Seattle Mariners President and CEO Kevin Mather has stepped down, chairman and managing partner John Stanton announced Monday. Mather’s resignation comes after a speech he delivered earlier this month in which he made derogatory comments about the English-speaking skills of two club members, spoke openly about manipulating the service time of multiple potential clients and called the team’s old third baseman “ too paid a lot ‘. online during the weekend.
“Like all of you, I was extremely disappointed to learn of Kevin Mather’s recent comments,” Stanton said in a statement. pronunciation“His comments were inappropriate and do not reflect our organization’s feelings about our players, staff and fans. There is no excuse for what was said, and I will not try to make one.”
Stanton said Mather’s resignation is effective immediately and that Stanton will take over the role of president and CEO until Mather’s replacement is found.
Mather had worked with the Mariners since 1996 and assumed the roles of president and CEO in 2017.
Otto Greule Jr / Getty
Speaking with the Bellevue, Washington, Breakfast Rotary Club for an online event on Feb. 5, Mather discussed multiple topics about the inner workings of the Mariners organization during a 46-minute discussion.
Discussing prospect Julio Rodriguez, a Dominican outfielder who ranked No. 2 on CBS Sports in Seattle’s farming system, Mather said he “ has a personality greater than all of you put together. He’s noisy. His English isn’t great. Everyone says he’ll be here in 2021. He won’t be here until 2022 or 2023. A great boy. ”
Sunday Rodriguez tweeted an image of his face overlaid on Michael Jordan in the documentary series “The Last Dance” that says “… and I took that personally.”
Mather also complained that he had to pay for an interpreter for Hisashi Iwakuma, a former Mariners pitcher who had recently been hired as a coach for special assignments.
‘Wonderful person. His English was awful, ”Mather said. “He wanted to compete again. He came to us. We honestly want him as our Asian scout / interpreter, what’s going on with the Japanese league. He’s coming to spring training. And I’m going to say I’m tired of it. 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 us. His English suddenly got better. His English got better then we told him that. ”
Mather also openly admitted that the team chose not to bring forward top riders like Jarred Kelenic last season as a way to keep them in check for a little longer.
“We wouldn’t put them on the 40-man roster, we wouldn’t start the duty timer,” he said. “There were all kinds of reasons that if we had an injury problem, or COVID outbreak, you may have seen my big belly there in the left field. You wouldn’t have seen our potential customers play in T-Mobile Park. “
Mather also called 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 by 2022. Seager’s wife, Julie, responded. on Twitter ask if they should put their house in Seattle up for sale.
Mather apologized for his comments on Sunday, saying he had “no excuse”.
“I would like to apologize to every member 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 judgmental error,” Mather said in a statement. “My comments were my own. They do not reflect the views and strategy of the Mariners baseball leaders, who are responsible for decisions about the development and status of players at all levels of the organization.”