MLB: Mariners president resigns after outcry over ‘highly disturbing’ remarks

Seattle Mariners CEO Kevin Mather resigned Monday after a 46-minute video surfaced over the weekend of him revealing the club’s organizational strategy and making insensitive remarks about players.

The resignation is effective immediately, with club chairman John Stanton taking on the roles of CEO and 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 severance or what will happen to his small ownership stake.

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

Mather issued an apology late Sunday for the comments made Feb. 5 to the Bellevue (Wash.) Breakfast Rotary Club and posted on YouTube over the weekend.

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. “And I’m going to say, I’m tired of paying his interpreter. When he was a player, we’d pay Iwakuma X, but we’d also have to pay $75,000 a year to have an interpreter with him. His English suddenly got better. His English got better when we told him that.”

The Major League Baseball Players Association released a statement Monday 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. Not just because of what was said, but also because it represents an unfiltered look into club thinking,” the statement read.

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