May 11, 2021

Call for Kelenic

The Mariners plan to promote outfield prospect Jarred Kelenic later this week. Kelenic accused the Mariners of manipulating his service time earlier this year:

In late February, Kelenic indicated that his service time was being manipulated by the Mariners based on comments from former team president and CEO Kevin Mather that drew the ire of the MLBPA. Among multiple controversial comments made in an online video that led to his resignation, Mather divulged information about contract negotiations with Kelenic to a Bellevue, Washington, Rotary Club on Feb. 5. In the video, Mather said neither Kelenic nor pitcher Logan Gilbert would be with the major league club on Opening Day as a way to keep club control for longer.

ESPN.com

A call up a this point in the season means the club will get seven years of service from the player, but will go to arbitration four times if there is no long-term contract. I suspect Kelenic will be a major part of the collective bargaining agreement talks on when a player becomes a free agent. I expect the time to free agency to go down after this round of talks.

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