With Suspensions Looming, Will Mariners Turn to Jarred Kelenic For Needed Depth?
As a result of Sunday's brawl with the Angels, the Mariners are expected to be without outfielder Jesse Winker, shortstop J.P. Crawford and potentially outfielder Julio Rodríguez for an undetermined period of time. Suspensions will likely be handed down on Monday before the team kicks off a three-game series against the Orioles at T-Mobile Park.
Having already lost first baseman Ty France to an arm injury on its recent road trip, paired with the ongoing absences of catcher Tom Murphy and outfielders Mitch Haniger and Kyle Lewis, Seattle's depth will be pushed to its limits here in the short term. More specifically, it appears likelier than not these unique circumstances will call for the organization to interrupt the much-needed minor league stint of former top prospect Jarred Kelenic to help fill the void left by Winker's inevitable timeout.
Of course, it's likely any and all parties suspended will appeal MLB's ruling, which could mean Winker, Crawford and anyone else will wind up serving their time at different intervals. This would lessen the need to call up Kelenic, but the Mariners will need to prepare for a scenario in which they lose everyone at once.
Kelenic was demoted to Triple-A Tacoma on May 13 and has been there ever since, slashing .299/.346/.591 with eight home runs, 11 doubles, one triple, 21 RBI and eight walks in 136 plate appearances. Hamstring issues have hampered the 22-year old outfielder over the past two weeks, but he was able to start the Rainiers' last six games heading into Sunday night.
Interestingly, however, Kelenic was not included in the team's batting order for its series finale against Astros affiliate Sugar Land and no indication was given that a setback or a new injury had cropped up. It's possible this was purely a coincidence and Kelenic's day off was pre-determined, but given the timing and the fact the Mariners have minimal depth with major league experience and may have to fill three offensive roster spots for at least a day, it's easy to connect the dots.
Utility man Sam Haggerty is almost certainly going to be one of the players elevated, which leaves Kelenic as the only other player on Seattle's 40-man roster that A.) isn't currently on the 26-man roster and B.) has played at least one game at the major league level. The only other position player on the 40 but not on the 26 is outfield prospect Alberto Rodríguez, who's 21 years old and in the midst of his first full season in High-A.
Essentially, if the Mariners do indeed suffer a trio of suspensions or more, they will have no other choice but to add someone not currently on their 40-man roster. That could be catcher Brian O'Keefe, infielder Mason McCoy, utility man Erick Mejía or—less likely—a player outside the organization.
Doing so would be easy to accomplish as well. Seattle already has an open spot on its 40-man and can vacate another by transferring Murphy, who will miss the remainder of the season with an ailing shoulder, to the 60-day injured list.
If the Mariners opt to go that route and fill both spots rather than one, that would allow them to keep Kelenic down in Tacoma. But at the end of the day, the club shouldn't feel obligated to prevent him from returning to the major league level "ahead of schedule" because the need for his presence should, in theory, last no longer than a few days.
That isn't enough time to have any lasting negative impacts on Kelenic, who's a career .173/.256/.338 hitter in 473 major league plate appearances. If he struggles in limited action, it's not going to damage his development and it's not going to hurt the Mariners any more than they have been. They just need the bodies and Kelenic is one of the easiest solutions to that problem.
Once the anticipated suspensions are lifted, Kelenic can go back to Tacoma and continue to refine his plate approach if Seattle sees fit. But there is a small possibility he could stick around, especially with the progress he's seemingly made over the past month.
Kelenic raked as soon as he got back to Tacoma, but his successes were ultimately overshadowed by an ugly 38.2 percent strikeout rate in May. However, since June 1, he's gone down on strikes just 21 percent of the time while slashing .276/.321/.566 in 18 games played.
It's a very small sample size, which likely means he'll need more time to work on things, but there's beginning to be a reason for optimism. And perhaps the Mariners would benefit from getting an even closer look at where Kelenic is right now.
