Mariners CEO Kevin Mather, who is under fire for comments, publishes the statement

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Kevin Mather has been president of the Seattle Mariners since 2014. (AP)

The sailors became a mainstay of the baseball world on Sunday, when a February 5 speech by team president and CEO Kevin Mather at the Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club came to light.

The zoom images from the event were posted on YouTube by BBRC and shared on Twitter on Saturday night. The video was played until Sunday afternoon, but not before the copies and transcripts were distributed online, including by Lookout Landing.

The 45-minute video featured Mather giving an opening statement of about 20 minutes, then receiving questions from the Zoom audience for the rest of the recording, which ended abruptly. During the program, Mather addressed a number of topics in a way that attracted the reaction of fans, players, agents and members of the national media.

On Sunday night, the sailors released the following statement from Mather:

I want to apologize to every member of the Seattle Mariners, especially our players and our fans. There is no excuse for my behavior and I take full responsibility for my terrible forfeiture.

My comments were mine. They do not reflect the views and strategy of the Mariners baseball leadership, which are responsible for decisions regarding the development and status of players at all levels of the organization.

I’ve been on the phone most of the day today apologizing to many people I’ve insulted, hurt, or disappointed talking at a recent online event.

I pledged to fix something for the things I said that were painful personally and I will do whatever it takes to repair the damage I caused to the Seattle Mariners.

During his visit to the BBRC, Mather’s opening statement included a description of how the pandemic-shortened 2020 season financially affected baseball, saying sailors did better than most, but that it was still “a year low ”for the club.

“We were right at the bottom of our rebuilding cycle, so our salary was as low as it was going to get,” Mather said. “We also have a television agreement with ROOT Sports and we put a lot of our weight in the television agreement. We had 60 games and, per game, we got a lot more than we probably deserved compared to other markets of similar size. Terrible year financially, but I did better than most. ”

Mather continued to promote the Mariners’ plan to bring as many young players as possible to their alternative site in Tacoma last season. In total, 15 potentials were invited to participate. Since there was no minor league season, this and a small pitching camp they held in North Carolina were the only ways to get a job prospect. What they will not receive, however, was the opportunity to join the big league club, as Mather revealed in his speech.

“As devastating as 2020 was in terms of player development and improvement, we took a risk and brought our high-end prospects, we even got to know them. They received state-of-the-art instructions in Tacoma, ”he said. “The risk was, if our major league team had a COVID outbreak or injuries and we had to call the people from the taxi team, we had few players. Because there was no chance of seeing these young players at T-Mobile Park. We weren’t going to put them on the 40-man list, we weren’t going to start work. There were all sorts of reasons why, if I had an injury problem or a COVID outbreak, I might have seen my big belly there in the left field. You wouldn’t have seen our prospects playing in T-Mobile Park. ”

This, along with comments predicting the MLB debuts of top potential Jarred Kelenic and Logan Gilbert in April, has been interpreted as a manipulation of working time, which will certainly be a central topic in future collective bargaining agreements between MLB and MLB Players Association. . These aspects of Mather’s speech caught the attention of at least one player.

Mather garnered praise from several players throughout the conversation, but in some cases offered ideas about those involved.

“Kyle Seager, this is probably his last season as a sailor,” Mather said of Seattle’s third baseman, who is entering his final year of contract. “He will, and I have already told him, that he will become the Mariners Hall of Famer when he finishes playing. Last year he seemed to have found the Fountain of Youth, he had a fantastic year and we expect the same in 2021. ”

Julie Seager, Kyle’s wife, appeared to respond on her Twitter account.

Top prospect Julio Rodriguez weighed in pretty quickly on this statement:

“Julio Rodríguez has a bigger personality than all of you together,” Mather said. “He is strong. His English is not extraordinary. Everyone says he’ll be here in 2021. He won’t be here until 2022 or 2023. A fantastic child. We are very big on social networks. He likes to come out in front. He loves sailors. And between him and Kelenic, we think we have a field that will be as good as any of baseball in the next six or seven years. He is the real deal. He ranked higher than Kelenic. ”

Notably, Rodríguez is incredibly proud of his English, and the Dominican native has gone so far as to host “Vibin ‘with JRod,” an interview show on the Mariners’ YouTube channel this winter. He conducts all interviews in English, including fortunately, as the interviewer does not speak Spanish.

Rodriguez was not the only person whose English language was raised by Mather, who said he was “frustrated” when he started talking about Hisashi Iwakuma, a former All-Star for the team that recently returned to the franchise as a special coach. Mather continued: “For example, we just hired Iwakuma again, he has been a player with us for several years. Wonderful man, his English was terrible. He wanted to return to the game, he came to us, we sincerely want him as our Asian scout, performer, what happens to the Japanese league. He’s coming to spring training. And I’ll say I’m tired of paying the performer. When he was a player, I paid Iwakuma X, but we also had to pay $ 75,000 a year to have an interpreter with him. His English suddenly improved, his English improved when I told him that. ”

In addition to the comments above, Mather discussed a six-year contract offer rejected by Kelenic, called it “embarrassing” that spring training would not be delayed a month “embarrassing” and repeatedly called ” Torrents ”by Luis Torrens. He also said that Torrens, along with the future Cal Raleigh, would probably be behind the plate for sailors in the next six years, which would most likely be disturbing news for Tom Murphy, who on Saturday expressed his gratitude to the sailors. who brought all the best since he had come from the Rocky Mountains.

The discussion about a possible signing of James Paxton or Taijuan Walker (both players were still free agents when the speech took place) is excellent information that was undoubtedly appreciated by the target audience. Acknowledging that the sailors “took the position that there are still 180 free agents out there on February 5 unsigned and, sooner or later, these players will return the hat and come with the hat in hand, looking for a contract.” these are words that would not be appreciated by any player.

Attending events such as Rotary Breakfast is not uncommon for Mariners front office directors or members. It is an opportunity to connect with the community and thus generate goodwill and interest. Although additional or inside information is often shared at these events, little information can go a long way. In the case of the February 5 speech, Mather not only had to apologize to many people for his own admission, but he overstepped the bounds of what would be beneficial to the organization. The reaction seen online on Sunday caused a lot of damage.

Sailors are expected to issue a statement on Monday morning.

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