Seattle Mariners president and CEO Kevin Mather has resigned, president and managing partner John Stanton announced Monday. Mather’s resignation comes after a speech he gave earlier this month, in which he made disparaging statements about the English-speaking skills of two club members, spoke openly about manipulation of service time. of multiple potential customers and said the team’s third base was always “overpaid”. online over the weekend.
“Like all of you, I was very disappointed when I heard about Kevin Mather’s recent comments,” Stanton told statement. “His comments were inappropriate and do not represent the feelings of our organization about our players, staff and fans. There is no excuse for what was said and I will not try to do any of it.”
Stanton said Mather’s resignation is effective immediately and that Stanton will take over as chairman and CEO until Mather’s replacement is found.
Mather had been with the Mariners since 1996 and took over as president and CEO in 2017.
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Speaking at the Bellevue, Washington, Breakfast Rotary Club for an online event on Feb. 5, Mather addressed various topics about the internal workings of the Mariners organization during a 46-minute debate.
When discussing potential Julio Rodriguez, a No. 2 Dominican camper from CBS Sports in the Seattle farming system, Mather said “he has a bigger personality than all of you put together. He’s strong. His English isn’t tremendous. Everyone says that “I’ll be here in 2021. He won’t be there until 2022 or 2023. A fantastic kid.”
Sunday, Rodriguez he tweeted an image of his face superimposed on Michael Jordan in the documentary series “The Last Dance” which said “… and I took that personally.”
Mather also complained about having to pay an interpreter for Hisashi Iwakuma, a former Mariners pitcher who was recently hired as a special assignment coach.
“A wonderful human being. His English was terrible,” Mather said. “I wanted to get back in the game. He came to us. We want him to be frankly our Asian explorer / performer, what’s going on with the Japanese league. He’s going to train in the spring. And I’m going to say, I’m tired of paying his interpreter. When he was a player, we paid Iwakuma ‘X’, but we would also have to pay $ 75,000 a year to have an interpreter with him. His English suddenly improved. Better when we told him that. ”
Mather also openly admitted that the team chose not to present the best prospects like Jarred Kelenic last season as a way to keep them under control of the team for a little longer.
“We wouldn’t put them on the 40-man list, we wouldn’t start the service time,” he said. “There were all sorts of reasons that if we had an injury problem or COVID outbreak, you may have seen my big belly out there in the left field. You wouldn’t have seen our potential customers playing T-Mobile Park. “
Mather also called up third baseman Kyle Seager, who has spent his entire career with the team, “probably overpaid,” and said he probably wouldn’t be with the team until 2022. Seager’s wife, Julie, he replied on Twitter asking if they should sell their home in Seattle.
Mather apologized for his comments Sunday and said he had “no excuses.”
“I want to apologize to all members of the Seattle Mariners organization, especially our players and our fans. There is no excuse for my behavior and I take full responsibility for my terrible trial,” Mather said at a statement. “My comments were mine. They do not reflect the views and baseball leadership strategy of the Mariners who are responsible for decisions about player development and status at all levels of the organization.”