Jarred Kelenic's Moment Arrives

 

Last season, in Seattle, belonged to Julio Rodriguez. He had the full rookie come-up, the awards, the playoff love, he got to be cover boy for Topps. And then you had like...54 games of Jarred Kelenic, his Tacoma buddy, just...still not figuring out how to hit at MLB level. 

I genuinely had the thought last year of if the highly-prized Kelenic-Julio duo would ever become a major league thing after this. And then, suddenly last week, Kelenic finally started hitting like everyone said he was supposed to two years ago.

I do get it, on one hand. It takes some players years to figure out MLB pitching. It didn't happen to Mike Trout immediately. It didn't happen to Aaron Judge immediately. It still hasn't happened for Jo Adell. And now we have Jarred Kelenic, finally hitting .300, leading the Mariners in home runs, and finding time to steal 3 bases. 

I'm honestly glad Kelenic's finally blossomed, because it's yet another piece of this Mariners team that's come together. Now Kelenic, Julio and Teoscar is a really damn good, powerful outfield, and the only infielder that isn't hitting at the current moment is Kolten Wong [for some reason]. It's really Wong and the DH position that are lacking at the moment, because literally everybody else is playing well and pushing the team forward. 

It's similar in the rotation, like it's really only Chris Flexen that worries me, and he's the auxiliary guy. Gonzales's ERA has gotten better and he's not as bad as he was but he's still on the brink. Meanwhile, Gilbert, Castillo and Kirby are all pitching really well and breeding confidence, even with Robbie Ray out for a bit. And then the Ms finally have decided upon a perennial closer in Paul Sewald, and he's been great in the ninth with 4 saves, all while Gabe Speier, Trevor Gott, Penn Murfee and Justin Topa make an excellent bullpen platoon.

I think what's happening overall is that the missing pieces and faulty aspects are more evident now and leading to a spottier start as opposed to the more fully-formed playoff version, with more working pieces. I don't think they're gonna struggle statistically this entire season, and they're gonna need to build themselves back up as the Angels, Astros and Rangers have their own weak spots. But having Kelenic hitting and successful is definitely start, and I hope he keeps it up for as long as he can.

Coming Tonight: On a team featuring Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and J.D. Martinez, it's kinda awesome that he's the one that's been the more reliable power hitter in the last few years.