Has Jarred Kelenic finally arrived for Mariners?

Published 1:30 am Thursday, April 13, 2023

By Ryan Divish / The Seattle Times

CHICAGO — The explosive crack quieted the eighth-inning din emanating from 26,944 spectators, many of whom had long since given up on the action and were content to enjoy the sunshine and their adult beverages on an unseasonably warm afternoon in mid-April.

The unmistakable sound produced when the barrel of Jarred Kelenic’s matte-gray Victus bat squarely impacted a baseball thrown at 98 mph from right-hander Julian Merryweather was startling to those not paying attention and euphoric for the large group of Mariners fans watching in the Wrigley Field seats and the others watching on television.

What followed, and what has happened for much of this road trip, was something that the Mariners and their fans have cautiously hoped for this season, after expecting it in seasons past only to be left disappointed.

The ball came off Kelenic’s bat with an exit velocity of 112 mph to straightaway center field. It kept climbing and traveling to the point where Cubs center fielder Cody Bellinger gave up retreating after two steps and watched the baseball-sized comet land in the upper deck of the bleachers — a place where few balls land, even during batting practice.

Seattle manager Scott Servais played 3½ seasons with the Cubs and has seen plenty of long homers hit at the “friendly confines,” including many from his teammate Sammy Sosa, but …

“It’s about as far as they go to center field,” Servais said. “Certainly, the wind was blowing out today, but that ball was absolutely smoked. I played with Mr. Sosa for a few years. I never saw him go up to that level in center field. Good for Jarred. He is right on everything. He’s ready to hit every pitch and he’s not missing it right now.”

Kelenic, who has been purposefully reserved when discussing his exploits and performance, was measured in his response while the rest of the baseball world was freaking out.

“That’s probably the farthest I’ve hit a ball,” he said quietly. “It felt smooth, felt pretty effortless, honestly. That’s what you want in a swing.”

It was Kelenic’s third consecutive game with a homer at the venerable old ballpark, and it capped a much-needed 5-2 victory for Seattle.

In three games against the Cubs, Kelenic had five hits, with a double to go with the three dingers, two walks, three RBI and no strikeouts.

“That was the series of Jarred Kelenic,” Servais said. “Wow.”

But could it be the season of Jarred Kelenic?

Of all that has gone wrong with the Mariners’ 5-8 start to the season, including a 3-3 road trip that could’ve been so much more, Kelenic’s performance and his re-emergence as a possible foundational player of the future has gone so very right.

“He looks great,” Servais said. “I’m really excited with where he’s at, and really, probably more excited to see where this goes going forward.”

Since arriving to spring training with a revamped swing and refined approach at the plate, Kelenic said multiple times his only focus is moving forward, not looking back.

It’s a logical philosophy considering all that has gone wrong for Kelenic the past two seasons, which include strikeout-filled struggles at the MLB level while trying to chase results, specifically homers, followed by demotions to Triple-A Tacoma where he would put up big numbers that wouldn’t translate to big-league success.

He was seen as a bust by many fans and a tradable player by the Mariners.

“I needed to get better,” he said in the first days of spring training. “I’m pretty black and white. It wasn’t working so I had to make an adjustment.”

So he made drastic changes to his personal and professional life this past offseason. He bought a house in Arizona and stayed there in the offseason instead of returning to his family’s home in Wisconsin. With some help from the Mariners, he searched for and found new hitting coaches to re-establish his identity as a hitter. He also trimmed off some of the bulk on his frame, working to be more flexible and regain his speed and athleticism.

When Kelenic arrived at spring training, the Mariners could see a difference. He put up gaudy numbers in the Cactus League, leaving the organization hopeful that the changes would remain in place even under the results-based pressure of the regular season.

After just two hits and six strikeouts in his 14 plate appearances against the Guardians in the first four games of the season, some familiar grumblings and complaints began to linger from fans, who felt he was just another mirage of spring-training success and regular-season failure.

But the Mariners believed his process was sound and his swing decisions were correct. He picked up a single in the final game of the homestand and has hit in every game since.

Mariners’ Scott Servais: ‘That was the series of Jarred Kelenic. Wow.’

Over those seven games, he has 11 hits in 24 at-bats with three doubles, three homers, five RBI, three walks and just four strikeouts.

If there were any doubts about Kelenic’s commitment to a new approach, Servais can point to the two walks Kelenic took when everyone else was hitting, including one when he got down 0-2.

“That’s probably what I was most impressed by,” Servais said. “It was not the homer or the double, but it was the other at-bats. He was able to lay off pitches. He has not wavered. He stayed with his approach, with his plan. And it’s paying off for him.”

Admittedly, Kelenic wouldn’t have had the discipline or approach to not swing at some of those two-strike pitches in past seasons.

“I’m sure,” he said. “I think the biggest thing is making sure that I’m on time because it allows you to see all sorts of pitches and that’s where you want to be.”

With his family and friends from his hometown of Waukesha, Wis., making the short drive to Chicago, Kelenic provided them memorable moments with the homers.

Monday night, he pulled a deep fly ball off the middle of the Budweiser scoreboard well beyond the right-field wall.

Even with the prodigious blast Wednesday, it was his homer Tuesday night — a 415-foot opposite-field blast — that was his favorite of the series.

“Backside homers are my favorite,” he said. “Anybody can pull a ball. But when you can hit a ball true with true backspin the other way, that’s the best swing in my book.”

There was also circumstance surrounding it. He had told hitting coach Jarrett DeHart that he was going to do it before facing right-hander Michael Rucker.

“I had told JD before I had a feeling that they were probably going to throw me a fastball away,” Kelenic said. “I hadn’t chased anything and I figured that they were going try to get ahead early and probably come fastball away. So I was just looking for something out over the plate and I was going to try and hit it exactly where I hit it.”

Is this real?

“For years, we’ve been talking about the talent, the talent, the talent, the potential, and all those other things” Servais said. “Now we’re starting to see it play out.”