Jarred Kelenic Joins Alex Rodriguez in Seattle Mariners Team History
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The Seattle Mariners are 23-24 on the season, in large part because of their offensive struggles.
In fact, one of the only reasons the Mariners are that good is because of the play of Jarred Kelenic, who has been the only offensive piece to gain sustained traction.
Kelenic had three hits on Monday night in a lopsided win over the Oakland Athletics. He had three RBI and hit his 10th home run, which came in the first inning.
With that home run, Kelenic joined former Mariner Alex Rodriguez in an exclusive club in Mariners history.
@MarinersPR tweeted out the following:
With 10 HR over his first 45 games, Jarred Kelenic is the fastest Mariners player age 23-or-younger to 10 home runs in a season since Alex Rodriguez in 1999 (10 HR, 31 G).
Any time you are compared to A-Rod as a young player, and a young Mariner, that's something to be valued. Before all the questions about steroids, Rodriguez was one of the best young players in the game, and certainly one of the best young Mariners in history.
Kelenic certainly appears to have figured it out this season. After an up-and-down last two years that saw him hit .181 (2021) and .141 (2022), he's hitting .297 with the 10 homers, 25 RBI and six stolen bases.
He's now hitting cleanup in the Mariners order over more established players like Teoscar Hernandez, Eugenio Suarez and Julio Rodriguez.
As for A-Rod in that 1999 season? He finished the year with 42 homers, 111 RBI, and 21 steals.
Shockingly, he was only 15th in the American League in MVP voting that year.
The Mariners play the A's again on Tuesday at 9:40 p.m. ET.
