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Jeff PassanESPN
Over the course of a 45-minute conversation with a local Rotary Club in early February, Seattle Mariners CEO Kevin Mather disdained a Japanese player for not learning English, belittled a star prospect from the Dominican Republic for his language skills, and mocked some other toppers admit to manipulating his military service. He called the best pitcher on his team “very boring” and embellished the pitcher’s actions during an incident at the clubhouse, told another untruth about a respected veteran and complained that the best player in the franchise of the last decade “too much. paid “.
Each one of these blunders is incalculable foolish. Together they expose pathological levels of arrogance, pride and myopia. This is one of 30 people entrusted to run a Major League Baseball franchise.
It wasn’t just Mather saying what he was doing. It’s that he thinks it in the first place. And that he believed that a group of Rotarians represented the right audience to tell his twisted version of the truth. And that in an apology he viewed the episode as a “ error of judgment, ” as if bigotry is a one-time thing you try on a phone conversation with strangers, or tell fake stories about the people who are at the heart of the company. ‘running is good management.
But the organization continues with Mather, the suspicion sown by his comments echoed deep in the players’ ranks on Sunday, sources told ESPN. The range of feelings ranged from “angry” to “sad” to “what the [expletive] he thought? “
Apparently, Mather drained his reservoir of candor during the Q&A, because his statement was variously unfair – he tried to take ownership of his comments on baseball operations decisions when they clearly reflect the priorities of the entire organization – and hollow.
Mather’s statement that he is “determined to make amends” and “will do whatever it takes to repair the damage I have caused to the Seattle Mariners organization” sounded rather familiar. Perhaps it is because in 2018, after a Seattle Times report uncovered two complaints against Mather by women workers, he said, “I am determined to make sure every Mariners employee feels comfortable and respected.”
I wonder if Julio Rodriguez is comfortable and respected. He is 20 years old and one of the best players in baseball, a limp right fielder from the Dominican Republic. When asked about him, Mather said, “He’s noisy, his English isn’t great.” Two years ago, the Mariners thought enough about Rodriguez’s English to post a video of him speaking on their YouTube channel. His English sounds pretty good, and I can’t imagine it has gotten worse since then.
I wonder if Jarred Kelenic is comfortable and respected. He’s 21 years old and the Mariners’ other prized outfield prospect. The organization thinks so much about Kelenic, Mather told the Rotarians, that it offered him a six-year deal with three club options. Because Kelenic turned it down, he said, he will start 2021 in the minor leagues, although the Mariners plan to educate him in mid-April, at which point they’ve made sure to keep him under team control for another year. Everyone knows that a fundamental element of comfort and respect is the manipulation of time.
I wonder if Marco Gonzales is comfortable and respected. He’s the ace of the Mariners, a 29-year-old who Mather considers “very boring” because … he doesn’t throw very hard? Regardless, Mather loved telling a story about Gonzales’ pushing [former teammate Mike Leake] in the vault “after Leake opposed team rules. The problem, a source familiar with the situation, told ESPN, is that the story is not true. While Gonzales confronted Leake, he didn’t impose on him.
I wonder if Mitch Haniger feels comfortable and respected. As was the case with most of Mather’s comments, they include compliments, and initially he spoke well of the 30-year-old who has been missing out for the past year and a half due to an injury. After suggesting that Haniger would be an All-Star this season, Mather said, “He’s got a little bit of a chip on his shoulder when we talk about our prospects and these young kids. He’s said more than once, what about me?” According to a source close to Haniger, he has not discussed his status with regard to future prospects.
I wonder if Kyle Seager is comfortable and respected. Since he debuted in 2011, Seager has collected 32.2 wins over replacements. That’s more than Evan Longoria, Anthony Rizzo, Nelson Cruz, Justin Upton, Justin Turner, Michael Brantley, and a host of others who have played in the past 10 seasons. For the 2015 season, Seager signed a seven-year, $ 100 million contract extension. According to FanGraphs, he has produced $ 147.7 million in value over the past six years. But Mather wants to say that he paid too much.
I especially wonder if Hisashi Iwakuma is comfortable and respected. In January, the Mariners brought back Iwakuma, who pitched very well for the team six seasons after coming over from Japan, as a special assignment coach. After explaining the recruitment, Mather’s first words to the Rotarians were, “Great man. His English was awful.” Mather felt comfortable enough to complain, “I’m tired of paying his interpreter.” He smiled and laughed as he said it.
Iwakuma is 39. He made nearly $ 50 million with the Mariners. He doesn’t need this job. He doesn’t need this organization. He does not need someone who will consider his desire to be understood as a weakness. And he definitely doesn’t need to be damned judged by someone who has been promoted, even after being the subject of sexual harassment complaints for allegedly rubbing the back of a female employee without permission and making inappropriate jokes about women in the office at a other employee.
This is how bad culture takes root. More than a decade ago, two women reported Mather to human resources – a department he supervised at the time. They left with settlements, totaling more than $ 500,000, according to the Seattle Times. He remained in service. Mather then continued to rise – to president and eventually CEO. It took a newspaper to expose his past wrongs.
This time he did it himself. And whether he puffed himself into sounding like someone who matters – he spoke with confidence that an electronic strike zone would be introduced within two years – or whether it’s actually an important person doesn’t matter anymore. He’s the CEO of an organization – and the kind of guy who tells stories where people from overseas where they may not have had a chance to learn English are the punch line.
Actually, Mather did that during Rotary’s call too. Speaking about the improvements Seattle had made to its Dominican academy and player educational programs, he said the team would be giving teens from Latin America $ 30 a day.
“Surprise, surprise!” Mather said. “They would get in trouble for not being able to speak the language, make a change, or even buy dinner.”
Surprise, surprise. Just like that. Never figured out what so many teens have to do in baseball: go to a foreign country, a country with as many potential dangers as the United States, and put in a small apartment, five or six inflatable mattresses on the floor because the sport doesn’t ‘I’ll pay are little participants not enough to get a spot with your own bedroom, and try to learn how to navigate all of that while you spend the rest of the day hitting 98 painted on the corner.
It is the easiest thing in the world to sit in a tower of privilege and look down on others, belittle, act with impunity, because history has shown you can do it without consequences. That’s the lesson here. That’s the takeaway. I couldn’t help but think of something else after hearing Kevin Mather roar for 45 minutes.
He is the last person to talk about others who speak poor English.