Jarred Kelenic

Mariners To Recall Jarred Kelenic

By Darragh McDonald | July 15, 2021 at 2:15pm CDT

2:15pm: Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto confirmed in an appearance on 710 ESPN this morning that Kelenic will open the second half back with the big league club (link via 710’s Brandon Gustafson).

“We sent him back, he had a plan to work on,” said Dipoto. “Some of it was how to approach the game and some of it was more skills development-based, and he did everything we asked him to do. … We think it’s the right time to give it another shot. He’s just too talented to allow him to not gain this exposure and these at-bats at the big league level.”

Presumably, the Mariners will make a formal announcement and corresponding roster move tomorrow.

10:03am: The Mariners are recalling outfielder Jarred Kelenic for the start of the second half, according to Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times.

After much controversy earlier this year about service time manipulation and the resignation of Mariners President Kevin Mather, the star prospect was initially promoted in May. However, he struggled in his first 23 games to a line of .096/.185/.193, producing a measly wRC+ of 11. This slump caused the Mariners to option the rookie back to Triple-A Tacoma in June. But since that time, Kelenic has fared much better against Triple-A pitching, with a line of .306/.386/.622, for a wRC+ of 135. One very encouraging sign is Kelenic’s strikeout rate. After striking out in 28.3% of his plate appearances at the big league level, he has cut that essentially in half, to 14.3% since his demotion.

If Kelenic can carry that offensive production to the big league level, it would be a tremendous help to a Mariners team that finds itself in playoff contention, seven games behind the Astros in the AL West and 3.5 behind Oakland for the second wild card spot. The club has a record of 48-43, despite a run differential of -50, which is largely due to only scoring 4.08 runs per game, a rate which ranks 26th out of the 30 MLB clubs.

Kelenic’s initial delay in getting promoted had already prevented him from reaching free agency until after the 2027 season. But this second stint almost certainly prevents him from acquiring Super Two status and reaching arbitration after the 2023 season, which will suppress his earning power during his arbitration years.

With Mitch Haniger and Jake Fraley playing well, Kelenic could potentially take at-bats away from Shed Long Jr., who has limped to a subpar .188/.233/.400 line and wRC+ of 73 so far this year. If Kelenic can hit enough to stay in the mix, Seattle could be facing an outfield logjam in the future. Kyle Lewis tore his meniscus in June but was was playing well before then. And there is also the fast-approaching star prospect Julio Rodriguez, who was recently promoted to Double-A. Haniger is only controlled through 2022 and has often been mentioned as a potential trade chip for the Mariners, as they have been rebuilding in recent years. But that could change if the team continues playing well and maintains contender status.

Mariners Option Jarred Kelenic

By Connor Byrne | June 7, 2021 at 3:14pm CDT

The Mariners announced that they have reinstated infielder Shed Long from the 60-day injured list, optioned outfielder Jarred Kelenic to Triple-A Tacoma and transferred infielder/outfielder Sam Haggerty to the 60-day IL with right shoulder inflammation.

Kelenic, one of the game’s most touted prospects, reached the majors for the first time in the middle of May. Unfortunately, the 21-year-old could only produce an .096/.185/.193 line over his first 92 plate appearances in the bigs, punching out at a 28.3 percent clip along the way. Kelenic drew walks at a solid 8.7 percent clip, connected on a pair of homers and went 3-for-3 in stolen base attempts, but it was still far from the debut most hoped to see.

Of course, it’s easy to forget that even the most-hyped prospects in the sport don’t hit the ground running all the time. Kelenic in particular was rather aggressively pushed through the minors, perhaps in part due to former Mariners president Kevin Mather rather blatantly broadcasting the organization’s plans to hold him in the minors for service time purposes, regardless of performance in Spring Training or early in the season.

Kelenic played just 21 Double-A games in 2019, and while he was with the club’s alternate site in 2020, he didn’t actually play in competitive games against other organizations last year. The delayed start to the minor league season meant more of the same intra-squad action for Kelenic to begin the 2021 campaign, and while that certainly carries some developmental value, it’s not the same as actual competition against other clubs. He utterly destroyed Triple-A pitching when the minor league season finally got underway in May, but he only played in six games before being summoned to the Majors.

The service time issue raised by Mather shined a spotlight on Kelenic’s ascension to the Majors, so it’s worth looking at just how a return to Triple-A will now impact his service clock. Kelenic was already guaranteed to finish the season shy of one year of service, so it’s unlikely his path to free agency will be further delayed by this demotion. He was always going to finish this year with between zero and one year of service, finish the 2022 season between one and two years, the 2023 season between two and three years, and so on, up until the completion of the 2027 season.

Kelenic accrued 26 days of Major League service time in his first run through the big leagues. In order for that free-agent calculus to change, he’d need to spend fewer than 146 days in the Majors between 2021 and 2022 combined. That seems decidedly unlikely, barring an untimely major injury or injuries sustained while playing at the minor league level. What today’s demotion could do, however, is impact whether Kelenic eventually qualifies as a Super Two player who’d be eligible for arbitration four times (assuming the arbitration system as we know it remains intact in the next collective bargaining agreement, which isn’t a given).

Super Two designation is awarded to the top 22 percent of players (in terms of service time) who have between two and three years of service in a given season. Generally speaking, prospects who are called up in mid-to-late June and stick in the big leagues end up falling just shy of Super Two status. Kelenic’s early-May promotion had him on track for Super Two status, but if he were to spend another four to six weeks in the minors, he could fall into a more traditional arbitration schedule.

There’s obviously no indication as to how long the club plans to keep him down for at the moment, and he’ll probably control his own fate to some extent. If he immediately takes the Pacific Coast League by storm and continues hitting near the .370/.414/.630 pace he did in his brief Triple-A showing earlier this year, his stay in the minors could prove brief. If Kelenic’s struggles persist in Tacoma, however, it’s feasible that the early struggles could cost him one trip through arbitration.

With Kelenic now back in Tacoma and Kyle Lewis facing a prolonged absence due to another knee injury, the Mariners’ promising young outfield has a much different look. Fellow top prospect Taylor Trammell is back for a second look after dominating Triple-A himself (the exact path the Mariners no doubt hope Kelenic will travel in the coming weeks). He’ll handle center field. Mitch Haniger has been excellent in right field all season and should remain the primary option there, though he’s also a logical trade candidate, particularly if the Mariners slip further below .500. (They’re currently 30-31.) Seattle also recently got 26-year-old Jake Fraley back from a notable hamstring strain, so he could step into Kelenic’s spot in left. Utilityman Donovan Walton could see some occasional time there, and Long has logged time in left field in the past as well.

Speaking of the now-25-year-old Long, he’s now set for his 2021 debut after spending months working back from the surgery he underwent on his right tibia last September. The former Reds prospect impressed in his first major league action in 2019, when he batted .263/.333/.454 with five home runs and three stolen bases in 168 plate appearances, but he was unable to build on that in 2020 as he attempted to play through a stress fracture that eventually led to that September surgery.

Long took 128 plate appearances last summer but posted a disastrous .171/.242/.291 with three homers and four steals before landing on the injured list. It’s admirable that he tried to gut things out, but the injury was clearly hindering him at the plate. He’ll now get a fresh chance, presumably at full health, to prove he’s more the 2019 version of himself than the 2020 version.

Mariners Officially Promote Jarred Kelenic, Logan Gilbert

By Steve Adams | May 13, 2021 at 10:42am CDT

The Mariners have made it official: top prospects Jarred Kelenic and Logan Gilbert have had their contracts selected to the Major League roster and will make their MLB debuts tonight against the Indians. Seattle has also selected the contract of right-hander Paul Sewald.

To make room on the 26-man roster for that trio, the Mariners have optioned outfielder Taylor Trammell, lefty Aaron Fletcher and righty Wyatt Mills to Tacoma. Additionally, Seattle designated outfielder Braden Bishop for assignment and transferred both Nick Margevicius and Ljay Newsome to the 60-day injured list to open spots on the 40-man roster. Margevicius, according to the team, has been diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome. Newsome is weighing options for a UCL injury.

The promotions of both Kelenic and Gilbert were reported to be taking place earlier in the week. Kelenic comes to the Majors as one of the game’s top overall prospects — a potential five-tool outfielder who was the No. 6 overall pick in the 2018 draft. Kelenic, in many ways, has become the face of the Mariners’ rebuilding effort. Not only is he the top-ranked prospect in a farm system that was rapidly turned from one of the game’s thinnest to one of the game’s best, but he was the centerpiece of the trade that saw the Jerry Dipoto-led front office trade away Robinson Cano — the signature addition of predecessor Jack Zduriencik.

Kelenic, who has yet to turn 22, had an even brighter spotlight cast upon him after now-former Mariners president Kevin Mather revealed during a recorded interview that Kelenic had turned down an extension offer and the club planned to call him up in late April. It was a clear nod to service time manipulation, one that prompted Kelenic and agent Brodie Scoffield to publicly state that the Mariners had made clear that he’d have been in the Majors last summer had he accepted their offer prior to the 2020 season.

As if that situation didn’t cast enough eyes on Kelenic, he quickly put on a display in Triple-A Tacoma that illustrated why he is so highly regarded within the industry. Kelenic homered twice in his Triple-A debut last week, and he’s gone on to bat .370/.414/.630 with a pair of steals in a total of 29 plate appearances in what the organization hopes will be the only Triple-A time he ever needs.

ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel ranks Kelenic as the No. 3 prospect in all of baseball, and Kelenic checks in as the game’s No. 4 overall prospect on the lists penned by Baseball America, MLB.com, Keith Law of The Athletic and Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs. Scouting reports on him are rife with superlatives. BA calls him an “elite young hitter” who projects to be an “offensive force,” while FanGraphs touts him as a “lethal offensive threat” who’ll hit enough to be a star regardless of his defense — which nearly all suggest to be solid in the outfield corners, at least during his younger seasons.

For all of the focus on Kelenic, the also-touted Gilbert seems to get lost in the shuffle at times. Selected just eight picks after Kelenic in the first round of that 2018 draft, Gilbert tore through minor league lineups in 2019 and may well have been positioned for a call to the big leagues in 2020 had their been a full season. As with Kelenic, Mather said in that interview that Gilbert would be in the big leagues just a few weeks into the season.

Gilbert, who recently turned 24, racked up 135 innings across two Class-A levels and Double-A in 2019, pitching to a minuscule 2.13 ERA with a huge 31.7 percent strikeout rate against a tiny 6.3 percent walk rate. While he’s not ranked among the game’s five best prospects, none of the aforementioned prospect rankings have Gilbert listed any lower than No. 47 overall.

Both BA and MLB.com rank Gilbert as the game’s No. 28 farmhand, painting the 6’6″ 225-pound righty as a viable mid-rotation starter with the upside to develop into even more than that. He doesn’t have the triple-digit fastball we’ve practically come to expect from so many top pitching prospects, but Gilbert has a mid-90s heater with three average or better secondary offerings and, as Law writes, “some of the best command of anyone on this list.”

The organizational hope is that Gilbert steps up as a foundational piece in an increasingly promising young mix of starters. Ideally, recent first-rounders George Kirby and Emerson Hancock will join him over the next year or so.

The timing of those promotions remains to be seen, but with regard to both Kelenic and Gilbert, they’ll be controlled all the way through 2027 even if they never return to the minors. Both are now likely to be Super Two players — assuming they stick in the Majors and assuming Super Two designation survives the upcoming wave of collective bargaining talks. That would make both players arbitration-eligible four times rather than the standard three, with the first offseason of arb eligibility coming post-2023.

Seattle will also get its first look at the 30-year-old Sewald, a former Mets reliever who has spent parts of four seasons in the big leagues. He’s had some solid stretches out of the ’pen in Queens, but the overall body of work was lacking, as the righty owns a 5.50 ERA in 147 1/3 Major League innings. That said, he also has a career 3.01 ERA in parts of five Triple-A campaigns and had been absolutely lights-out so far in Tacoma, tossing 4 1/3 shutout frames with 10 strikeouts and no walks. It’s always possible that a change of scenery will unlock something, and this is indeed a change for Sewald, who’d spent his entire career prior to 2021 in the Mets organization.

Turning to the players who are being sent out, Trammell will now head to Tacoma and get regular at-bats as he looks to get on track. A well-regarded, top-100 prospect himself, the 23-year-old made the big league roster out of Spring Training but struggled in his initial look at MLB pitching. Through his first 95 trips to the plate, the former No. 35 overall pick (Reds, 2016) managed just a .157/.255/.337 output with a troubling 43 percent strikeout rate.

Trammell spent the 2020 season at the alternate sites for the Padres and Mariners — he was part of last summer’s Austin Nola trade — but hadn’t played in a game setting since 2019 and has never taken a plate appearance in Triple-A. With Kelenic, Kyle Lewis and Mitch Haniger now slated to make up the Mariners’ starting outfield, there weren’t going to be everyday at-bats for Trammell. Given his prospect status and his ceiling, the Mariners clearly want to make sure he’s getting everyday reps to build toward a future where he’s a vital piece of a dynamic outfield mix.

Bishop, meanwhile, now becomes a candidate to either be traded or passed through outright waivers, where any team can claim him. The 27-year-old hasn’t hit much in a small sample of 99 Major League plate appearances, but he does have a career .267/.355/.465 slash in Triple-A and is capable of playing all three outfield spots. He’s also optionable for the rest of the season, so a club with some depth issues in center field — e.g. the Phillies or Pirates — could have interest in taking a look either via waiver claim or a small trade.

As for Margevicius and Newsome, their diagnoses are obviously quite unfortunate. The Mariners initially placed Margevicius on the injured list with shoulder inflammation, but a thoracic outlet syndrome diagnosis is typically followed by an invasive surgery to remove a portion of the pitcher’s rib. TOS surgery has a much spottier track record of recovery for pitchers than Tommy John surgery, and if Margevicius ultimately goes under the knife, it’d quite likely end his 2021 season. Manager Scott Servais revealed last night that Tommy John surgery was on the table for the 24-year-old Newsome, so it’s hardly a surprise to see him moved to the 60-day IL with a confirmed diagnosis of a UCL injury.

All told, it’s a rather lengthy list of transactions for the Mariners — but one they hope will mark a watershed day in their organization’s history. It’s probably unfair to any prospect to view him as a potential organizational savior and tie the fate of a broad-reaching rebuild to his successes or failures, but right or wrong, those are the type of expectations fans will place on the likes of Kelenic and Gilbert. They’ll now join Lewis, the reigning AL Rookie of the Year, on a roster that seems to skew younger and younger as the months tick by.

Should this youth movement bear fruit in the form of multiple productive young stars, the Mariners will look all the more formidable in the long run. Seattle has just $19.2MM in guaranteed salary on the books next year — including the $3.75MM they owe to the Mets as part of the Cano/Kelenic agreement — and that number drops to $14MM in 2023. Considering this is a club that has in the past trotted out a $158MM Opening Day payroll, the confluence of this group’s arrival and next year’s star-studded free-agent class offers Mariners fans the hope of finally reaching an oasis in desert of a playoff drought that now spans two decades.

Mariners Expected To Promote Jarred Kelenic This Week

By Connor Byrne | May 10, 2021 at 10:55pm CDT

The Mariners are expected to promote star outfield prospect Jarred Kelenic on Thursday, Jeff Passan of ESPN reports. The plan is for Kelenic to be up for the beginning of the Mariners’ series against the Indians.

This is much-anticipated news for the Mariners and their fans, as the 21-year-old has done nothing but thrive in the minors since they acquired him from the Mets in the pre-2019 Edwin Diaz/Robinson Cano blockbuster. The Mets used the sixth overall pick in the 2018 draft on Kelenic, who has since batted a superb .294/.370/.523 with 31 home runs in 771 minor league plate appearances. He’s off to a dazzling .444/.500/.778 start with two home runs in his first 20 Triple-A plate appearances this year.

The Mariners decided not to promote Kelenic at the start of this season, owing in part to a desire to get him some work in Triple-A ball and the left knee strain he suffered during the spring. Service time also seemed to play some role in it, as then-CEO Kevin Mather revealed in February the team offered Kelenic a contract extension. Mather went on to imply that Kelenic wasn’t going to crack their Opening Day roster after he rejected the M’s offer, but he’d be up by the end of April. By then, the Mariners would have secured an extra year of control over Kelenic. Mather’s comments set off a firestorm, leading agent Brodie Scoffield to say it was “made crystal clear to Jarred” he’d have already been in the majors had he taken the extension. Mather resigned his position after his statements came to light.

General manager Jerry Dipoto suggested last week that Kelenic was nearing a call-up to the bigs, and the hope is that he’ll provide an immediate spark for their offense. The Mariners have struggled recently, having dropped to 18-17 after a 12-7 start, and their offense ranks below average in both runs scored (19th) and wRC+ (22nd). Kelenic, for his part, “is an elite young hitter who projects to be an offensive force,” according to Baseball America, which considers him the sport’s fourth-best prospect. Other outlets such as ESPN (No. 3), The Athletic (No. 4), MLB.com (No. 4) and FanGraphs (No. 5) are similarly bullish on Kelenic.

Now that he’s coming to the bigs, Kelenic will play a prominent role in a Seattle outfield that has received quality production from regulars Kyle Lewis, the 2020 AL Rookie of the Year, as well as Mitch Haniger. Kelenic should combine with those two to form an exciting trio in the present, while Seattle also has another high-end outfield prospect, Julio Rodriguez, waiting in the minor league wings.

The timing of Kelenic’s promotion puts him on track for Super Two status, meaning he’d be eligible for arbitration on four occasions. The Mariners are also slated to have control over Kelenic through the 2027 campaign.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Jerry Dipoto On Jarred Kelenic Timeline

By Steve Adams | May 7, 2021 at 11:57am CDT

Mariners top prospect Jarred Kelenic made his Triple-A debut last night and did little to quell the growing fan clamor for his promotion. The 2018 No. 6 overall pick and centerpiece of the Edwin Diaz/Robinson Cano blockbuster ripped a pair of home runs to right field in his first minor league game since Sept. 2, 2019. (You can watch both blasts at these Twitter links, courtesy of MLB Pipeline and MiLB Mariners.)

The multi-homer showing came just hours after MLB.com’s Jon Morosi tweeted that Kelenic was “likely” to debut this month — a timeline most already expected — which prompted some comments from Seattle general manager Jerry Dipoto in a radio appearance on 710 ESPN (link via 710’s Brandon Gustafson).

Dipoto acknowledged that Kelenic is getting “closer and closer” to the big leagues and that a promotion will come “sooner than later.” He made clear that the organization wanted to see him get some work against Triple-A pitching. There’s surely some truth to that, because if service time were the only issue, Kelenic could’ve been called up more than two weeks ago. But with the Mariners slumping as a team, even before being no-hit by Orioles lefty John Means, the GM also noted that Kelenic “might add a spark to our offense if we give him that opportunity.”

Dipoto has spoken in the past about the importance of taking 30 to 40 games to evaluate the club with which they broke camp, and we’re now into that territory with generally lackluster results from the offense. Fellow top outfield prospect Taylor Trammell is hitting just .156/.261/.338 with a 43.8 percent strikeout rate. Neither Jose Marmolejos or Sam Haggerty has hit especially well during their time in left field; Mariners left fielders are hitting just .204/.316/.357 on the whole.

The Mariners have gotten a nice bounceback effort from Mitch Haniger in right field, as he’s returned from injury to bat .254/.300/.534 in his first 130 plate appearances. Kyle Lewis missed the first several weeks of the year on the injured list and has struggled to a .181/.231/.388 slash. That’s not a pretty result, but it’s only 52 plate appearances and as the reigning AL Rookie of the Year, he has a longer leash than others might.

There’s no denying that left field has been a black hole on an already sub-par offensive club, however. And with Haniger, Ty France and Kyle Seager all slowing down to varying extents after hot starts to the season, the Mariners’ offense looks increasingly lifeless. As a team, the Mariners are batting only .201/.280/.359. They rank last in the Majors in average, 29th in OBP and 26th in slugging percentage.

Despite the putrid offensive showing, though, the pitching and good timing on some of the few hits the Mariners have put together has helped them to a 17-15 record. That they’re currently sitting in second place only serves to create additional temptation to take a look at Kelenic, who currently ranks as the game’s No. 4 overall prospect at Baseball America, FanGraphs and MLB.com. Plugging Kelenic into everyday at-bats in left field isn’t going to be a panacea for the team’s overarching offensive futility, even if he immediately meets expectations, but it’d be a step in the right direction.

Regaedless of when Kelenic debuts this year, the Mariners will be able to control him all the way through the 2027 season. A May promotion would put him on track to earn Super Two status, making him arbitration-eligible four times rather than the standard three, but his path to free agency has already been delayed.

Of course, his timeline to arbitration and to free agency could ultimately be rendered moot if the two sides eventually do come to terms on a long-term contract. Now-former Mariners president shined a spotlight on Kelenic by revealing earlier this year that he’d turned down a contract extension and would open the year in the minors. That comment prompted Kelenic and agent Brodie Scoffield to tell USA Today’s Bob Nightengale that the club had made clear to him that Kelenic would’ve been in the Majors last year had he taken the extension offer prior to the 2020 season. Many assumed that may have led to some burned bridges or harsh feelings, but Scoffield told MLBTR in the wake of that interview that Kelenic remained open to future proposals.

For now, the focus is on when Kelenic debuts in the Majors. If he meets or exceeds expectations at the big league level, however, it’d be a surprise if the team didn’t make another run at putting together an offer.

AL West Notes: Judge, Angels, Athletics, Kelenic

By Mark Polishuk | April 25, 2021 at 9:34am CDT

The Angels had trade talks with the Yankees about Aaron Judge this winter, ESPN.com’s Buster Olney reports, though it sounds as if the discussions were little more than due diligence. “It was the lightest of flirtations,” as Olney put it, “and perhaps a door-opener for other names.” No details about the specific nature of the talks were mentioned, though it’s safe to assume the Angels explored some bigger outfield names like Judge before eventually landing Dexter Fowler in a salary-dump of a trade from the Cardinals.

Needless to say, a Judge trade would have been arguably the offseason’s biggest blockbuster, and it’s fun to speculate about what exactly Los Angeles would have had to give up to land the slugger. (Cue the inevitable “Judge for Trout and Ohtani sounds about fair” jokes in the comments section.) The Angels and Yankees were somewhat imperfect trade partners since both shared a need for starting pitching, which could be one of the reasons negotiations didn’t get very far. Since getting under the luxury tax threshold seemed to be the Yankees’ primary offseason goal, finances would likely have played some factor in a hypothetical trade, though obviously the Yankees wouldn’t have just given Judge away to clear his relatively modest $10.175MM salary. Olney also observed that discussion about Judge’s future in the Bronx will soon become more prominent, as Judge is only under team control through the 2022 season.

Mariners Place James Paxton, Jake Fraley On Injured List

By Steve Adams | April 7, 2021 at 12:35pm CDT

12:35pm: The Mariners announced that Paxton and Fraley have both been placed on the 10-day injured list. Paxton has been diagnosed with a left forearm strain, while the MRI confirmed a hamstring strain for Fraley. The Mariners recalled outfielder Braden Bishop and righty Ljay Newsome from their alternate training site to take their spots on the roster.

8:22am: James Paxton returned to the Mariners’ rotation last night after two years in the Bronx, but his start was cut short by another forearm injury, as he exited after just 1 1/3 innings. Outfielder Jake Fraley, meanwhile, left the game with what the team later announced as a hamstring strain after making a diving catch in left field. Both players will undergo an MRI this morning, manager Scott Servais told reporters after the game (via Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times).

Paxton’s 2020 season with the Yankees was cut short by a forearm strain, so it’s obviously a concerning development for him to suffer this type of injury — particularly so early in the season. The lefty did tell Divish and others that the pain he’s feeling in his arm isn’t at the same level as it was when he sustained that injury last summer.

The Mariners brought Paxton back to the organization on a one-year, $8.5MM free agent deal over the winter. The 32-year-old had interest from several teams, as one would expect based on his track record of success, but he seemingly preferred to return to Seattle. Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto noted at the time of the signing that Paxton had been sharp in workouts for MLB teams and gave the club something of a “hometown discount.”

The reunion looked to be going well in Spring Training, where Paxton struck out half of the 34 batters he faced and allowed just one run during Cactus League play. For the time being, he struck an optimistic tone that the current issue could be muscular in nature and something from which he can quickly return.

As for Fraley, the 25-year-old is out to an unusual start to his 2021 season. He’s just 1-for-10 through five games, but he’s drawn eight walks and been hit by a pitch, leading to a bizarre .100/.500/.200 batting line through his first 19 plate appearances. Acquired from the Rays as part of the Mike Zunino trade, Fraley hasn’t hit much in two prior stints with the Mariners in 2019-20, but he only tallied 70 plate appearances during that time. He’s a career .286/.362/.480 hitter in the minors — including a .276/.333/.553 showing in 38 Triple-A games.

For the moment, however, it seems that an IL stint could be on the horizon, which will have the baseball world watching intently. The most straightforward move for the M’s would simply be to recall Braden Bishop from their alternate site, as he’s on the 40-man roster already, but Seattle also has top prospect Jarred Kelenic on the cusp of his first big league promotion as well.

Kelenic’s service time status was thrust into the national spotlight when now-former CEO Kevin Mather blatantly indicated in a Q&A with the Bellevue Rotary Club that the 21-year-old Kelenic had turned down an extension offer and wouldn’t be called to the Majors until mid-April (the general point at which the Mariners would gain an extra year of control over Kelenic). Kelenic missed some time in Spring Training with a minor knee injury, but he returned to the lineup and immediately went 3-for-6 with a double and a homer in two games before being reassigned to minor league camp, so the injury looks to be behind him.

It still seems likelier that the Mariners will turn to Bishop for the time being, as calling up Kelenic now would still give him enough time to accrue a full year of Major League service in 2021. That would no longer be the case as soon as next weekend, however.

Turning back to the pitching staff, the Mariners were already using a six-man rotation, so it’s likely they’ll simply shorten up to five starters for the time being and carry an extra reliever. The bullpen had to cover 7 2/3 innings last night and took a beating at the hands of the White Sox in the process, so Seattle would probably prefer to get a fresh arm into the relief mix anyhow.

It’s at least worth noting that as with the Fraley/Kelenic situation, the Mariners have a highly regarded pitching prospect who is near MLB readiness: 2018 first-rounder Logan Gilbert. While this comment didn’t draw as much attention as the Kelenic revelation, Mather indicated in that same interview that he expected Gilbert to be pitching in the Majors by mid-April (obviously, an allusion to his service time). Gilbert, however, only tossed a pair of innings in Spring Training before being reassigned to minor league camp, so he may not yet be built up to the point where he’s an option even in the event that Paxton is shelved for a notable period of time. If the Mariners want to stick with a six-man rotation and Paxton does miss some time, they could give a few starts to Ljay Newsome and/or Nick Margevicius. Before too long, however, Gilbert seems likely to emerge as an option at the big league level.

Mariners Reassign Jarred Kelenic

By Connor Byrne | March 26, 2021 at 10:57pm CDT

The Mariners announced several roster moves Friday, including reassigning star outfield prospect Jarred Kelenic to minor league camp. The decision means he won’t make the Mariners’ Opening Day roster. The team also reassigned fellow outfielder Julio Rodriguez and righties Brady Lail and Paul Sewald. Additionally, righty Ljay Newsome, lefty Aaron Fletcher and outfielder Braden Bishop were optioned.

This move is particularly notable in the wake of comments made by former Mariners CEO Kevin Mather, who resigned in February after suggesting the team would manipulate Kelenic’s service time. Mather made it clear that the Mariners would keep him out of the majors for the first month of the season in order to gain an extra year of team control.

“Probably Triple-A Tacoma for a month, and then he will likely be in left field at T-Mobile Park for the next six or seven years,” he said.

Kelenic went on to miss some time this spring with a Grade 2 knee strain, but he looked worthy of a major league roster spot upon his return. The 21-year-old came back to slash.333/.478/.778 with two home runs, albeit over just 18 at-bats. Kelenic has also been highly productive in the minors, where he most recently batted .253/.315/.542 with six homers during a 21-game, 92-PA Double-A debut in 2019. The former sixth overall pick – whom the Mariners acquired in the Robinson Cano/Edwin Diaz blockbuster with the Mets in December 2018 – currently ranks as a consensus top prospect, with MLB.com placing him fourth overall. Rodriguez ranks fifth, though he’s not quite as close to the bigs as Kelenic.

With Kelenic out of the Opening Day picture, the Mariners could begin with Taylor Trammell as the starting left fielder alongside center fielder and reigning AL Rookie of the Kyle Lewis and right fielder Mitch Haniger. Jake Fraley and Jose Marmolejos are also outfield options on the 40-man roster.

AL West Notes: Mariners, Fiers, Adell, Whitley, Astros

By Mark Polishuk | March 15, 2021 at 12:22pm CDT

The December 2018 trade that sent Robinson Cano and Edwin Diaz to the Mets was a transformational moment in Mariners history, as it allowed Seattle to both escape a major salary commitment to Cano and also re-stock its farm system with some prime minor league talent in Jarred Kelenic and Justin Dunn. Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto recently discussed the trade with The Athletic’s Corey Brock, looking back at how talks with the Mets developed, and how concurrent discussions with the Phillies about a Diaz trade helped make the Mets even more aggressive about swinging a deal to one-up their NL East rival.

Injury Notes: Kelenic, Long Jr., Choi

By TC Zencka | March 13, 2021 at 11:52am CDT

Let’s get some injury updates from the American League…

Jarred Kelenic is progressing well as he tries to get his left knee back to full strength, per the Athletic’s Corey Brock (via Twitter). The young outfielder plans to meet with the training staff today and set a course to return to action. Kelenic himself was bullish about his ability to make a quick return. Assuming no setbacks, there’s no reason that Kelenic shouldn’t be ready for the season opener. Whether or not he makes the Mariners’ opening day roster will be one of the more closely watched roster decisions around the game. The 21-year-old certainly expects to make the roster, despite only 21 games of experience at Double-A.
Shed Long Jr. lost his starting second base job to Dylan Moore last season, and he looked to make a strong impression this spring. Instead, inflammation in his surgically-repaired right shin has kept him out of action entirely, writes the Athletic’s Corey Brock. It now seems unlikely that Long will even be ready in time to make the team. The Mariners had high hopes for Long’s role in 2021, even if he wasn’t the starter at second. After making a bid for a number of utility types in free agency, the Mariners came up empty, presumably leaving room for Long to take on that role – even after slashing .171/.242/.291 in 128 plate appearances in 2020.
Ji-Man Choi had his knee examined by the team doctor yesterday after experiencing some tightness, per Adam Berry of MLB.com (via Twitter). The issue hasn’t kept Choi from participating in drills, so the team is not overly concerned at the moment. While Choi’s splits and defensive limitations somewhat minimize his potential role on the team, he brings much-needed thump when he is in the lineup. He also adds to the club as a recognizable and likeable personality. The sometimes-switch-hitting slugger adds the most value against right-handed pitching. He has a career 125 wRC+ against righties. Were he to miss significant time, Yoshi Tsutsugo could step in, while Brandon Lowe could slide over from second or Francisco Mejia could fill the lineup spot as well. The Rays would have a number of potential ways to re-shape their roster. Hopefully, however, no changes will be necessary. That said, Choi is likely to be shut down for a week to ten days, adds Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (via Twitter).

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