The fallout of Kevin Mather’s disastrous end with the Mariners continues to unfold. Jarred Kelenic, crown jewel of the team’s widely-hailed farm system, decided to reach out to the media, giving an interview to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale. He sounds, um, pissed:

“I was extremely disappointed,’’ Kelenic said. “I worked extremely hard all offseason. And last year, here you have a team that is one game out of the playoffs going into the last weeks of the season. I know for a fact I could have helped that team out. Not just me, but there are other guys who could have helped that team out.”

That Kelenic would feel this way is no surprise. If anything the surprise would be if he didn’t feel angry about the callous, obvious, and (this cannot be overstated) comically inept way the Mariners have handled his service time. The point of this article isn’t to tell you something you can read over there. Let’s focus on this quote from GM Jerry Dipoto in response:

“I’m not sure how you construe a service-time manipulation with a 21-year old player who has played (21) games above A-ball,’’ Dipoto said on a Zoom call, “and has not yet achieved 800 plate appearances as a professional player. That would be an unprecedented run to the big leagues that hasn’t happened in three decades (since Alex Rodriguez in 1994).”

Setting aside that the primary way we are “construing” service time manipulation here was Kevin Mather saying they were manipulating Kelenic’s service time on camera, here is a very incomplete and very hastily compiled list of call ups of players with 800 PA or fewer in professional baseball over the last 15 years:

• Juan Soto (512 PA)
• Bryce Harper (680 PA)
• Mike Zunino (505 PA)
• Dustin Ackley (772 PA)
• Cameron Maybin (785 PA)

That this, again, very incomplete and hurried study reveals a wide variance in MLB career isn’t really the point. Jarred Kelenic could be Dustin Ackley. He could also be Juan Soto. We, frankly, have no idea. The point is simply that we are now day three into the Seattle Mariners having a DEFCON-1 level crisis in trust with their players and fans. That the response of the team’s general manager to a player saying he didn’t like having his career being screwed with wasn’t to simply say, “Yeah. Sorry we screwed that up.” but to double down and offer a half-hearted and easily disproved defense is not the way to rebuild that trust.

I’m not naïve enough not to see that a lot of this is necessary boilerplate speak due to the impending CBApocalypse but, as a fan, I reject that I have to care. Mariners players and fans need management and ownership to stop obfuscating and filling every page with half-truths and easily-debunked double talk and corporate speak. They are deeply, deeply in the red here. Until the way they talk and act changes significantly, the debt will only grow larger.