Jarred Kelenic

Jarred Robert Kelenic

Bats Left, Throws Left
Height 6' 1", Weight 196 lb.
High School Waukesha West High School
Debut May 13, 2021

Born July 16, 1999 in Waukesha, WI USA

Biographical Information[edit]

Outfielder Jarred Kelenic was the first high school player drafted in the 2018 amateur draft, with the 6th overall pick by the New York Mets. That made him one of the highest draftees ever from the state of Wisconsin. The five players who had been taken before him were all college players. Given the state's cold weather, he did not play high school baseball, but instead took advantage of the fact his family built an indoor training facility on their dairy farm, and played for the United States junior national team, including at the 2017 U-18 Baseball World Cup in Thunder Bay, ON. He hit .257/.386/.486 with 7 runs in the event as the US won Gold.

He quickly signed with the Mets and after being flown to New York, NY with his family to meet the media and team principals, he was assigned to the GCL Mets to begin his career. He hit .413 in 12 games there to earn a quick promotion to the Kingsport Mets of the Appalachian League where he hit .253 with 5 homers and 33 RBIs in 44 games. He did not stay long in the Mets' system, however, as on December 1t, he was one of three prospects acquired by the Seattle Mariners, along with Gerson Bautista and Justin Dunn, in return for 2B Robinson Cano and P Edwin Diaz. The Mariners also took on two problematic contracts in the deal, those of OF Jay Bruce and P Anthony Swarzak.

In February 2019, Kelenic made the news for a bizarre training video that he shared that involved him doing yoga with a goat (something which was apparently becoming a thing and was not just a personal quirk). He was named to the roster of the American League team for the 2019 Futures Game. He played for three different teams that season, starting in the South Atlantic League with the West Virginia Power, and then getting successive promotions to the Modesto Nuts of the California League and Arkansas Travelers of the Texas League, hitting AA just as he turned 20. Combined, he hit .291/.364/.540 in 117 games, with 31 doubles and 23 homers, scoring 80 runs and driving in 68. But he was then slowed down by the Coronavirus pandemic that wiped out the 2020 minor league season. He was limited to intra-squad games at the Mariners' alternate training facility as the team did not call him up to at least give him a brief exposure to the Show. It turns out that there was some cost thinking behind that, as the following spring a Mariners' executive was caught saying that the team was deliberately slowing down the progress of some of its top prospects in order to delay their eligibility for arbitration, a practice long suspected of being applied but always denied by the teams. In this case, it cost the executive his job, and put some pressure on the team brass to have him start the 2021 season at the major league level, especially as he was tearing up the Cactus League. But, the Mariners did not feel the need to have Kelenic start the year in Seattle in spite of the public shaming as he was reassigned to the minor league camp on March 26th; it was clearly not a result of not performing on the field, as he was hitting .333 with an OPS of 1.256. He was assigned to the AAA Tacoma Rainiers when the minor league season finally began in May, and opened his account by homering twice in his first game on May 6th.

The highly-anticipated call-up to the major leagues took place on May 13, 2021. Interestingly, the Mariners decided to have another of their top prospects, P Logan Gilbert, who was selected eight slots after Kelenic in the 2018 draft, to also make his debut that day, perhaps to dilute the pressure on each of them. In any case, writers immediately pointed out that this decision would make the date a watershed in team history. Their first game was dominated by the opposition, though, as the Cleveland Indians' Zach Plesac took a no-hitter into the 8th inning on his way to a 4-2 win, while Jarred went 0 for 4, being the victim of a great catch by RF Josh Naylor in his first career at-bat as his team's lead-off hitter in the 1st inning. In his second game played the next day, however, his superior hitting talent was on display as his first major league hit was a long homer off Aaron Civale and he went 3 for 4, his other two hits being doubles, scored twice and drove in three runs in a 7-3 win over the Indians. That was a lone highlight, however, as he was in the starting line-up when Spencer Turnbull of the Detroit Tigers no-hit the Mariners on May 18th, and later that month he started a brutal 0-for-44 skein during which he struck out 17 times. The Mariners figured he wasn't quite yet ready for a full-time job in the Show and sent him back to Tacoma on June 7th with his batting average at .096 and his OBP and slugging both below .200. He found his hitting stroke again in Tacoma and was named to represent the American League in the 2021 Futures Game. After appearing in the game, he was promoted back to Seattle for the start of the second half, having hit for an OPS of 1.008 since his sent down, the second highest figure in the minor leagues over that period (Luis Campusano, who also played in the Futures Game, hit 1.025). On September 17th, he had his first two-homer games for the Mariners; the only players in franchise history to have done so at such a young age were two legends: Alex Rodriguez and Ken Griffey Jr. He finished his rookie season at.181 in 83 games, with 14 homers and 43 RBIs, for an OPS+ of 72.

In 2022, the Mariners were counting on Kelenic to have a break-out season in order to finally break their two-decade streak of missing out on the postseason. They did break the streak by claiming the second wild card slot in the American League, but Jarred contributed little to the party. In 54 major league games, he batted just .141 with 7 homers and 17 RBIs for an OPS+ of 54. He did a lot better in the minor leagues with Tacoma, where he hit .296 in 86 games, with 32 doubles. 18 homers and 65 RBIs. He just seemed unable to translate that minor league success at the big league level. In spite of his unimpressive batting line in the Show, he was used regularly in the postseason, due to injuries to other outfielders, notably Jesse Winker. He was shut out by the Toronto Blue Jays in the Wild Card Series, going 0 for 5, but did get a couple of hits in the Mariners' loss to the Houston Astros in the Division Series, going 2 for 12. He stared 2023 in the Mariners' starting lineup and finally showed the sort of hitting prowess that had been expected of him in the first two weeks, when he batted .351 with 4 doubles and 3 homers over his first 11 games. The three homers came in consecutive games at Wrigley Field on April 10-12, and included the longest regular season blast ever measured at the venerable ballpark in the Statcast era (Willson Contreras had hit a longer one in a postseason game) and the longest by a Mariners player over the same period (since 2015). His 8th-inning blast off Julian Merryweather of the Chicago Cubs in the third game landed 482 feet from home plate, in the second deck of bleacher seats below the huge scoreboard, an area that very few sluggers had ever reached in the past. In 90 games by mid-July, he was hitting .252 with 11 homers and 45 RBIs, for an OPS+ of 113, finally displaying the consistent production expected of a hitter with his pedigree. However, it all turned sour on July 19th, when in frustration after striking out in the 9th inning of a 6-3 loss to the Minnesota Twins, he kicked a Gatorade cooler in the dugout and broke his left foot. He was expected to be out for a significant period and told reporters that he "felt terrible" that he had let his emotions get the best of him. He missed almost two months, only returning on September 11th, and while he maintained his batting average after his return, his power was gone, as he hit only one extra-base hit - a double - in 15 games. He ended the season at .253 in 105 games, with 11 homers and 49 RBIs, for an OPS+ of 109.

On December 3, 2023, on the first day of the winter meetings, he was the centerpiece of a big trade with the Atlanta Braves, when he was traded along with two other veterans, P Marco Gonzales and 1B Evan White, in return for two pitching prospects, Jackson Kowar and Cole Phillips. Gonzales and White had both been granted big salaries but had contributed little the previous season, and the Mariners had to toss in some money and accept a meager return in order to make the deal.

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