Mariners’ Mather resigns over ‘offensive’ remarks

Seattle Mariners CEO and President Kevin Mather resigned after video surfaced over the weekend of him expressing his views of the club’s organizational strategy and making insensitive remarks about players.

Mariners Chairman John Stanton said Mather’s comments were inappropriate and do not represent the views of the franchise.

Mather’s resignation is effective immediately, with Stanton taking on the roles of CEO and team president on an interim basis.

Stanton said Mather resigned before a decision had to be made whether to fire him, and there had been no determination yet about whether Mather will receive a severance or what will happen to his small ownership stake in the franchise.

“There were a number of comments made by Kevin that, as I’ve said, didn’t reflect the Mariners, don’t reflect what I believe, what our ownership believes, and were inappropriate,” Stanton said.

“Those comments included some of the things that have been referenced with respect to our players, and in particular the importance of diversity and inclusion in our organization.”

Mather issued an apology late Sunday for his comments, which were made Feb. 5 to the Bellevue, Washington, Breakfast Rotary Club and were posted online over the weekend.

The video posted by the Rotary group was 46 minutes long and touched on areas of the Mariners’ organizational situation going into the 2021 season — many of which Seattle’s front office would rather not be made public.

“We have a lot of work to do to make amends, and that work is already underway,” Stanton said.

Mather’s departure seemed inevitable as the firestorm grew over his statements, including comments on the manipulation of service time for some top prospects — Jarred Kelenic and Logan Gilbert — and insensitive comments about international players’ understanding of English.

Mather said Kelenic and Gilbert would not start the season with the Mariners so the club could have longer control before the promising young stars reached free agency.

He said another top prospect, Julio Rodriguez, didn’t have “tremendous” English and he complained about the cost associated with having an interpreter for Japanese pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma.

“Wonderful human being — his English was terrible. He wanted to get back into the game, he came to us, we quite frankly want him as our Asian scout/interpreter, what’s going on with the Japanese league. He’s coming to spring training,” Mather said.

The Major League Baseball Players Association released a statement expressing concern with the video.

“The club’s video presentation is a highly disturbing yet critically important window into how players are genuinely viewed by management,” the statement read.

“It is offensive, and it is not surprising that fans and others around the game are offended as well. Players remain committed to confronting these issues at the bargaining table and elsewhere.”

MLB also released a statement condemning Mather’s comments. Stanton said he had talked several times Sunday and Monday with Commissioner Rob Manfred.

“We condemn Kevin Mather’s offensive and disrespectful comments about several players. We are proud of the international players who have made baseball better through their outstanding examples of courage and determination,” MLB said.

“His misguided remarks do not represent the values of our game and have no place in our sport.” (AP)