Seattle Mariners President and CEO Kevin Mather has resigned, President and CEO John Stanton announced Monday. Mather’s resignation comes after a speech earlier this month in which he made derogatory remarks about the English-speaking abilities of two members of the club, spoke openly about manipulating the service time of several clients and called the third longest member of the “overpaid” team. online on weekends.
“Like all of you, I was extremely disappointed to learn of Kevin Mather’s recent comments,” Stanton said in a statement. statement. “His comments were inappropriate and do not represent our organization’s feelings about our players, employees and fans. There is no excuse for what he said and I will not try to make one.”
Stanton said Mather’s resignation is effective immediately and that Stanton will take over as president and CEO until Mather’s replacement is found.
Mather has been with sailors since 1996 and took on the role of president and CEO in 2017.
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Speaking at Bellevue, Washington, The Rotary Breakfast Club for an online event on February 5, Mather addressed several topics about the inner workings of the Mariners during a 46-minute discussion.
Speaking about prospectus Julio Rodriguez, a Dominican outfielder ranked 2nd by CBS Sports in the Seattle agricultural system, Mather said that “he has a bigger personality than all of you put together. Everyone says I’ll be here in 2021. He won’t be here until 2022 or 2023. A fantastic child. ”
Sunday, Rodriguez posted on Twitter an image of his face superimposed over Michael Jordan in the documentary series “The Last Dance” saying “… and I took that personally”.
Mather also complained that he will have to pay for an interpreter for Hisashi Iwakuma, a former Mariners pitcher who was recently hired as a special coach for missions.
“Wonderful human being. His English was awful,” Mather said. “He wanted to get back in the game. He came to us. We sincerely want him as our Asian researcher / performer, what happens to the Japanese league. He comes to spring training. And I will say, I’m tired. I paid Iwakuma “X” when he was a player, but we would have to pay $ 75,000 a year to have an interpreter with him. His English suddenly improved. Better when I told him that. . ”
Mather also openly acknowledged that the team chose not to bring top prospects like Jarred Kelenic last season as a way to keep them under control of the team for longer.
“We weren’t going to put them on the 40-man list, we weren’t going to start duty,” he said. “There were all sorts of reasons that if I had an injury problem or COVID outbreak, you may have seen my big belly there in the left field. You wouldn’t have seen our prospects playing in T-Mobile Park. “
Mather also named third baseman Kyle Seager, who has spent his entire career with the team, “probably overpaid,” and said he will probably not be with the team until 2022. Seager’s wife , Julie, he replied on Twitter wondering if he should sell his Seattle house.
Mather apologized for Sunday’s comments, saying he had “no excuses.”
“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 lawsuit,” Mather said in a statement. . “My comments were mine. They do not reflect the views and strategy of the Mariners baseball leadership, which are responsible for decisions about player development and status at all levels of the organization.”