Yankees Take Their Turn Trying to Fix Former Mariners Outfielder Jarred Kelenic
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Jarred Kelenic is bouncing around baseball, trying to find somewhere he can stick. His next stop is New York, and honestly, this might work.
The Yankees signed Kelenic to a Minor League contract and are sending him to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. He has no guaranteed place in the Bronx. He’s 27 and fighting for another opening after the Rangers DFA’d him.
New York may have a reasonable job description for Kelenic.
We all remember how much was riding on Jarred Kelenic. Seattle brought him in as the big prize in the package they received from the Mets for Robinson Canó and Edwin Diaz. and that put a scoreboard on everything he did. A good week was proof the Mariners had won the deal. A bad month started the argument all over again. For three seasons, we kept waiting for all that talent and hype to turn into the player Seattle thought it was getting.
We haven’t seen that version show up consistently in the majors. Through 443 big-league games, Kelenic owns a .211 average and a .654 OPS. He just simply hasn’t been good enough at the major league level.
Jarred Kelenic Still Has to Make His Triple-A Success Travel
The weird part is that he still flashes Quad-A talent. Kelenic slugged in 37 games for Triple-A Round Rock with a .373 batting average and a 1.102 OPS. But when it came time to do it at the major league level he slashed .219/.313/.288 across 36 major-league games with the White Sox and Rangers. He consistently gets exposed when he makes it to the next level.
That split explains why the Yankees are taking a shot. They aren’t exactly hurting for outfielders. Kelenic is depth. But let’s say he does make it to the Bronx. Yankee Stadium is a left-handed hitter’s paradise. Most of the park plays fairly, but right field makes it one of the easier places to hit one out from the left side of the plate.
If Kelenic gets the call, he can be given a smaller assignment. He can be used in more favorable matchups, provide left-handed pop and work on earning the next at-bat. The Yankees can evaluate the player standing in front of them instead of chasing the upside everyone imagined eight years ago.
The Mariners failed to turn its prized acquisition into a dependable hitter, and Kelenic failed to claim the opportunity he received. Both are true. Trading him after the 2023 season was still the right call, even if another club eventually squeezes some value out of him.
Kelenic is no longer a prospect. He’s a true journeyman now, working from one opportunity to the next and trying to prove there is still a major-league role waiting for him.
It’ll be interesting if the Yankees are the club that finds a way to squeeze value out of him.
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Tremayne Person is the Publisher for Mariners On SI and the Site Expert at Friars on Base, with additional bylines across FanSided’s MLB division. He founded the Keep It Electric podcast in 2023 and covers baseball with a blend of analysis, context, and a little well-timed side-eye just to keep things honest. Tremayne grew up a Mariners fan in Richmond, Va., and that passion ultimately led him to move to Seattle to cover the team closely and become a regular at home games. Through his writing, he connects with fans who want a deeper, more personal understanding of the game. When he’s not at T-Mobile Park, he’s with his dog, gaming, or finding the next storyline worth digging into.
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