According to an announcement made by both teams on Sunday night, the Seattle Mariners and the Atlanta Braves have reached an agreement to transfer outfielder Jarred Kelenic, left-handed pitcher Marco Gonzales, and first baseman Evan White to the Braves. In exchange, the Brazilians will receive right-handed pitcher Jackson Kowar and right-handed pitcher Cole Phillips.
Cash is also being provided to Atlanta as a result of the transaction.
As a salary dump for Seattle, the transaction was termed by Jeff Passan of ESPN. In the year 2024, Gonzales was scheduled to receive $12.25 million, while White was anticipated to earn $7 million.
It was necessary for the Mariners to bundle the duo with Kelenic, who is 24 years old, in order to get rid of that money.
Kelenic was selected by the New York Mets with the sixth overall pick in the 2018 Major League Baseball Draft. Six months later, the Mets traded him to the Seattle Mariners in order to acquire Robinson Cano, a second baseman, and Edwin Diaz, a closer.
By 2020, Kelenic had established himself as the Mariners’ most promising prospect.
Kelenic made his debut in the major leagues in 2021, but he only managed to hit.181 with a.615 on-base percentage and a -1.8 win-loss average in 93 games. In 2022, he spent the year bouncing between the major leagues and the lower leagues, and in the second year, he had a batting average of.141.
Through the month of May, Kelenic was hitting.277 with an OPS of.846. However, as the season went on, his production began to decrease, despite the fact that it appeared as though he was finally adjusting to pitching in Major League Baseball in 2023. The situation was made much more difficult by the fact that Kelenic was placed on the injured list for nearly two months after fracturing his foot as a result of kicking a water cooler in an expression of fury following a loss.
The year came to a close with Kelenic hitting 11 home runs. 49 runs batted in, 13 stolen bases, a batting average of.253, an on-base percentage of.746, and a win-adjusted value of 2.0 in 105 games played
According to the article that was written by Bob Nightengale of USA Today, the Mariners “ran out of patience” with Kelenic, which is why they ultimately decided to trade him to Atlanta.
After suffering from a flexor strain and nerve troubles in his elbow, Gonzales, who is 31 years old, will be joining Kelenic in Atlanta. In 2023, Gonzales made only ten starts due to these injuries. Gonzales has a record of 61-47 with a 4.08 earned run average, 1.272 earned run average per nine innings, and 6.7 strikeouts per nine innings since entering the Mariners’ starting rotation in 2017.
On the other side, White has not participated in major league baseball matches since 2021 as a result of several injuries to his hip, hernia, and groyne. He did, however, win a Gold Glove Award as a rookie in the year 2020, and he hit ten home runs in his first 84 games in Major League Baseball.
With Kelenic and those two veterans leaving the team, the Mariners were able to bring back two interesting arms in exchange for Kelenic.
During a recent trade with the Kansas City Royals, Atlanta was able to acquire Kowar. As part of the deal, the Royals had to send out Kyle Wright, who was suffering from an injury. While everything was going on, Phillips finished the year as the Braves’ seventh-best prospect in the Rookie level of baseball.
