above High-A ball. Additionally, there were no minor league games during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. The team believed Kelenic needed more at-bats in the minors.
Mather revealed one other relevant item. In 2020, the M’s offered Kelenic a six-year contract, similar to Evan White. Had Kelenic signed, service time was then a non-issue. His Mariners debut could have come in 2020.
Over the following days, Kelenic made his stance on his service time very clear. He was ready to help the Mariners compete right away, and that the Mariners were holding him back. Even Kelenic’s agent supported his client by stating, “There’s no question that if he signed that contract, he would have been in the big leagues.” Their point that Kelenic is being punished by not agreeing to the team’s offer. They were laying the foundation for their grievance case.
Then Kelenic injured his adductor muscle, ensuring he’d start the year in the minors, as it effectively ended his spring training.
The only other grievance case that is close to Kelenic’s is Kris Bryant back in 2020. The MLB Players’ Association filed a grievance against the Cubs. The union claimed Chicago intentionally delayed Bryant’s call-up in 2015. As a result, he couldn’t be a free agent until after the 2021 season. Arbitrator Mark Irvings ruled there was no proof the Cubs did what the MLBPA was claiming. And that the Cubs move did not “reach the broader issue of whether a club can base a roster decision solely on the desire to delay free agency.”
This time the Mariners and MLB won’t have the luxury of saying “no proof.” Just view Mather’s video as evidence. This grievance case has the possibility to change the concept of service time manipulation. No other player has ever had some concrete evidence that their ball club intentionally held them back. What will be interesting is how an outsider can determine whether or not someone is good enough to make a roster.
After Kelenic’s call-up, there has been a storm on the horizon growing ever larger. That storm is now on the shores of Puget Sound. What kind of destruction will it leave in its wake? Will the Mariners lose a prized player?
Fans could see it in post-game interviews. As he so often did over the past several years, Kelenic’s heroics on the field made him a regular Seattle Mariners’ Player of the Game. He was always thoughtful in his comments. However, there was always an undercurrent of tension. Behind the smile, he was saying, “Hey Mariners, this is going to cost you. I’ll just add it to your tab.” It’s now 2026, and that tab is due.
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