After spending the offseason being a ‘sponge,’ Jarred Kelenic hopes new swing gets him back on track

PEORIA, Ariz. — Jarred Kelenic squinted through the reflection from the high sun on a cloudless day to see what was on the cellphone presented to him.  

A “memory” from three years ago to the day popped up on Facebook. It was two-minute clip of Kelenic, all of 20 years old, taking batting practice in his first MLB spring training.

In the video, a somehow even younger looking Kelenic with his big league dreams still very much ahead of him, stood in a simple stance with his knees bent and his hands looking comfortable and stacked just below his shoulder. He unleashed a violent but short swing, pummeling baseball after baseball.

Kelenic studied the video till the end and shook his head for a second.

“It feels like a long time ago,” he said before walking back toward the on-field batting cage. “A long time ago.”

Indeed, Kelenic has lived a lifetime in those three years. More than the average professional baseball player.

A month later, spring training was canceled because of the rapid spread of COVID-19. He would join the Mariners in summer camp in July but spent the shortened 60-game season in baseball purgatory, working out and playing simulated games at the Mariners’ alternate training site at Cheney Stadium with the entire minor league season canceled.

He grew impatient as he watched the Mariners use utility infielders, waiver claims and retreads to fill both corner outfield spots instead of giving him a chance.

With baseball returning in 2021 for a full spring training and normal 162-game season, Kelenic found himself in the center of controversy when the infamous video of former president Kevin Mather’s Zoom meeting with the Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club. Mather’s comments about Kelenic, the team’s refusal to call him up in 2020 in relation to his service time and his refusal of a contract extension seemed to confirm claims of manipulation.

An injury in spring training sidetracked his quest to make the opening-day roster much to his frustration. After playing in six Triple-A games — the first of his career — in a delayed start to the season, he was called up May 13 to make his much-anticipated MLB debut. The expectations were enormous to almost unfair.

He not only failed to live up to them. He struggled to survive, looking overwhelmed at times. He was sent back to Tacoma after 23 games, posting a .096/.185/.193* slash line with two doubles, two homers, six RBI, eight walks and 26 strikeouts in 92 plate appearances. Called back up in July, he performed capably enough — .209/.291/.402 slash line with 11 doubles, 13 homers, 37 RBI, 28 walks and 80 strikeouts — to create optimism for a jump in 2022.

It never happened. Kelenic got off to a slow start, posting a .140/.219/.291 slash line with two doubles, three homers, 10 RBI, nine walks and 36 strikeouts in 96 plate appearances. He was sent back to Tacoma with a clear message: He wouldn’t be back until issues with his approach, specifically with two strikes, was fixed and his ability to handle failure was addressed.

The Mariners stayed true to that plan. He was called up briefly when Julio Rodriguez was on the injured list and sent down again.

Finally in late September, the Mariners realized they could no longer play Jesse Winker in left field because he was a defensive liability. They knew Kelenic would represent a serious improvement defensively and felt he’d shown improvement at the plate.  

A subdued and introspective Kelenic returned to play in the final 14 games of the season and started every game in left field in the postseason.  

“When I came back up in September, I’d had lot of time to just kind of sit and talk with myself, honestly,” he said “But my biggest thing was when I showed up, I was gonna do whatever I needed to to help the team win one game at a time.”

It was a positive finish to what was a season filled with disappointment.

“Obviously, there’s a ton lessons I learned from last year and too many to really list off, but I try not to put too much thought into all the stuff,” he said. “I think you just ride off with the high, and that’s what I got to experience going to the playoffs at the end of the year. That’s what we are playing for.”

The team’s success just made everything else seem less important. It’s a mindset that remains.

“The end goal is to get to the World Series,” he said. “That’s kind of where my head’s at.”

It’s a much different feeling than past spring trainings.

“It did seem like every spring training there has been some sort of Jarred drama one way or the other,” Mariners manager Scott Servais joked. “I think he’s probably just ready to come in and go do his job.”

Kelenic echoed that sentiment.

“The difference between the big leagues and the minor leagues, obviously the talent is different, but there’s so many more distractions,” he said. “You just need to learn what is a good distraction and what is a bad one.”

He wouldn’t allow much for distraction this offseason. Instead of returning home to Wisconsin as in past years, he spent most of it in Arizona and Southern California, working with new hitting coaches, though he wouldn’t specify which ones, with the hope of reworking a swing that had evolved into something not viable for consistent hard contact.

“He hits the ball as hard as anybody,” Servais said. “Control the strike zone, take your walks and they aren’t going to throw you 3-2 fastballs every time. It’s taken a little while. And of course, just slowing himself down. He gets so hyper.”

In 558 career MLB plate appearances, Kelenic posted a .168/.251/.338 slash line with 18 doubles, 21 homers, 60 RBI, 52 walks and 167 strikeouts. A 30% strikeout rate just doesn’t work. Per Statcast data, he’s swung and missed at roughly 40% of the breaking balls he faced.

“I needed to get better,” he said. “I’m pretty black and white. And it wasn’t working. I had to make an adjustment and work with great coaches this offseason.”

Asked if the changes would be noticeable, a purposefully vague Kelenic joked: “Hopefully, you’ll notice more productivity. It will be probably easier for you to see than for me tell you.”

Kelenic’s setup at the plate is different. Standing relaxed, he keeps the bat flat on his shoulder with his hands up and parallel, keeping his back elbow loose. As the pitch comes, he has a leg kick and the hands drop into a hitting position. It’s looks simple and comfortable.

“My goal this offseason was to be a sponge and learn as much I possibly could, especially about the swing,” he said.

It was so much detailed information that Kelenic took diligent notes, writing everything in a notebook. He rereads them every so often, refusing to forget any detail or teaching.

“I’m big on writing stuff down, because when you learn that much, you’ll forget everything,” Kelenic said. “I took the time to really write things down. Because when I come to the field, I’ve got to make sure I have all my ducks in a row, because I don’t want to be wasting everybody else’s time.”

So much for Kelenic has changed since that video was recorded three years ago, much of it deemed by scouts, analysts and fans as a failure to live up to his prospect hype. He knows he hasn’t performed to his own high expectations. But he refuses to dwell on it. It won’t help him this season.

“I don’t look at my inconsistent success in the big leagues as a lack of ability at all,” Kelenic said. “I look at it as a lack of information that I had. Just like this offseason, I learned a lot, had a lot of opportunities to learn from a lot of great people. Now that I have more information, I can go out and apply what I’ve learned. And I think you’re going to see a lot more successes here and we’re going to win a lot more games.”

*batting average/on-base percentage/slugging percentage