Mariners CEO Mather resigns after video comments
Seattle Mariners CEO Kevin Mather resigned Monday after video surfaced over the weekend of him expressing his views of the club’s organizational strategy and opinions about some 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. Stanton will take on the roles of CEO and team president on an interim basis.
“There is no excuse for what was said, and I won’t try to make one,” Stanton said in a statement. “I offer my sincere apology on behalf of the club and my partners to our players and fans. We must be, and do, better.”
Mather issued an apology late Sunday for his comments, which were made Feb. 5 to the Bellevue, Wash., 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 season — many of which Seattle’s front office would rather not be made public.
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.
Tatis, Padres sign ‘statue contract’
In discussing options for a long-term deal with electrifying young shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr., the San Diego Padres brought up the concept of “a statue contract.”
As in, if the kid is as good as Hall of Famers Tony Gwynn and Trevor Hoffman were, maybe in 15 or 20 years there will be a statue of “El Nino” alongside those Padres greats near Petco Park.
The options were yearto-year, a multi-year deal that bought out a year or two of Tatis’ free agency or a contract in which Tatis was with the Padres for likely the rest of his career.
“In typical ‘Tati’ fashion, his only real comment was, ‘Why not my whole career?’ ” general manager A.J. Preller said in announcing the two sides had finalized Tatis’ $340 million, 14-year contract, the longest in MLB history.
Odds and ends
Albert Pujols’ wife apparently disclosed the Los Angeles Angels slugger intends to retire after this season, although she later amended her social media post to be less definitive. … Righthander Trevor Rosenthal finalized an $11 million, one-year contract with Oakland. … Arizona has agreed to a $2.25 million, one-year contract with reliever Tyler Clippard.