Mariners president and CEO Kevin Mather's Zoom Call

[South Side Hit Men]

Oh Snap.

https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/mariners/mariners-ceo-kevin-mather-addresses-jarred-kelenic-team-finances-and-more-in-rotary-speech/?utm_campaign=owned_echobox_sports&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1613949230

On service time manipulation

Quote

“Because there was no chance you were going to see these young players at T-Mobile Park. We weren’t going to put them on the 40-man roster. We weren’t going to start the service-time clock. … The risk paid off.”

On coach Iwakuma's speaking ability "His English suddenly got better"

Quote

“And I’m going to say, I’m tired of paying his interpreter. When he was a player, we’d pay Iwakuma ‘X,’ but we’d also have to pay $75,000 a year to have an interpreter with him. His English suddenly got better. His English got better when we told him that.”

Mariner "Hall of Famer" is overpaid

Quote

• Mather managed to say that although third baseman Kyle Seager will one day be inducted into the Mariners’ Hall of Fame, he’s also “overpaid.” Seager signed a $100 million contract extension in December 2014 and will make $18 million in 2021.

Wonder if he'll make it out of Spring Training.

 

[caulfield12]

Mather addressed the team’s payroll and watching the financial bottom line. He said he believed top prospects Jarred Kelenic and Logan Gilbert likely will not start the season with the team as a way to manipulate their major league service time and keep them under club control longer.

Mather said the club attempted to sign Kelenic to a long-term contract and was rebuffed in its efforts.

“Jarred Kelenic, we’ve been talking about him for a year and a half now, he will be in left field in April,” Mather said. “He’s a 21-year-old player who is quite confident. We offered him a long-term deal — a six-year deal for substantial money with options to go farther. After pondering it for several days and talking to the union, he has turned us down. And in his words, he’s going to bet on himself. He thinks after six years he’s going to be such a star player that the seventh-, eighth-, ninth-year options will be undervalued. He might be right. We offered, and he turned us down.”

 

https://www.seattlepi.com/sports/article/Mariners-president-Kevin-Mather-apologizes-for-15968549.php

Edited February 22, 2021 by caulfield12

[KrankinSox]

4 hours ago, South Side Hit Men said:

Oh Snap.

https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/mariners/mariners-ceo-kevin-mather-addresses-jarred-kelenic-team-finances-and-more-in-rotary-speech/?utm_campaign=owned_echobox_sports&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1613949230

On service time manipulation

On coach Iwakuma's speaking ability "His English suddenly got better"

Mariner "Hall of Famer" is overpaid

Wonder if he'll make it out of Spring Training.

 

Any thread that starts by quoting Keith Olbermann is pretty much a waste of all of our brain cells.

[caulfield12]

5 minutes ago, KrankinSox said:

Any thread that starts by quoting Keith Olbermann is pretty much a waste of all of our brain cells.

Still, it's headline news in both the Seattle newspapers, the Times and Post-Intelligencer. 

[Dominikk85]

Even worse than the language thing is probably that he admitted keeping guys down due to service time reasons. GMs never admit that, they always invent something like "needs to work on his baserunning".

This could cost the mariners quite a bit of money if the players file a grievance for service time manipulations.

Prior grievances have been lost as the player can't really prove he is ready but if the ceo is on record admitting it was manipulation that could be different.

Was that guy drunk or what? Normally a man in his position should be intelligent enough to not say stuff like that.

[South Side Hit Men]

37 minutes ago, KrankinSox said:

Any thread that starts by quoting Keith Olbermann is pretty much a waste of all of our brain cells.

Do you have any relevant information to refute the facts reported in Olbermann's tweet regarding Mathers' previous history of sexual harassment, the Mariners' subsequent sexual harassment settlement payments, or Mathers' exposed racist statements?

Are you opposed to Keith's lone opinion that Mathers' tenure should and will end soon? Are you OK with people like Mathers running the sport?

Or are you merely triggered by the fact that people are no longer putting up with sexual harassment and racism?

[oldsox]

4 hours ago, KrankinSox said:

Any thread that starts by quoting Keith Olbermann is pretty much a waste of all of our brain cells.

This.

[Kyyle23]

2 minutes ago, oldsox said:

This.

How about look at the stuff that came before the editorial by Olberman.

[CentralChamps21]

3 hours ago, South Side Hit Men said:

Do you have any relevant information to refute the facts reported in Olbermann's tweet regarding Mathers' previous history of sexual harassment, the Mariners' subsequent sexual harassment settlement payments, or Mathers' exposed racist statements?

Are you opposed to Keith's lone opinion that Mathers' tenure should and will end soon? Are you OK with people like Mathers running the sport?

Or are you merely triggered by the fact that people are no longer putting up with sexual harassment and racism?

There are plenty of people who aren't total assholes that are calling out sexual harassment and racism that we never need to involve someone like KO.

[Chicago White Sox]

What’s the beef with Olberman?

[oldsox]

2 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

What’s the beef with Olberman?

He loves to hate.  

[Dick Allen]

4 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

What’s the beef with Olberman?

I'm guessing it is political.

[Chicago White Sox]

4 minutes ago, oldsox said:

He loves to hate.  

What is there not to hate about Mather though?

[bmags]

Stuff like this, that this guy could be a high ranking baseball official for 25+ years despite being a moron clearly starved for attention, is why no fan should accept criticism that they would know less than people actually employed in baseball.

 

[Kyyle23]

I mean, let's just look past Olbermann in this discussion.  He just made commentary, if you don't like him that's perfectly fine.  He really has nothing to do with your assessment of Mather 

[CentralChamps21]

8 minutes ago, Dick Allen said:

I'm guessing it is political.

It's that he's an asshole. There are assholes on both sides of the political spectrum. For every thing he says, you can find someone else who said the same or similar thing that isn't an asshole.

[Quin]

Came in thinking this was gonna be a hot mic situation, but nope, this dude was fully aware that this was a broadcast event.

Amazingly stupid that he'd do something that could risk Seattle's historic appeal to Japanese players. I feel like it'd be the Sox fucking up their Cuban connection.

[Texsox]

The media is the message. We're zoo accustomed to evaluating the veracity of edited comments by who is doing the editing. 

That doesn't make the comments right or wrong, just an indicator of how we filter information. 

He's got to be fired by lunch. 

[SkokieSox]

Executives need to learn that Zoom calls aren’t just between you, your attendees, China, and the NSA anymore... it’s an open forum with delayed release. 

[Dominikk85]

42 minutes ago, WhiteSoxFan1993 said:

There are plenty of people who aren't total assholes that are calling out sexual harassment and racism that we never need to involve someone like KO.

Yeah olberman is a bit of an ass but that doesn't mean he can't be right. Disagreeing with someone just because you don't like him is not a good idea.

[southsider2k5]

Now this is how you lose service time lawsuits.  All plausible deniability just got flushed down the toilet. On a personal note, watch how quickly this guy leaves his job, and realize that we are about the only organization who would look the other way at employees like this.

[caulfield12]

3 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

Now this is how you lose service time lawsuits.  All plausible deniability just got flushed down the toilet. On a personal note, watch how quickly this guy leaves his job, and realize that we are about the only organization who would look the other way at employees like this.

Not to mention you’re basically announcing to the world your supposed franchise player’s future star power is being questioned...and the fact that they will eventually have to Lindor him because of all the ill-will created from publicly airing this and blaming the player for consulting with the MLBPA.   Must have been a low-ball offer that for some reason they assumed he would accept.

[Jerksticks]

5 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

Now this is how you lose service time lawsuits.  All plausible deniability just got flushed down the toilet. On a personal note, watch how quickly this guy leaves his job, and realize that we are about the only organization who would look the other way at employees like this.

Are you saying that because our FO hired TLR that they would look the other way if say KW pulled a Mather?  
 

I’m not sure I see the connection

[he gone.]

50 minutes ago, bmags said:

Stuff like this, that this guy could be a high ranking baseball official for 25+ years despite being a moron clearly starved for attention, is why no fan should accept criticism that they would know less than people actually employed in baseball.

 

This. These GM's aren't really anything more than lucky in a way. Right place, right time. Sure I"m sure these guys are good at their job, but I 105% believe I could be just as successful if I put in 50-60 hour weeks as a baseball GM as my career. That's not cocky - that's just real. 

 

This guy is a moron. MORON. you don't say your #1 prospect ... which by the way YOU offered a contract to BECAUSE you think he's going to be so good .... you don't say that this kid turned US down because he thinks in 6,7,8 years from now he thinks HES GOING TO BE SUCH A STAR. The way he even said it was pompous. 

Or the who interpreter thing. I'd like to stick that guy in the Dominican League and tell him good luck. No speaking english - oh and dont forget you have to be available to the media to talk every single day. 

Maybe he should focus on putting a winning project on the field - arent they the longest drought without a playoff appearance?

[Harold's Leg Lift]

The assbag did get one thing right.  Jarred Kelenic is going to be a superstar.