My Oh My Comments! Controversial Chinwag Costs Mariners CEO’s Job

The President and CEO of the Seattle Mariners has resigned after controversial comments made at a February 5th Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club gathering were released publicly over the weekend garnering fast and furious condemnation on social media.

At the recent online event, Mather expressed opinions about club strategy, personnel moves and the team's finances.

The video posted by the Rotary group was 46-minutes long and touched on a wide variety of topics about the Mariners’ organizational situation going into the 2021 season, many of which Seattle’s front office would probably rather not be made public.

The backlash to Kevin Mather's blathering was swift and permanent.

Some of the video's highlights/lowlights included Mather calling the English-speaking capabilities of two members of the organization "terrible"; claiming Kyle Seager was a sure fire Mariner Hall-of-Famer, but he was overpaid, but he loved him anyway; and saying he believed top prospects Jarred Kelenic and Logan Gilbert likely will not start the season with the team as a way to manipulate their major league service time and keep them under club control longer. Mather said the club attempted to sign Kelenic to a long-term contract but that overture was rejected. More specific takeaways from the video can be found here.

The comments about speaking English, or the lack of said language skills, seemed to be the most cringe-worthy part of the conversation, prompting this statement from the Major League Baseball Players Association via tweet:

Mather had been with the Mariners since 1996. He was promoted to CEO and team president in 2017.