TODAY: MLB is aware of and investigating the matter, per a statement (via Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, on Twitter).
YESTERDAY, 11:18pm: Martin shares more detailed accusations in an interview with T.J. Cotterill of the Tacoma News Tribune. According to her account, the derogatory comments were made during meetings in the run-up to Spring Training. She claims to have reported them to the human resources department at that relatively early stage of her tenure.
The team has yet again responded with a denial, as Divish tweets, calling the allegations “absolutely false and ludicrous.”
7:00pm: Mariners director of high performance Dr. Lorena Martin, who was hired into her role just over one year ago, has leveled serious charges against key figures in the Seattle baseball operations department in an Instagram post. The team responded by denying her allegations in a statement.
Generally, Martin says the Seattle organization has “major issues” that “have left [her] shocked.” More particularly, she says that she “witnessed and heard first hand” degrading remarks regarding players from GM Jerry Dipoto, manager Scott Servais, and director of player development Andy McKay.
As she characterizes it, those men engaged in “calling latinos lazy, dumb, and stupid, especially the Dominicans.” Martin also suggests that the Mariners were responsible for “firing innocent trainers for trying to do the right thing and because of their color/race.”
In their statement, the Mariners say that they previously fired Martin on October 10th. The organization denies that “any member of our management or coaching staff made racist remarks regarding any of our players or staff” and says it has “not terminated (or threatened to terminate) any trainers during the off-season.”
Additionally, the club claims that “Martin did not make any of these false allegations until after she was relieved of her duties.” Martin specifically disputed that in a subsequent tweet.
Martin’s role was by all appearances a significant one. Per the team’s original hiring announcement, she was responsible for “coordinating all aspects of the Mariners physical and mental training approach of players and staff, including oversight of the entire organization’s medical, strength and conditioning, nutrition and mental skills departments.” Martin had previously worked in a variety of other professional sports environments, including most recently as director of sports performance analytics for the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers.
Get ready to close the comments for this one, MLBTR
lmao i agree its gunna get so gnarly, but im still standing by my dipoto worst gm in mlb comment! haaaa
I do think he’s one of the worst but nowhere near the worst
Michael_Jackson_Popcorn.gif
I am not taking sides on this argument, nor commenting further here. Too many unknowns at this juncture to do so intelligently.
Agreed
MLB could hire Correa to hack the Mariners system and see what really happened.
Never worked for him. So I don’t know whether it would be good or bad.
How is it not Duquette? It is difficult to find any type of silver lining for almost any of his moves. Basically 0-7 (years). Even really bad GMs occasionally stumble into something good, it is just the law of averages.
He inherited a ton of young talent, and in a few short years, managed to finish 61 games out of 1st. And he didn’t even manage to tank. Instead of trading everyone, he signed Cobb and Cashner.
He’s like the Jim Dolan of the baseball world.
I think instead I’ll just remove any comments that unnecessarily inject completely unrelated political matters and ban anyone who sees this as an opportunity to spew hatred in any direction.
Keep it on topic, please.
If you ban someone, couldn’t they just create a new account and log on with a different email address? Not saying that anyone should say anything derogatory, but I’ve always wondered how that would work.
Yeah I wonder about this too. Casey’s sidekick?
@Ty1990 – speaking only from a technological standpoint – I suppose an IP address could be banned too; but then they could go to any McDonald’s and create a new account too….. A lot more work 🙂
There’s a commenter on a Mariners’ blog that was banned multiple times and eventually had his IP banned. Disappeared for months, but found his way back in.
So, yes, unfortunately, the determined trouble-makers can find their way back if they’re determined.
Oh really?
A VPN would all but make an IP ban useless. For like 10 bucks a month, someone could just troll all day. It’s a headache for anyone who moderates comment boards.
MAC address ban?
This country needs a good lesson on ethics. Let the investigation play out and judge the results at that time.
Raise shields, Mr. Sulu!
I cana give ya anymore power captain
Dipoto worst GM in the game, confirmed
We’ve had Bill Bavasi and Jack Z. Dipoto still has a ways to go.
Exactly!
We’ve had Bill Bavasi and Jack Z. Dipoto still has a ways to go.
Dipoto is like a drunken Dave Dombrowski — except he’s got no farm system to obliterate.
No World Series titles, either.
dip dip acted very unprofessionally when he knew he was leaving the angels organization. he is the one that made its minor league system the worst in the league. and most position players he brought in bombed. they were not very good to begin with but every one of them was so bad.
I thought it was, like, common knowledge even among the fans that ownership mandated he “go for it” while he was with the Angels?
It’s public knowledge that Arte made huge signings then told Dipoto to fill in the rest of the team within budget.
Jeff…what are you doing leaving the comments on? Uhhhh….
You realize you just had to comment to complain about the comments being on. #nonsense
Boom Roasted
…more to come?
Yep
This should be…interesting.
I wonder what the context was for these alleged comments. More specifically, there’s a difference between calling a player (who just happens to be Dominican and/or Latino) lazy vs. saying something like, “ugh, these Dominican/Latino players are so lazy”.
Edit: just to clarify, the example quote I gave is not representative of my beliefs whatsoever.
Totally agreed, but until we know more, hard to pass judgement. It could be as you say, and its all smoke, or– as an example– they could have created a pattern of calling only the minorities lazy.
Lmao anyone w a half working brain realizes what u meant …
“Director of high performance”?
I think that’s code for something
Cannabis is legal in Washington.
Maine too but can’t buy it anywhere but can grow yer own!
I’m waiting for it to be legal in Illinois so they can get everyone high and tax us to death
that’s what dip dip created!
Sounds like someone wasn’t happy she got fired and wanted to screw those who fired her.
How could you possibly know that?
How could you possibly know otherwise?
I don’t. That’s why I literally just wondered aloud about the context of these comments. And I also called them ‘alleged’ comments.
Try harder next time.
Hey, look at that: a bunch of down-voters who can’t get up the courage to make a proper counter-argument. lol
Well, if you noticed the OP didnt indicate she was being truthful or lying. Just that she is unhappy being fired and retaliated against those firing her- whether shes truthful or not.
The basis is logically sound. People who get fired get mad get revenge.
The insinuation is that she’s probably lying.
The truth is that none of us have a clue whether her accusations are true or not.
Also, her motive for making these accusations are immaterial if they are, in fact, true — which, again, none of us knows.
Yeah, I’m all for giving the defending side a fair shake, but your comments getting downvoted this much is freaking weird… The responses to you were logical fallacies, and your question was challenging an actual assumption.
Internet commenters, man.
The internet is a strange, strange place. lol
when did you call them alleged before you just said ‘alleged’? I feel like you saying “try harder next time,” feels like you’re that kid going up for a layup and who gets stuffed so hard they have the ball break their nose as they get thrown to the ground, I don’t even know what to do with the “try harder comment,” because s/he was making a statement and you were the one who confronted him or her.
I used the word “alleged” in my very first post to this thread.
I didn’t confront anyone. I asked a question about the OP’s assumptions (“sounds like someone wasn’t happy…”).
Try harder next time.
Maybe not as strange as the Mariners’ front office!
restingmitchface… Just let it go.
Sorry, Sir – motive is ALWAYS critical and materiel.
If it really bothered her so much she should’ve spoke up sooner.
Maybe she did and that’s why she was fired
Then this issue would be more than just “derogatory remarks”.
Nope, she was fired because the Mariners sucked and aside from Mitch Haniger, Jean Segura, Edwin Diaz, and Marco Gonzales, the whole team played worse in 2018 than in 2017, despite her presence.
When did he say that he knew that?
There’s a difference between:
“Sounds like someone wasn’t happy she got fired and wanted to screw those who fired her.”
and
“She wasn’t happy she got fired and wanted to screw those who fired her.”
He’s not claiming to know anything. It’s simply his opinion based on what he read.
How could he possibly know what something sounds like? Maybe because he has ears. He didn’t say what happened, he gave his impression. Everyone has impressions about lots of things they don’t have 100% knowledge of….that isn’t a bad thing. It’s kind of bad and annoying when they present their impressions as facts but he didn’t do that.
sportsfan101 was sharing an opinion not stating a fact. Also, it stands to reason, if she was being mistreated in the spring time, she wouldn’t have stayed through the season, In fact, she has a picture on her instagram where she is all smiles at the beginning of the season while on the team plane. It says #Go Mariners # Team, etc. I don’t think I would be all rah-rah if I was being mistreated for my gender and/or race. While sportsfan is stating his opinion, we live in a country where you are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Since she is the accuser, the Mariners would be the defendants by virtue of legal system. So it is now on her to produce a preponderance (a lot) of evidence to support her accusations.
Some stay because they want, need or enjoy the job. Some stay because they have a 3 year contract. Some stay to try and change the atmosphere by going through HR channels as she, allegedly did. All points lost on CincyMariner.
So I am anticipating, if things were so horrific, she has accumulated a boatload of ‘hard evidence’ to solidify her case. (not just un-verified accusations).
She certainly had time, and with attaining a position like hers, I’m pretty sure she’s smart enough to know the difference between the two.
She should have a boatload of clear and substantiated facts to support her side..
This will be interesting.
You do get that when he says “sounds like” it means he doesn’t “ know” for sure, right? Sounds like you need to try a little harder yourself.
Bingo. Angry women is angry.
Lol. No one would EVER do that!
Doesn’t surprise me of Mariners .. already reports of misogyny from top exec’s
Also, those reports came from the spring time and as of yet nothing has come from those allegations other than the women were terminated. Has anyone even bothered to consider why the women were terminated and the Mariners organization has not been officially charged with anything? My guess would be that the allegations from the spring time that she is referring to would be the same instance we already heard about regarding Armstrong and Stanton. I doubt very seriously that the Mariners wouldn’t have sanctions brought against the team had an instance of sexual harassment occurred, as opposed to them being accused of misconduct.
That is not true. They reached settlements, instituted institutional reform efforts, and had Mather apologize: https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/mariners/mariners-ceo-kevin-mather-apologizes-for-past-conduct-says-hes-learned-from-mistakes/
I don’t know what you mean by “officially charged,” but not all poor behavior rises to the level of criminality. And it seems the settlements took place to avoid potential civil liability/bad publicity.
Oh you know what he means, Todd. Every time someone is accused of racism, sexism, harrassment, etc., people that curiously take it VERY personally act like it’s a trial.
It always shocks me to see so many immediately jump to guilty conclusions without having all the facts. As some one who used to investigate allegations there are definitely times that the initial allegations are proven false. Each situation is different and until you get all the facts in it is best to withhold judgement.
angels fans know his character well.
Because most of the time it’s true and are swept under the rug. I suppose you’d know that if you actually investigated allegations.
Yes, MOST of the time they are true. However there is a huge difference between MOST and ALWAYS. I definitely would not say that most of the time they get swept under the rug though. That is dependent on the organization in which the incident reportedly occurred.
Ummm … how could you possibly know this is true?
The only way to determine if something occurs more or less frequently is to know the total number of occurrences and then which way things went.
For example, if something happened 5 times and 3 times it was dispositioned one way and 2 times it was dispositioned another way, you could say that “most times” it went down the first path.
Here you are admitting that we don’t know how often it occurs because it isn’t reported. As a result, you can make up whatever the heck you want because the answer is truly unknowable.
What you are really saying is that your gut tells you that this stuff happens all of the time and doesn’t get reported. Which is an opinion but very far from a fact.
this is a rumor board; so slanderous rumors with or without corroborating witnesses?
someone had sour(bitter) coffee for breakfast?
We covered the accusation and the response. Whether there are corroborating witnesses, etc, is not known. But it is a story that deserves to be presented to our readers — in a fair and neutral manner, as we have endeavored to do here.
Pandora’s box, Jeff. I stand by my previous post(s) I’m guessing were deleted cuz were too biased.
It’s a new day and age. SEA owners should count themselves lucky, if they get to keep the team… (after investigation is conducted by league office)
Who would not “get to keep the team” as you say.
You’re going to say that MLB is going to force a owner out because of this one year employee, it’s not the NFL, or you saying MLB is going to have a new team The Vegas M’s haha?
First, it was not the owners who were accused of anything, it was the CEO and the past CEO. Even if Stanton was found guilty of anything, he would simply be removed from his position, Major League Baseball wouldn’t force the conglomerate of owners to sell their team because they hired someone who ended up doing something unscrupulous.
I completely agree with the fact that it’s news to report, and should be reported. I just question leaving the comments open. I feel like this is pretty clear cut, and that’s why I think comments are pointless. Things are just going to get political because there isn’t really another direction to go.
The league needs to do their investigation and make a decision. No one here knows the facts so we are all just speculating. If wrong-doing is found, those involved lose their jobs. If not, it stays the same.
Your report is fine – you reported the story and the response, as you said.
Coffee is supposed to be bitter – you were in such a hurry to discredit the accuser that you got your metaphors all jumbled
The spoken word that’s untrue is slanderous.
The printed word that’s untrue is libelous.
Just saying!
I’m a lawyer. I feel comfortable with what I wrote. Thanks for the advice, though.
Jeff, I think he was referring to Mat above who missed libel and slander definitions. I think your article is good. I said above I would not take sides because there is an accusation that should be reported and investigated, but we know very little. You’re brave to keep the comments open though. My hero 🙂
Ty Phillies phan.
That’s whom I was referring to.
Apologies.
its reporting a story that has made it into the news. its not an opinion piece that assumes facts that may or may not be true. there’s no confirmation or denial here.
No matter what; someone is going to lose their character award. Her or them.
What ever you sow, that you will reap.
Only if known to be true from the sayer or writer. I believe to libel or slander someone you have to know what you’re saying/writing is false. Jeff can correct me but otherwise at might be defamation at worst.
Actually libel can be unintentional as the determining factor is not intention but result. If a printed statement is found to be false, they have to immediately print a retraction and take down the original story or report. Defamation is the legal term for abstract action of libel or slander. If I write in the paper that you stole from me $1000.00, but in reality you borrowed $200 and just failed to pay me back. The action is libel, but when you sue me for writing that in the paper, you are suing me for defamation.
Sounds like sour grapes to me.
Sour grapes sound good.
Sounds like an expensive lawsuit to me.
Or it could be a woman accurately reporting the misconduct of men – imagine that! Hard to believe that women often choose not to come forward with their stories with fair-minded people like you out there /s
So here is the thing, her comments cover many things, but most importantly, she stated that the people responsible for building the team think that Dominicans are “lazy.” Then why would they keep Cruz when he had so much trade value? Why did they trade for Segura and then give him an extension? Why did they offer their biggest free agent contract to a Dominican reliever (Nicasio), why would they then go and acquire another Dominican reliever in Alex Colome? In March the Mariners acquired OF Ariel Sandoval from LAD, April they got Edwin Quezada from ARI, in May it was Colome, meanwhile, they shipped out only white baseball players in return with the exception of Tommy Romero, who appears to have been born in the United States and aside from his name has no ties to a foreign country. If my job was based on the ability of the team to win games, laziness would go in direct contrast to that objective, so why would anyone who actually believes Dominicans are lazy, keep 5 Dominicans on the team, and not only that but they are the two setup guys and the 2, 3, and 4 hitters on your team? If I thought Dominicans were lazy, I would not deploy them to win games in the 3 of the most important spots in the order and in the 7th and 8th inning of games we are winning.
Why do most people just immediately accept people’s accusations? Hold off on judgement.
Lol, says the dude who just called it “sour grapes”…smh.
You’d like to present yourself as fair-minded, but you really just refuse to believe women.
This is funny because you have never met him in your life, and you are making judgements on him as a person. Lol people can disagree with you, that doesn’t mean they are automatically a terrible person so chill out.
This, in all likelihood, will be a slow moving investigation by MLB. It’s a “he said/she said” accusation at this point by an ex-employee. Not all ex-employees are disgruntled and looking for revenge, but it has to be a possible factor taken into account, at this point.
If the accusations are true and can be somehow proven, then all 3 have to be terminated.
Why is everyone so offended nowadays.
Suck it up and keep the world spinning.
Ironman_4life, in other words, all serious accusations that don’t effect you personally should be brushed under the rug.
Or he disagrees with your idea of what constitutes a “serious accusation”?
Then that would make him morally challenged and likely a hypocrite. Accusations of racial stereotyping need to be investigated.
I hope this is just a disgruntled, sick woman, rather than an organization run by people so lacking in good character.
Evidence, evidence, evidence. Need the evidence. Until then its just ” rumors” . I wonder what Ichiro has to say about all this?
Of course there has to be evidence. That’s not what my argument was about at all. The person I was replying to said to suck it up…
Tell a concerned Latino to suck it up and you’re not going to get a kind response.
I tend to caution on the side of the victim, in this case I feel like the victim is the team.
Wow.
Yep, comments on this one need to be disabled. There is exactly a 0% chance that this comments section stays civil. Especially with no evidence either way with the allegations.
I wonder if lorena has ever called somebody lazy?
Is this supposed to be cute or are you just super dense?
Or are you just wayyy to into this comment section jimcarlo?
I will wait until the facts come out. Those are serious allegations, and I think it’s unfair to call anyone a liar until there is proof that it either happened or didn’t happen.
I always have a tough time believing allegations like this from someone who was fired. But time will tell. If someone makes comments like this, it’s not usually a one time deal. There should be people able to corroborate/refute it.
The Mariners are the eternal dumpster fire of the MLB which is kind of sad.
Is there a director of low performance?
That’s in the Padres front office :-p
Dodgers (and presumably others) being investigated for racketeering and human trafficking.
Twins being sued for age discrimination.
Now, this.
It’s a bad offseason for front offices.
The Braves did it before it was cool.
I’d argue the Cardinals did it before it was cool
Paging Chris Correa…
Uh, isn’t she Latin too?
What’s your point?
Yes and despite being part Cuban, she posted a meme on her Instagram that basically Cubans only put enough gas in the car to go and come back, that they always drive on empty. As if to say Cubans are either lazy or poor. Either way, not the best meme for someone who is screaming racial mistreatment.
Very sad times. Either this woman set other women back 50 years or the Mariners brain trust involved should be fired.
50 years? But the men in question should only be fired?
In other words, Ms. Martin is responsible for an entire gender, while the Mariners front-office is not.
Maybe you didn’t intend it, but this is a really harmful double-standard.
MW77, I don’t understand how. Please explain. A person who cries wolf hurts the next one who’s telling the truth but has difficulty getting people to believe him/her. As for the brain trust, what else can be done by her or the team if her representation of what happened was accurate. If her firing is related to her being a whistleblower, she could have a retaliation suit against them and the team. The alleged comments however weren’t directed at her.
One lying woman shouldn’t implicate every woman as a liar any more than having racist men in the front office doesn’t imply every man out there is racist.
Basically you’re right in that the FO should be canned if this is true, but if Dr. Martin is lying, the worst that should do is tarnish her reputation and only hers, not every woman’s.
Wrong, wrong, wrong. If a woman comes into a position and immediately causes problems and lobs falsehoods against her previous employer, of course they are going to be more cautious to hire a woman for a position, regardless of the company. If I gave my co-worker a ride home and she accused me of feeling her up, I am most definitely not giving her a ride home, nor would I trust any other woman to get in the car with me, it’s call self preservation. If you don’t think that women in sports does not get scrutinized, sure it does. Is it fair? Maybe? The fact of the matter is that even the most hard core female sports fan wants to make everything like women’s softball, basketball, or volleyball. Sure it’s a team sport, but men’s sports is more testosterone less high fives and warm hugs. There is some of that in all sports, but if they want to be considered equals, women need to approach men’s sports the way that men do. Call it misogyny, but what if a guy went into a beauty parlor and started acting like they were coaching a football team when they were the manager on duty? It’s called knowing your environment. Does that mean she should be vilified? No, but if her claims are valid, she should take them to Major League Baseball and have them investigated, Not air out her dirty laundry on the web. That’s not how business executives conduct themselves. That’s how an immature person calls out for attention. The moment she posted on Instagram, regardless of whether her claims are baseless or not, she lost credibility. You go to Homecoming or a red carpet event in a limo because it gives you credibility, you don’t take a hooptie for the same reason you don’t attack your past employer on Instagram.
CincyMariner, v
why would you believe all women are the same any more than all of any other group (I specifically do not want to stereotype another group). Of course one would be more careful but hopefully you really were just venting because eventually you’ll be a loner.
Dude, what? How do you even get internet access over there in 1835?
Look my point is that just because someone wants to be involved in a business doesn’t mean that it is fair to others. Should all women be blanketly prevented, no of course not, but let’s not be so naive as to ignore the challenges that certain positions require. If a guy wants to work at Victoria’s Secret, should 80% of the clientele be forced to feel uncomfortable shopping in the store just because of the wants of one applicant? However, if that same guy wants to work at the corporate office, does that create the same awkwardness? No. Too often we look at the desires of one to be individual over the needs of many to feel comfortable. It sounded as if part of her conversation she recounted involved going to a locker room and that they were saying she as a woman could not go in there. Numerous times when she recounts a story she pulls up short of saying something that could sway the opinion of the observer against her. She tells a story with hesitation as if orchestrating rather than recounting a past situation.
I need to add one more thing. Her JOB was part “coordinating all aspects of the Mariners physical and mental training approach of players and staff.” If she did in fact do this then her admission means, if true, that she did not do her job all that well. Again an investigation needs to be done.
The world was 1000 times better off without social media.
Best comment I’ve read in a long time JoeyPankake. Thank you.
without social media girls kidnapped and locked in wouldn’t have been saved.
Take away the pedestal to brag on and maybe the nutjobs don’t capture them in the 1st place. Many (most) of the social media is nothing but anonymous evil incarnate.
I agree. Texting and social media is causing irreversible damage to people.
Maybe she was fired because a clubhouse incident came out between two players, and another player was busted for PEDs under her careful watch. That same player busted for PEDs has been called lazy by people on this site.
Should she be at-fault for the breakdown of certain players? Not really. However, when a team goes through a rollercoaster season and you are responsible for “coordinating all aspects of the Mariners physical and mental training approach of players and staff, including oversight of the entire organization’s medical, strength and conditioning, nutrition and mental skills departments”, someone’s head would roll. The head was hers.
did she go into players’ home and stay there to see if any of them are injecting something into their bodies? that’s a ridiculous accusation.
So is your comment about kidnapped girls. Social media has become the wild west of years ago. I won’t comment further because Jeff asked that this forum not become political
She doesn’t need to go in their home to screen the chemicals going in their body. Also, Cano wasn’t suspended for steroids like they used in the 1980s NFL and WWF. (now the WWE), he was suspended for using a masking agent, which is probably to prevent a 35 year old from gaining weight, not from trying to hide steroids. He was in the middle of a recovery during the off-season and was trying to get back to playing weight. But the point is she was supposed to oversee their health and well-being, which means she should’ve been screening his supplements and making sure they weren’t banned.
Blaming her for Cano? I suppose you have more info than the rest of us. There were suspicions about him in NY. After it was revealed, Mark Texiera said on the radio he wasn’t surprised.
Yup because Mark Teixeira is an expert and never did anything. Show me the quote or the video where anyone ever accused Cano except for angry Yankee fans when he left.
As a Yankee fan – alot of us thought he was lazy; but could get away with it because of his basic talent…
Yanks had to get that Melky away from him … why ?
PED’s ?
That was the thoughts … get stinking Melky away from Cano.
…and we all heard what Melky was ingesting or shooting up !
There is always a fall person for a turbulent season. She was it. I’m not saying it’s right or wrong. Whenever something goes wrong people do point the finger at someone else.
It appears that she is literally complaining that these players were called lazy and dumb and also Latino. We have a serious lack of critical thinking.
If it’s proven, it’s a serious issue. Purely from a business perspective, it exposes the team to litigation, hurts the team’s marketing efforts and efforts to recruit in the International Draft, and could hurt ad sales. That’s if it’s true, which needs to be investigated and demonstrated. Let’s see what happens.
How would it be proven?! This is ‘he said, she said’, an accusation made by a former disgruntled employee who didn’t make such claims while employed. Plus there’s no video/audio, so this story goes away quickly.
I don’t think what I said was controversial. But what is controversial is the idea that all accusations of this nature can be considered automatically to have no merit. Investigate, look for proof, and if there isn’t then that’s it.
It would hurt all those things by just creating the appearance they were said even if they weren’t. In addition, I don’t see a huge problem of saying the players are lazy and dumb. It appears her problem with the comments is that they called players lazy and dumb and they also happened to Latino. This is an insane criticism and no one is even acknowledging it.
Aaron Cross
Martin said she witnessed their poor leadership and racism first hand, calling Latino players “LAZY, DUMB, and STUPID, especially the DOMINICANS,”
In that same meeting McKay said Dominican players are “just plain stupid”
From the linked interview with the Tacoma News Tribune linked in the aticle. How is that not a problem if true?
Wth is a director of high performance? Did the mariners literally create a weed monitor position in their organization ?
I tend to be skeptical when someone chooses to use Instagram to air their grievances, especially ones like this.
What exactly does a director of high performance do?
They contribute to a baseball player’s ability to play at a high level, I’m guessing.
I feel like there’s more to it than that, but I have no idea what else it could be so I’ll go with it.
I just re-read my comment and it came across as unintentionally snarky. My bad. But yeah, it seems like most FO’s hire people with ambiguous titles.
Every team has this position.
Clearly didn’t help most of the Mariners as they all seemed to have down years.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2018/04/03/mlb-mental-health-coaches/482122002/
How come Jeff and Steve get all these “fun” issues as topics? You two enjoy covering them or something Jeff? 🙁
I don’t know Steve or Jeff but I’d be willing to bet they don’t enjoy covering stories like this whatsoever.
That’s the thing about journalism — you report what’s newsworthy even if it’s depressing AF.
It was a joke. Seems those 2 take all the hot button issue topics was all I meant.
Tim used to kind of avoid them here period. Now they do cover them here and all i meant was those 2 seem to take them.
Oh okay, I gotcha.
Yeah, this is a topic that should have comments closed off. The amount of “guilty until proven innocent” comments in here is staggering. There is an unhealthy amount of comments degrading either the organization, or the doctor, without knowing a single thing about the situation. As a Mariners fan, I’ll take time for stuff to come to light to make judgments. The viewership of MLBTR certainly comments otherwise.
Unfortunately, we live in fractured, highly-reactionary times. All I care about is truth and justice — no matter what that looks like.
you forgot the pursuit of happiness, I mean if you are going to get on your soap box, you should go all out and paraphrase the whole quote…
Thanks for proving my point.
Big of you
Yes, don’t let people comment in a comment section about a story. We can’t have people either think or write the wrong thing. Must conform.
The problem with comment sections is definitely not excessive thinking
So what problem is there with comment sections? Let me guess, toxic masculinity? No, maybe misogyny? Yes, we must shut down people’s ability to comment with those evil words. Let me just put it this way. If you actively turn off comment sections I don’t see how you can then be for free speech.
You clearly don’t understand what “freedom of speech” really is.
Yeah, I’m the one that doesn’t understand free speech.b/c not allowing people to communicate in a place meant to communicate sure sounds like it, smh.
Maybe the problem is self-righteous keyboard commandos who think they’re constitutional scholars hijacking every thread with incoherent agenda posts that look like they were pulled out of a C- midterm paper from an Intro to Sociology course at a college that operates out of an empty RadioShack at a mall in Wichita. I don’t know.
What does the constitution have to do with this? There is a societal/cultural expectation of free speech. So now wanting to protect that is now a bad thing….got it.
Yes, keep saying “free speech” as if you have some concept of what that is. There is a societal/cultural expectation that Internet blowhards are entitled to a microphone and an audience. Got it. Fight the power brother.
JD396 – THANK YOU. Finally somebody gets it.
So one vote for socialism, I tale it?! Just kidding.
If you get banned just claim you’ve been mistreated and we’re subject to reading posts that hurt your feelings. That’s the way things are done now.
And unjustly auto corrected.
DiPoto ruins everything he touches, but he’s a “cool bro” so he will always get hired somewhere.
Yeah like getting Haniger and Segura for Walker (T.J. surgery) and Marte (league average middle infielder). Might be the worst fleecing in the history of baseball, especially if he turns around and trades Segura to the Padres for a haul of players, adding to the value and then turning Segura into a division rival to boot. If that weren’t enough, Dipoto has traded non-prospects like Andrew Moore and Tommy Romero for almost 3 years of an elite closer (Colome) AND a year plus of control over an above average outfielder (Span). That’s not enough? How about getting Pazos for nothing and now he’s one of the better lefty relievers in baseball. He also was the guy that made Diaz a closer…. Hmm, how’d that work out for the Mariners? He got 4 years of a CF coming off a 3.5 war season (Mallex Smith) and only gave up 2 years of a catcher who was underperforming and was worth 1 war less. Not including the financial elements of that deal.
Meen i hate that front office!! Such a nice city!
Sadly, there is a history problems that have been swept under the rug as much as possible starting with the team president Kevin Mather, see the story that broke in July 2018. Mather should have been fired period and yet he is still on the job. So does this new story surprise me? Not in the least.
I seriously doubt she would decide to just randomly make this up. Clearly this organization is a mess from the top down and has been since Lou and Gillick left.
It’s unlikely we’ll ever know for sure, but… You’d be surprised the kind of stuff people just randomly make up.
You mean based of previous speculation and conjecture? Right.
Right, she had all these things said to her on multiple occasions.
Never said anything about it until fired.
Never recorded anything despite how east that would of been.
And she didnt randomly make it up.
They fired her from her useless, high paying position and she wants money, so cries unprovable claims of racism.
So, to recap:
-Her claims are unprovable (we don’t yet know if this is the case or not, by the way) so she must be lying.
-You then make unprovable claims about her that we’re supposed to believe are true and factual.
Interesting.
Boogaloo………
“Never recorded anything despite how east that would of been.”….Washington is a two party consent state. It would have been illegal for her to record anything without consent
Its not random, its following her firing. If she gets fired for failure, what do you think happens to her book deal? You want to buy a book from the woman who got fires from her only MLB job?
The one constant in all of this franchise’s nonsense over the years has been ownership. I don’t hope fir the team to relocate, but figure out a way to make some changes up top, or hey, hire Kim Ng as some sort of GM/Operations head and really give this team some new perspective.
by the way, dr. lorena martin has a phd degree in applied behavioral science. she now teaches in northwestern university. before the mariners, the doctor has consulted for the nba, nfl and atp.
and the mariners are trying not to pay the remainder of her 3 year contract.
information provided by lookout landing and mit sports analytics conference.
Doesn’t guarantee integrity or validate her claims. If she was someone of true character, she would have resigned before being fired and taken her grievances to the MLB office. Not wait to be fired and then sling mud.
Agreed Cincy.
never meant to be a guarantee. i only listed the facts. the writer of the article should have address her with a proper title. and do you know she went to the director of hr to relay her concerns only to be fired?
What do you mean by this: “proper title”? We used the exact title she had with the team. Our convention is to put all titles in lower cases (except when abbreviating), as we did in referring to Servais and McKay.
I’m confused.
Dr Martin?
Ah, yes, I should have included that in the first mention of her name. Thank you.
Theres’ no cryin in baseball
Thanks Jimmy, unfortunately Mr. Dugan, they don’t have a league of their own!
“They”.
Well its not we but I dont have time for an anatomy discussion.
Normally I seem to be skeptical of the accuser(at least until more facts come out) in the situations when they wait to accuse. But in this situation for someone reason I am really believe Dr. Martin. I believe that what Scott, Jerry and Andy said we’re all jokes, and they didn’t actually mean it, as they would really be hurting themselves as they have a large amount of their roster and fan base as Latinos. If what she is saying is proved to be true, the Mariners need to clean the entire house, from Mather to Servais.
Also, could the Mariners culture that Dr. Martin describes be a reason why Edgar left(he is still with the team but not hitting coach)?
To expand upon what I was saying, when I said they WERE(said we’re earlier), jokes, that does not mean that those jokes were okay. It seems that the front office has created a culture when these remarks are okay.
Or, no one ever said anything to her and shes trying to shake down the organization for a cheap payday by claiming they said it?
Explain why she couldn’t simply keep her phone recording if these comments happened so often?
Hard to record something that never happened would be the correct answer, genius.
Amazing that they would just come out and be so open with these racist comments right to her face on multiple occasions.
Wonder why she never thought of hitting the record button on her phone to have actual proof.
Guess she is just supposed to be believed without any evidence, I mean who would ever make false claims of something so serious as racism?
Clearly she has no motive or anything to gain from doing this. She is a hero! Support her please! The Rosa Parks of Seattle needs your help. Dont let hate win! Support her in her lawsuit please.
This isn’t a crime procedural, buddy.
The key line from a Lorena Martin tweet: “I had reported many other discriminatory incidences to HR and other Mariners staff members throughout the season.”
If Dr. Martin left a trail of complaints to Human Resources, the team should have a record of those complaints and the responses of HR and involved staff members. Those records could be quite telling … and could dispel suspicions that she raised the issues only after she was fired.
Fire everyone and start over.
Why is this post even here?
is there even a trade rumor involved?
i didn’t see any Congratulations Boston Red Sox for winning the World Series posts, if you are just posting mlb stories.
Front offices, business of baseball topics, etc fall well within the bounds of our coverage.
But naming the site MLBTRFOBoBTEtc just wasn’t quite catchy enough.
People who make these comments always crack me up. It’s like they don’t even read the site. If they did, they’d know that it covers far more than just “trade rumors”
Get rid of all the posts about free agency! It’s called TRADE rumors!
And actual trades? Those aren’t rumors. Go find some paywalled sports site to the read about actual trades!
Regardless of whether or not this is true, is there really anything for MLB to investigate? It doesn’t sound like there’s video/audio proof or anything of them making those comments. It’s just a he said/she said situation. Neither side can prove anything either way. It’s the same reason teachers don’t punish bullies for calling people names unless they explicitly hear the name calling themselves.
I am taking a wait and see approach. There is too much missing information. Corey Brock recent article in the athletic is a glimpse, but somewhat vague. There is no love lost between Martin and the Lakers, her previous employer. Not an indictment on her, just food for thought.
At least she was fired. She’s pretty much ensured she won’t get another job by an MLB club… lol
I don’t understand how any of this is funny.
Why was she fired ?
I don’t understand what the big deal is. Based on the information we get from this article she is saying that members of the front office have been heard calling latin players lazy, dumb, and stupid. She didn’t say that it was specific to Latin players or if they were calling other players that. If they were making derogatory comments about others then its clearly not racism. Its just a case of these guys being jerks. As for the trainers, that is 100% her opinion that they were fired due to their race. There is literally no way she could know if there was an ulterior motive for the firings. She just thinks it’s true.
Her allegations (which, again, none of us have a clue as to their validity) go much deeper than generic comments about random players.
What are you basing that on?
I read the article…?
Clearly we are reading different articles.
I don’t think we’re reading different articles. I think you’re just interpreting the articles through a biased lense. Oh well.
Not sure how you can draw that conclusion. I am stating facts and you are going on opinion. But I am the one using a biased lense.
I could post Dr. Martin’s quotes here but I don’t think that will be productive.
I will say this, though: any reasonable person would read Dr. Martin’s allegations (especially the quotes she attributed to members of the FO and field manager) and say, “yeah, IF those things were in fact said, then that’s racism”.
If we can’t agree on THAT then there’s no foundation for a productive conversation here.
My last comment on this thread: we ALL need to remember, encourage, and cherish other people’s humanity. Everyone’s. Because I think many of us (on both “sides”) have lost that sense of humanity during the course of this story. And that’s so sad to me.
I hope you have a great rest of your day. Thank you for making me ponder this issue on a deeper level than I had been.
Are you really suggesting that if I called someone lazy b/c they are lazy that it would automatically be racist if that person was non-white? Please tell you aren’t b/c that would be a ridiculous standard.
Welcome to 2018, Woodcutta – you betcha that’s exactly what he means.
Anyway – the standard is ‘acceptance’ ; not “encourage, and cherish other people’s humanity”.
Accept it – whether you like it or not… then move on !
Woodcutta….did you take the time to read the article in the Tacoma News Tribune that is linked in the above article?
If by “reasonable person” you mean someone with your own particular skewed point of view, then yes, I agree with you.
I hope you have a good rest of your day as well.
Just did and it sounds ridiculous. Alex Cora just led the Red Sox to a WS title and there have been and still are plenty of latino catchers from HOF caliber to backups. Dipoto would have to know nothing about the makeup of the league to say something that stupid. Oh, also Manny Acta happens to be Dominican and Dipoto has signed latino catchers so there’s that. Unless she has actual evidence she shouldn’t have said anything. Let’s put it this way, if the M’s can prove she never reported it how credible could she really be?
I asked because of your questions regarding the comments being racist. If the statements were made as she alleges it’s certainly racist. BTW you can be a racist and still hire those you disparage. My own father is an example. He was extremely racist yet much of his staff at work was black so the whole “no one would hire so-and-so if they are a racist is a crock.
You want to play the if game saying “Let’s put it this way, if the M’s can prove she never reported it how credible could she really be?” OK lets play, If she is found to be telling the truth do you still doubt the claims of racism?
BTW, I am not claiming she is telling the truth nor do I claim the Mariners are…we don’t know enough yet.
Social media is not the appropriate platform for expressing employment grievances and making accusations.
Hello, Mr. Straw Man.
Suspend the whole team for 40 games
Even Cano ?
Yeah and then the rest of the AL West will complain about not being able to pad their lead over the other division teams by playing Seattle this coming year.
So quick question and this is coming from someone who was born in ny from dominican parents, if i’m running a baseball team and for instance say “these white players are lazy” would that be considered “racist” ??? Not that i agree with what allegedly was said regarding latino players…
If you don’t understand what racism is I feel sorry for you; it is rooted in power structures, and people without power – therefore with no power to wield over others – don’t have the same detrimental effect. When people talk about “reverse racism” what they’re thinking of is racial insults – not the kind of racism that creates slavery or leads people to walk into black churches and massacre the congregants.
Smells like a lawsuit from here.
If you mean the Mariners suing for defamation then yes
Player evaluation is part of the job, no?
If racist remarks were made people need to lose their jobs. If the young lady is lying she needs to be banned from baseball. We need more info though.
So, yea…I’m sorta waiting to see how long before the entire issue COMPLETELY fades into the background. Be a different thing if this had popped up if the M’s had been in the middle of a LDS. It’d have more impact. But we know this brand of racism exists in MLB..we also know there are some slimy FO execs who, given all the time they’ve spent in ‘Latin America’ in whatever capacity, have had these sort of opinions about ‘players of color’ for MANY DECADES.
But is this something that can be fixed?…absolutely not. The commish sounds like an open minded guy, but he works for owners, who are mostly if not LARGELY Republican. So, the woman who brought this to light, has already lost a battle that won’t even be fought. And it ain’t going nowhere near a courthouse.