MARCH 31: Lewis will indeed begin 2021 on the injured list, Corey Brock of The Athletic tweets.
MARCH 27: Reigning AL Rookie Of The Year Kyle Lewis is suffering from a deep bone bruise on the outside of his right knee, Mariners manager Scott Servais told Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times (Twitter links) and other reporters. Lewis hasn’t played since Monday, when he suffered the injury colliding with the outfield wall in pursuit of a fly ball.
It isn’t yet clear if Lewis will be able to return to the field for any more Cactus League action, or even be available for the Mariners’ opener on Thursday. An injured list placement could be inevitable, as the M’s are naturally going to be as careful as possible with the health of their young star.
Between the shortened 2020 season and his brief call-up during the 2019 campaign, Lewis has made only 317 plate appearances in 76 Major League games, yet he has already made a big impact. Lewis has hit .264/.347/.477 with 17 homers as a big leaguer, and established himself as a key piece for the rebuilding Mariners.
If Lewis isn’t available at the start of the season, Taylor Trammell, Jake Fraley, or Braden Bishop could play center field, or Lewis’ replacement might not yet be on the roster. Divish reports that the Mariners have been checking out other teams’ roster for any intriguing late-spring cuts, and Servais said that GM Jerry Dipoto will look at adding an external option depending on Lewis’ recovery timeline. Of course, Seattle fans would love to see star prospect Jarred Kelenic as soon as possible, but Kelenic has already been optioned to Triple-A and likely won’t be making his big league debut until a bit later in the season (i.e. when the Mariners can ensure another year of team control).
That last line there seems pretty unnecessary.
But accurate.
No, not really. Nobody in the baseball world even cared about this situation until Mather spoke out of place and suddenly they all became experts. Anyone who has been paying attention for longer than the month and half that the teams been in the spotlight has known Kelenic wasn’t going to be on the Opening Day roster because he has very little minor league experience. Ever since Dipoto took over years ago, he’s placed a large emphasis on players getting a proper amount of minor league experience.
preach brother!
A lot of that sort of mindset is just fans eating the crock that they’re being fed. If service time weren’t a thing then you’d see a lot more players get the Alex Bregman/Chris Sale treatment and this talk about needing to spend so many years in the minors wouldn’t be so normalized
For most teams sure, but when you’ve seen multiple top five picks fail in past decade for not getting enough minor league time before their call up and not getting enough time in the minors after struggling then it makes it pretty easy to believe what they’re saying because we’ve seen it to be true.
“Nobody would have cared if he didn’t admit it”
But he did, and that changes things
There’s also the difference that Sale was drafted out of college. Kelenic was drafted in ’18 out of high school. He’s had 1 full season of MILB. Granted he tore up Lo A & Hi A. He did decent in AA but he definitely didn’t set the league on fire, no one should’ve expected him to. In 2020 he should’ve been in AA & AAA w the potential of a Sept call up, EXCEPT that there was NO MILB SEASON. Normally AA is the “REAL” proving ground for prospects to show that they’re ready for the show, not just a good MLB spring training showing. Give him some more reps in the upper minors for him to show that he’s truly ready for the big leagues.
Prospectnvstr57 mins ago
Normally AA is the “REAL” proving ground
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That is always the first thing I look at. I’d like to see the progression from A+ to AA to AAA, but I always look at the first and second time at AA. Then see if they are age-appropriate for AA, and then the K/W rate.
A guy like Kelenic might be able to give Seattle a 7.25 OPS, but why would they want to waste a year of his service time when you can simply wait a year and get a .775 player?
When they call up kelenic the day after that threshold you can eat your words about minor league experience and all the BS you buy into. You really think he needs two more weeks experience in the minor leagues? You really think Jake fraley or whoever is a better option then kelenic? That’s actually hilarious.
I totally agree…if never had been said and made public ..him going down to start season would have seemed normal with no playing time last year or lack of minor league games.
Found the Mariners corporate burner account^
It’s not accurate as it’s not the sole reason he was sent down.
Agreed. Kid needs some seasoning in the minors. No matter how ready he thinks he is, the fact is he’s not that close.
Actually, pun, it isn’t accurate. Kelenic isn’t on the 40, so we wasn’t optioned, he was reassigned.
I agree. It was petty. I’m certain it is something they are looking at, but the guy hasn’t played but a few games in AA. He needs to prove that he can hit more advanced hitting first. We have had many many prospects brought up before they were ready and it ruined them. (Ackley, Smoak, Montero, Zuninio, Franklin, etc) It’s a long list, maybe none of them would have panned out anyway, but they all were pushed too hard, too fast and were expected to learn on the job and compete at the same time. Seattle isn’t going to contend for anything this season anyway, I don’t think there is any reason to make sure he is prepared.
Exactly. Here we have someone who’s been paying attention to the Mariners for longer than two months.
Nobody pays attention to the Mariners for more than 2 months.
Touche
i watch every game every year , so at least 1 person does!!!!
None of those players would have been any better with more minor league time. They got plenty of experience and never improved.
You couldn’t be more wrong.
its called a joke let them have some fun
I’m not oblivious to the fact many guys are held down for service time but we’re starting to swing too far the other way here.
Not every prospect who starts the year in the minors is because of team control either. Some of them actually need to start there. Just because they are highly rated doesn’t mean an org feels they’re good to go for the big leagues.
Kelenic is 21 years old and never played in AAA. And only has 21 games played at the AA level.
Maybe Seattle would just like to see him play a little more against weaker competition first.
24- I wholeheartedly agree with your original comment and would like to add- if you look at the comments below the Kyle Lewis article you will now see the post article discussion is now about Kelenic and service time. It’s a shame, I was looking forward to reading positive comments about Kyle Lewis. He’s deserved it
Agreed. It’s a smart business move and was approved by the Union.
#OpenUpTheKelenic!
Trammel Season
Duck Season!
Wabbit season!
Fire!
Ouch, he’s one of my favorite non-Giants so I was hoping to watch him take swings vs Kevin Gausman and Logan Webb.
Let’s stop with the righteous outrage at service time decisions. Whether or not it’s conscionable it’s par for the course and has been for years. It should be expected. No I didn’t say tolerated. I said expected.
Some teams have gone a different way, the Padres and white sox, and it provides a better experience as a fan. There is no guarantee a player will be good in 7 years so teams should focus on what they can truly forecast and put the best team on the field this year. Service time manipulation does not need to be the expectation.
Kelenic and his representatives have already made it very clear that they do not have any love for the organization or the fans. And that he intends to maximize his earnings as much as possible. So he’s absolutely going to be leaving as a free agent to NY or LA. Why not maximize your time when that’s the way the system is. And he’s only played a handful of games beyond single A baseball.
Bob9988: “Leave….to NY or LA”
You can scratch one-half of NY right off that list because the Yankees will not tolerate his whiny, bitchy little attitude, especially in public, particularly before he’s even played one game of pro ball. Let him go back to the Mets and take Cohen’s money. I keep hearing how much he doesn’t care about it.
Bob, where are you coming up with this nonsense?
Kelenic has been vocal about his appreciation for the fans, journalists and bloggers supporting him, his desire to get Seattle the ultimate prize, and Brody stated that Jarred is still willing to discuss an extension.
Anybody who follows the local outlets knows this.
Tone Loaf2 hours ago
Some teams have gone a different way, the Padres and white sox, and it provides a better experience as a fan.
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Not really. The best fan experience is to get a players’ best 6.5 years. It is almost a universal truth that a hitter’s age 23-28 seasons will be better than his seasons prior to age 23.
Sometimes, with Bogaerts for example, you need to promote a player early, because you need him to compete. But Bogaerts OPS+ for 23-27 is 121, while his prior to 23 OPS+ is only 96. His bWAR/650 was 2.8 for ages 20-22, while it was 4.1 for 23-27.
I can understand if someone is eager to see their prospects play, but that lack of patience will hurt you in the long term.
Tolerated by who?
No one. The biggest question nobody with righteous indignation for Kalenic has been able to answer yet: If the organization can’t determine when their own player is ready for MLB, then who? Who is the objective third party that you trust to look out for your organization’s long-term interest and have enough experience with said organization to intimately know a player, enough to bring him up to MLB…. ?
Anyone…….? And, crickets
Fire Mather
You’re a bit late.
Trammell has played well in spring, i could see him hitting well if he’s given regular playing time
No, he hasn’t. He has 16 Ks in 38 ABs, which comes to 253 Ks in 600 ABs. And against OppQual of 6.0. He should start off in AA.
Brady- did you watch all of his games? Or just look at his numbers? If he didn’t play well he wouldn’t have been THE storyline of the 2021 Mariners Camp.
You’re argument for him not hitting well doesn’t make sense- he can’t control his OppQual. He can only control what’s in front of him: which he did by hitting .311 in 45 AB’s, w 9 XBH, 2 SB’s and an OPS of 1.037. K/o’s are a part of modern baseball- they’re up all across the game. Doesn’t mean he can’t learn to cut that rate down.
If you saw him all Spring like I did you’d also see he surprised a lot of people with his elite exit velo’s
Kellenic should not be in the big leagues yet team is not in co tension you don’t need to have a player make a huge jump like that
And if Kellenik comes up and becomes Jo Adell Part Deux, fans will be screaming at DiPoto for calling the kid up too soon.
M’s haven’t shown they play the control issue much. It’s likely a baseball related evaluation.
hit the nail on the head
Kelenic wouldn’t sign an extension.
Who cares about an extension now? Kid isn’t ready for MLB. He may not come up until July 2022. The M’s will reap the benefits of his best years 22 – 28. Let someone else overpay his 29 – 39 years.
Bobtillman: 100 Percent on point. And, for anyone who still feels indignant, you will never convince her Kalenic wasn’t held down for service time, so I offer this to her:
Even if Kalenic was intentionally held down for service time, that doesn’t mean he was also ready. The two terms / assessments are not mutually inclusive, nor are they mutually exclusive. They are completely independent of one another. So, who cares if he was held down?!
If he isn’t ready, he isn’t ready…. and for the one above who’s seems to be new to baseball, just because you put someone in the MLB sooner doesn’t mean they will learn as well or the same as if they waited and developed a better foundation. In fact, the inverse can happen. Yes, you can end up with a lot of potential you never reach because you never developed correctly.
Bob- Kelenic is a much better all around player than Adell. He’s better at evaluating pitches than Jo Adell, a completely different type of Hitter. BA gives Kelenic a 70 grade Hitting tool: FYI that’s a projection of a .295-.315 BA. Adell only has a 50 grade Hitting tool. His ceiling is much lower- as showcased in his 60 game intro last year. I understand your point but I wouldn’t expect Kelenic to struggle getting on base like Adell did- Kelenic will have an elite OBP, the kid is so good at making pitchers work.
In general I agree. Kelenic is likely a higher “floor” player than Adel, and frankly, is a perfect representation of the severely underrated Mets player development system; they don’t get enough credit. Matt Allen and PCA are both going to be very, very good players, with ceilings higher than many taken before them.
And like I said, the M’s haven’t shown they’re playing the service time game. They have the the potential to be a very good team; if not this year than next. And neither the Astros nor A’s have their arrows pointing upward. The Angels are eternally confused, and the Rangers are, at least for now, a mess.
I look at the M’s much like Theo looked at the Rays in 2006. Looking at a spread sheet that projected future lineups (3-4 years ahead), he said “They’re going to be good; even THEY can’t screw it up”.
Kelenic was the 6th overall pick out of a Wisconsin HS! He’s a special baseball player, so savvy at the plate and like a lot of really good players today- he knows it. That confidence and swagger of his might rub some people the wrong way but IMO the game needs more personalities like him. Seattle is long overdue a Superstar talent like him and I can’t wait for his elite OBP and hitting skills to be in our lineup.
He’ll be up here before the end of April and with that promotion Seattle will have back to back AL Roy award winners in their lineup! Trust me – he is a far more advanced hitter and pitch evaluator than Joe Adell. It’s not even close.
this guy is made of glass. hella talented, but always gets banged up. (and for anyone who says “well he didn’t last year, yes, it was hyperbole)
What are you talking about? The catcher got in his way sliding into home. it was a fluke accident. And the only one. Who are you? Do you know anything about Mariners baseball?
he has an injury history in the Minors. question is how much *you* know about the Mariners if you didn’t know this was part of the track record i was alluding too. a more injury prone player is more likely to suffer an injury or one of note in such a collison.
I wonder if anyone has ever done a study on whether “injury prone” is really a thing in that way. Obviously there are players who always seem hurt and players who never seem hurt. But it doesn’t seem like there should be anything physiological that would make an “injury prone” player more likely to get hurt in a collision than anyone else – especially when injury prone players usually have all kinds of different injuries, and not just one injury that keeps cropping up.
Did you know that the catcher caused the collision that led to the injury? Everyone is injury prone when others don’t play in observance of others safety.
that suggests that anyone else woulf have suffered the same degree of injury or one at all, which isnt how it works.
Darkside830- cmon dude, stop spreading disinformation. Kyle Lewis had one really bad awkward collision at home plate. ONE!!! All of the problems he has had in the Minors came from that ONE really bad awkward collision at home plate. As a matter of fact I’d argue that this guy is in the Major Leagues because he’s the opposite of being made of glass- his Doctor thought his playing career was over. Do you know how mentally strong you have to be to come through that type of injury? The dude is an amazing athlete.
Name another separate injury in his Minor League career- you can’t. He had to have 3 different surgeries all related to the unfortunate accident in his first couple months of pro ball. He made his pro debut in Sept 2019. He hasn’t been on the IL or held out of camp until this one bruised knee. Plus, you don’t know how much of this decision to put him on the DL is influenced by the managers just being protective after their 60g seasons last yr. If there was a playoff game tomorrow- you can bet there would be a good chance Kyle Lewis would be in the lineup. Made of glass pfft! Please, have yourself another glass…
Yeah I don’t think that’s case. Other posters have already explained his only other major injury. And I assume that he suffered this injury by getting hit by a ball either batting, fielding or just throwing which seems like it would affect someone whether they’re “injury prone” or not. But I’m not 100% sure on the bone bruise, but I either way I don’t think it’s fair to label him injury prone yet.
injury prone means hes prone to injury, any injury any way.
Saunders once stepped in a sprinkler well, thats what injury prone means.
he’s only exceeded 86 games once in his pro career. (and yes, he was on pace to break that mark last year, I know that)
Good ball players don’t play 120-130g total in the same Minor League teams because they get promoted to a new team. Kyle Lewis skipped AAA entirely in 2019- he went straight to the bigs from AA. Second- the guy did that despite 3 surgeries from ONE horrific accident. He’s barely played any Minor Leagues fully healthy from that one accident yet he still managed to get promoted, break records in his Sept call up followed by the ROY award last yr. You’re logic is flawed and biased
In the Jack Zduriencik era, the M’s brought many of their top prospects up too soon and effectively ruined them: Mike Zunino, Dustin Ackley, Brad Miller, Jesus Montero, Justin Smoak. All of them had excellent track records in the minors, but they just weren’t quite ready for MLB, but they were left to flail and none of them had any legit impact in the majors. Some of them carved out careers, but none became a top star, and since both Ackley and Zunino were high first-round picks out of college, that killed the M’s farm system for a long time. Dipoto spent the first few years of his GM-ship in Seattle reloading the barren minors, and now that’s started to yield fruit in the form of Sheffield, Lewis, White, etc. But we saw what happened to White last year; he hadn’t played above AA and he was eaten up by major league pitching. The M’s do NOT want that to happen to guys like Kelenic, Rodriguez, Marte, etc. And they’re NOT going to contend this year, so there’s no sense in wasting their major league service time, especially with limited crowds to appeal to. It makes sense for Kelenic to stay in the minors and hit off of some AAA-level pitching on a regular basis to show he can at least handle that. As an M’s fan, I’m excited for Kelenic to make it to the majors, but when he does, I want him to stay and to thrive.
As for Lewis, losing him for any appreciable amount of time (especially due to knee problems, which plagued him during his ascent in the M’s system) would be a disaster for even putting up a decent showing for the team.
Yep.
John Olerud, Jim Abbott, Dave Winfield, Dave Roberts, Mike Leake, Catfish Hunter and many others who never even played in the minors.
Besides, all the guys you mention were soft, Kelenic doesn’t strike me as that.
all of those were college players. Kelenic was a HS guy.
well save Hunter, but that was a PR move and most guys going from HS to rhe Majors quickly wiped out.
I’d also argue that pitchers are quite different than hitters, but hey…….
And you can name about 5 other guys who spent at least 300 plate appearances at A-Ball, Double-A and Triple-A. Just because they were able to go directly from amature to pro doesn’t mean every player is going to be able to do so.
They got to the pros, but they weren’t their best version. In Winfield’s fist three years, he had a .751 OPS. Over the next 13 seasons, he had an .852.
In Abbot’s first two seasons, he had an ERA+ of 90.
In Hinter’s first two seasons, he had an ERA+ of 84.
Dave Roberts might be the most glaring issue. He was the 1/1. And he wound up with a career 0.4. Not having minor league experience probably destroyed his career.
Please, so a handful of success stories vs thousands of failures is supposed to sway a major league franchise? The kid is not ready. That is a fact.
Kelenic has already played more games in the minors than Juan Soto did. Plus, the AL West is wide open, I wouldn’t count the Mainers out if they played their best players.
We can’t have nice things
Sure you can! Just don’t let your fans decide where to put them!
Tough