2. Improvements to be made moving forward
The first goal in Seattle was getting Kelenic to the majors. Now the focus shifts to him improving his game so he can indeed come back soon and begin his run with the Mariners on a full-time basis.
One rough stat, which is to be expected, was his walk-to-strikeout ratio. Kelenic only had eight walks compared to 26 strikeouts in 23 games. Once again, this is very limited action for a 21-year-old player making his MLB debut.
He also only had eight hits in his limited time up with the Mariners. So what is the solution there? More reps may be the only thing and that includes at Triple-A. He only briefly appeared in Double-A in 2019 before the minor league season was canceled in 2020. So he skipped the next step entirely except for a brief stint in Triple-A to start 2021.
In fact, he has only played in 179 total minor league games. That makes sense given the fact he is still 21 years old.
Plenty of Mariners fans got their wish by seeing Kelenic get time in Seattle. However, he needs more overall reps and continuing to go hitless was not a great way to build confidence. A little reset is all he needs as this demotion remains about performance.