Mariners CEO—well, former CEO—Kevin Mather caused quite a stir with his comments at the now infamous Bellevue Rotary Club, insulting Japanese and Hispanic players for needing interpreters and alluding that franchise icon Kyle Seager was overpaid, among other startling admissions.
Mather also acknowledged, in a video that was quickly scrubbed from the YouTube archives (though it survived just long enough for him to lose his job), the Mariners are guilty of intentionally manipulating players’ service time, including choice prospects Jarred Kelenic and Logan Gilbert, who are being stashed in the minor leagues for that very reason. Others may be subtler in their application of this particular technique, but the practice of keeping players in the minors for reasons related to service time is an all too common one throughout baseball.
Penny-pinching maneuvers like this are why George Springer, arguably the top position player in this year’s free agency, didn’t hit the market until 31. Springer signed for plenty of money (his six-year deal with Toronto is worth $150 million), but his age was undoubtedly held against him (the Mets and Blue Jays were his only serious suitors), adding to the hypocrisy of MLB’s murky definition of “service time.”
The controversial subject of service time manipulation came up Tuesday at Yankees spring training with manager Aaron Boone and ace starting pitcher Gerrit Cole voicing their frustration over the Mariners and others who share in their flawed philosophy.
“I’m fortunate to be in an organization where we don’t do that. When guys are ready or we feel like they’re ready to impact the club, that’s that,” said Boone, dismissing any notion the Yankees would ever bury a player in the minors as a cost-saving mechanism. “Purposely holding a guy down, I don’t think should have a place in our game.”
Cole, who had been the sport’s highest-paid pitcher before his former UCLA teammate Trevor Bauer (the two weren’t exactly best of pals either) eclipsed him this offseason, expressed his disgust at both Mather and the broken system that rewards teams for putting elite prospects like Kelenic and Gilbert on the backburner.
“Those conversations are being had with a lot of clubs unfortunately and that’s the kind of way a lot of clubs are acting. I don’t know if there’s a rule that’s going to be able to fix that, because somebody would probably just find a way around that rule. But as an industry, I would just like to see us move past that. That’s just not productive for anyone,” posited Cole during Tuesday’s Zoom conference. “You’re not putting the best players on the field for people to see. [Mather] is talking about players who are making him money. People that he’s talking poorly about. It’s just tired, man. Players are over it.”
The logic behind delaying a players’ free agency is iffy at best. If the goal is to maximize a club’s earning potential, wouldn’t it make sense to field the most competitive team possible rather than banishing your top assets to the Scrantons and Lehigh Valleys of the world? What constitutes service time will surely be a point of contention when owners and players meet at the negotiating table to discuss a new CBA in the coming months.
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