Seattle Mariners: Jarred Kelenic demotion is a catch 22

When I saw the slump Seattle Mariners outfielder Jarred Kelenic was enduring I texted his numbers to a friend. The friend shot back that maybe Kelenic wasn’t in a slump, but rather he just couldn’t hit. Such a comment really made me think a bit. Is Jarred Kelenic going to get stuck in the Carter Kieboom limbo now?

Kelenic has failed to reach base safely via a hit in 39 straight at-bats. Remarkable to think about. Not once during his last ten starts has Jarred gotten a Texas Leaguer, a seeing-eye single, a punch-and-Judy job, a bloop. Nothing. And, so, with a .096 batting average through 86 at-bats, Kelenic has been removed from the Major League roster and jettisoned to the minor leagues.

Jarred Kelenic has been demoted in what is a lose-lose situation for the Seattle Mariners.

Just over sixty games into the season, the Seattle Mariners are playing .500 baseball. They sit five games out of the division lead, and four games off the pace in the wild card standings. Theoretically, the Mariners have a great shot to reach the playoffs. Realistically, they do not. They are stuck looking up at more teams in the wild card standings than are below them and are a year or more away from going all in. The rebuild is still in affect.

Hence the difficult decision on Kelenic. The Mariners have to run out their best 26 players each game, regardless. Kelenic is not one of these players at the moment. He is a part of the future however, and needs to be playing every day.

Kelenic is at the stage in his development, sitting on a Major League bench will not benefit him. Though, he is also at the stage in his career, hitting Triple-A pitching may not benefit him either. Before his call up earlier this year, Kelenic was hitting .370 in limited action in the minors.

The Major League sample size is too small right now. Really, the Triple-A sample size is too small as well. For Kelenic to be thrown into conversations as a Four-A player already, isn’t good, for anyone. Having been caught in the numbers crunch before, he is at the mercy of the business once again. He’s only 21 years old, however, and has plenty of time to right his ship.

The jury is still out on whether he can hit big league pitching, though let’s revisit this topic in a year or two and see what his numbers look like then.