Seattle Mariners president and CEO Kevin Mather issued a statement of apology on Sunday night after a video featuring his comments to a local rotary club went viral earlier in the day.
Mather visited with the Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club on Feb. 5, but the video wasn’t uploaded to YouTube until Friday. Contents of the video started to spread online Sunday.
In the video, Mather gave inside information to the club members on the Mariners’ financial situation, contract talks with various players and short- and long-term plans for many of the team’s prospects.
Mather talked like he was just having a beer with some friends at a bar. He ended up getting one of the Mariners' names wrong; saying a prospect wouldn’t be called up this year and that the prospect’s English wasn’t great; divulging plans about Kyle Seager; and saying that he didn’t like paying a salary for one of the team’s former pitcher’s translators.
All of that culminated in Mather’s statement of apology.
Mather tried to say that his comments didn’t represent the Mariners' views and strategies, which is hard to believe since he’s the CEO. He also said he spent a lot of time trying to smooth out things out and apologize to those he upset with his comments.
Mather just got too candid in his meeting and got burned when his comments went public. It remains to be seen whether he keeps his position with the team.
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