Former Mets prospect Jarred Kelenic traded from Mariners to Braves
Former Mets prospect Jarred Kelenic, who struggled badly in his first two big league seasons for the Mariners before turning it around a bit in 2023, has been traded from Seattle to the Atlanta Braves.
In exchange for the 24-year-old Kelenic, LHP Marco Gonzales, first baseman Evan White, and cash, the Braves sent RHPs Jackson Kowar and Cole Phillips to the Mariners.
The Mets, under then-GM Brodie Van Wagenen, infamously included Kelenic in the deal that brought Robinson Cano and Edwin Diaz to the Mets before the 2019 season.
The outcome, despite Cano's putrid performance and suspension for performance-enhancing drugs that precipitated the Mets eating the remainder of his deal, has so far been in the Mets' favor due to how incredibly good Diaz has been.
But the process -- putting Kelenic in the deal at a time when he was among the most valuable prospects in baseball -- was flawed.
The Mets were essentially doing the Mariners a favor while taking the majority of the money that was owed to Cano. Their reward for that favor was Diaz, but they negated it by wasting Kelenic's value in that trade.
To sum it up: Yes, Kelenic has been largely bad. But the Mets shouldn't have burned him as an asset in the Cano/Diaz trade when they were taking on substantial money.
In any event, Kelenic is now a Brave, with president of baseball operations Alex
Anthopoulos telling reporters on Sunday night that the Kelenic and Vaughn Grissom will likely compete for reps in the outfield in 2024.
After hitting a combined .168/.251/.338 with 21 homers in 2021 and 2022 for the Mariners, Kelenic improved in 2023.
In 105 games, he hit .253/.327/.419 with 11 homers and 25 doubles in 105 games. His OPS+ was above league average, at 109. However, Kelenic's strikeout rate remained alarmingly high, with him striking out 132 times -- a rate of 31.7 percent.
