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Jeff PassanESPN
During a 45-minute discussion with a local Rotary club in early February, Seattle Mariners CEO Kevin Mather despised a Japanese player for not learning English, diminishing a stellar outlook in the Dominican Republic for his skills. linguistic and ridiculed another top prospect while acknowledging that he manipulated his working time. He called his team’s best pitcher “very boring” and embellished the pitcher’s actions in a club incident, told another lie about a well-respected veteran and complained that he was the best franchise player of the last decade. he was “overpaid.”
Any of these blunders is incalculably stupid. Together, they exhibit pathological levels of arrogance, hybridism, and myopia. This is one of 30 people in charge of running a Major League Baseball franchise.
Not only did Mather say what he did. First of all, he believes that. And that he believed that a group of Rotarians represented the right audience to tell their distorted version of the truth. And that, in an apology, he considered the episode to be “an error of judgment”, as if fanaticism is a unique thing that you try in a call with strangers or tell false stories about the people who are the heart of your business. Running is supposed to be good management.
However, the organization continues with Mather, the distrust sown by his comments reverberated deep among the players on Sunday, sources told ESPN. The range of feelings ranged from “angry” to “sad” to “what [expletive] was thinking? “
It seems that Mather emptied his candor tank during questions and answers, as his statement alternated between insincere – he trying to assume rights over his comments on baseball operations decisions when they clearly reflect priorities at the grassroots level. the whole organization – and empty.
Mather’s statement that he was “committed to repairing” and “doing whatever it takes to repair the damage we caused to the Seattle Mariners” sounded quite familiar. Maybe because in 2018, after a Seattle Times report exposed two complaints from women employees against Mather, he said, “I’m committed to making sure every Mariners employee feels comfortable and respected.”
I wonder if Julio Rodriguez feels comfortable and respected. He is 20 years old and is one of the best prospects in baseball, a straight player in the Dominican Republic. When asked about him, Mather said, “He’s great, his English isn’t great.” Two years ago, sailors thought enough of Rodriguez’s English to post a video of him talking on their YouTube channel. His English sounds pretty good and I can’t imagine it has gotten worse since then.
I wonder if Jarred Kelenic feels comfortable and respected. He is 21 years old, and the other perspective of the sailors is appreciated. The organization thinks so much about Kelenic, Mather told Rotarians, that he offered him a six-year contract with three club options. Because Kelenic refused it, he said, he will start in the minor leagues in 2021, although the sailors plan to bring him in mid-April, when they will make sure he stays under the team’s control for an extra year. Everyone knows that a fundamental element of comfort and respect is the manipulation of working time.
I wonder if Marco Gonzales feels comfortable and respected. Is he the ace of sailors, a 29-year-old man whom Mather considers “very boring” because … he doesn’t throw very hard? Anyway, Mather was happy to tell a story about “pushing Gonzales [former teammate Mike Leake] in the box “after Leake resisted the team’s rules. The problem, a source familiar with the ESPN situation, is that the story is untrue. While Gonzales confronted Leake, he did not get his hands on him.
I wonder if Mitch Haniger feels comfortable and respected. As was the case with most of Mather’s comments, they included compliments and initially spoke well of the 30-year-old who missed the last year and a half due to injury. After suggesting that Haniger will become an All-Star this season, Mather said, “He has a little chip on his shoulder as we talk about our prospects and these little kids. He mentioned several times: What do you say? by me?” According to a source close to Haniger, he did not discuss his position on future prospects.
I wonder if Kyle Seager feels comfortable and respected. Since making his debut in 2011, Seager has amassed 32.2 wins over the substitute. It’s more than that of Evan Longoria, Anthony Rizzo, Nelson Cruz, Justin Upton, Justin Turner, Michael Brantley and a lot of others who have played in the last 10 seasons. Prior to the 2015 season, Seager signed a seven-year, $ 100 million contract extension. In the last six years, according to FanGraphs, it has produced $ 147.7 million worth. But Mather means he’s overpaid.
I especially wonder if Hisashi Iwakuma feels comfortable and respected. In January, the Mariners brought back Iwakuma, who played very well for the team in six seasons after coming from Japan as a special coach. After explaining the commitment, Mather’s first words to Rotarians were: “Wonderful human being. His English was terrible. ” Mather felt comfortable enough to convey his displeasure: “I’m tired of paying the performer.” He smiled and laughed as he said.
Iwakuma is 39 years old. He earned nearly $ 50 million with the sailors. He doesn’t need this job. He doesn’t need this organization. He does not need someone to look at his desire to be understood as a weakness. And it’s damn sure he shouldn’t be tried by someone who was promoted even after he was sexually harassed for rubbing the back of an unauthorized employee and making inappropriate jokes about women in the office to another employee.
This is how bad culture takes root. More than a decade ago, two women reported Mather to human resources – a department she oversaw at the time. They left with settlements, according to the Seattle Times, totaling over $ 500,000. He remained employed. Mather then went on to rise – to the president and finally to the CEO. It took a newspaper to expose the evils of the past.
This time he did it himself. And whether he swells up to look like someone who matters – he’s spoken confidently that an e-strike zone will be implemented in two years – or he’s actually a person of consequence doesn’t matter anymore. He’s the general manager of an organization – and the kind of guy who tells stories where people in foreign countries, where they may not have had the opportunity to learn English, are the pawn.
In fact, Mather did that on a Rotary call. Speaking about the improvements Seattle has made to its Dominican academy and player education programs, he said the team will give Latin American teens $ 30 a day.
“Surprise surprise!” Mather said. “They had problems because they didn’t know how to speak the language, make changes or even buy dinner.”
Surprise surprise. Simply. Never consider what so many teenagers in baseball have to do: go to a foreign country, one with as many potential dangers as the United States, and pack up in a small apartment, five or six blast mattresses on floor, because the sport does not pay its minor leagues enough to get a place with your own bedroom and try to learn how to navigate all this time while spending the rest of the day learning how to reach 98 painted on the corner.
It is the easiest thing in the world to sit in a tower of privileges and look down on others, to denigrate, to act with impunity, because history has shown that you can, without consequences. This is the lesson here. This is the food to eat. However, I couldn’t help but think of something else, after hearing Kevin Mather continue for 45 minutes.
He is the last person who should talk about the fact that others speak bad English.