MLB Service Time Rules Need To Be Fired Out Of A Cannon Into The Sun
Those are videos of baseball's top outfield prospect going deep twice last night in his AAA debut. His name is Jarred Kelenic. Most casual baseball fans know him as the latest future phenom that's getting screwed because of service time. And if you really follow, then you know he explicitly said this offseason that he wouldn't sign an extension so the Mariners started playing games with him. Pretty awkward situation with your future 3-hole hitter knowing that he already hates your guts.
Forcing their hand, the Mariners kept Kelenic on the minor league roster out of spring training after refusing to debut him last year. If you're not going to be here for the long-run upfront, then I suppose it makes sense to completely fuck him over start to finish. End result is Kelenic will *probably* end up losing a year of free agency. I say probably because everything is subject to collective bargaining and I've learned the hard way not to speak definitively when CBA's are on the table.
That's a weird sentence.
Point is Kelenic should be in the big leagues because he's awesome and would instantly make the Mariners better but he's not because service time rules suck. BAD. And now the 2nd place overachieving Mariners have gone 20% of the season with an intentionally worse team. I know the wheels are due to fall off but if you're a Mariners fan you have to be out of your mind upset. A win in April & May is just as important as one in August and September.
I honestly and sincerely wish we had a better way to go about paying players that didn't have to so obnoxiously abut THE BUSINESS OF SPORTS. To be frank I'm not really interested in the financial dynamics. I'm at the point in life where I just want to cheer for good players, and I should be able to trust the extremely well compensated individuals at my teams to identify and retain said players. Examples: Kris Bryant, Javy Baez and Anthony Rizzo. This isn't rocket science.
At some point we just don't give a shit about how hard these guys making decisions have it. Then quit the fucking job if you can't get Jarred Kelenic to sign a fair extension. I mean how can you tell me there isn't a business development guy reading this blog right now that couldn't wheel and deal a powerpoint deck to Kelenic's team and have something ironed out by lunch. This is literally just about doing good, honest business and I swear on everything sacred & holy you just can't find it in Major League Baseball.
On the bright side at least we're not talking about Tony La Russa's managerial decisions. At this point I'll turn it over to White Sox Dave. As the kids would say, he was on one this week: