Why Kevin Mather Is Getting The Bird From Owners And Handshakes From The Union

Kevin Mather’s old boss must have pissed him off. I can’t fathom any other reason for the former team president to blatantly rob his team’s owner along with all of his peers.

Mather revealed the true mindset that owners and upper management possess during a Zoom call with the Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club on Feb. 5. He cried throughout the call about his gripes with his foreign players, former Seattle Mariners SP Hisashi Iwakuma, who was hired as a special assignment coach, and outfield prospect Julio Rodríguez. On the call, Mather was complaining about Iwakuma’s “terrible” English language skills and how his need for a translator annoyed the former club president.

Rodríguez was labeled as “loud” by Mather, who went even further by saying that his English “is not tremendous.” Being loud is a false stereotype frequently associated with the Latinx community. Regarding his English, this video that the Mariners themselves posted on YouTube two years ago included Rodríguez speaking English, and you can understand what he is saying just fine. Mather certainly seems to have exposed himself to be what the kids refer to as a “Karen” nowadays. To make this whole mess even juicier, Rodriguez would display his familiarity with the English language by shooting out a tweet in response to Mather’s remarks, photoshopping himself on one of Michael Jordan’s classic “Last Dance” memes.

Mather muttered an abundance of other inane comments on the call, at one point claiming that their star player, 3B Kyle Seager, is “probably overpaid.” Additionally, Mather said SP Marco Gonzalez is “very boring.” Even though those comments are blatantly ignorant, the additional nonsense he managed to spew has given the MLB Players Union all of the leverage it needs for its subsequent encounter with MLB owners. The current bargaining agreement between MLB and the union will expire on Dec. 1.

“Quite frankly, we think he’s gonna be a superstar,” Mather exclaimed, referring to Mariners’ top outfield prospect, Jarred Kelenic. “We control his major league career for six years. And after six years, he’ll be a free agent. We would like him to get a few more [at-] bats in the minor leagues, 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.”

Kelenic notified the team he would bet on himself once he hits the free-agent market. Keeping that detail in mind, the only logical reason to hold a player identified as a burgeoning superstar in the minor leagues would be to manipulate the six-year service time policy. Bringing up Kelenic to The Show a month later would give the Mariners the right to Kelenic’s services for seven years instead of six.

The MLBPA issued a statement, almost guaranteeing that this frequently abused manipulation of service time will be brought up at the next round of collective bargaining agreement meetings.

“It represents an unfiltered look into Club thinking. It is offensive, and it is not surprising that fans and others around the game are offended as well. Players remain committed to confronting these issues at the bargaining table and elsewhere.”

This service-time finesse steals millions from players looking to cash out in exchange for a season of their prime.

Players around the league have had a lot to say about this situation. Former MVP 3B Josh Donaldson made sure to hit Mather with a serious ballbuster, thanking him for his idiotic statements.

Thank you Kevin Mather. I sincerely mean it. You just said what everyone already knew, but now we @MLB_PLAYERS have official evidence that is going to help a lot of players. Again, thank you!! Bravo👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

— Josh Donaldson (@BringerOfRain20) February 23, 2021

Mather will now and forever be known as an unholy Robinhood, swiping money that should go to the players and stuffing it right back in his pocket.

Cover photo courtesy of Ted S. Warren/AP Photo