Optioned to Triple-A Tacoma Kelenic was optioned to Triple-A Tacoma on Monday. Impact Kelenic was one of the most hyped prospects in the league over the offseason, leading to widespread annoyance at the Mariners' decision to keep him in the minors until mid-May. He'll head back to the minors to sort things out after hitting .096/.185/.193 through 23 games. A .109 BABIP can be blamed for some of his struggles, but it's not as if producing numbers in line with his .180 xBA and .322 xSLG would count as meeting expectations. Kelenic's 28.3 percent strikeout rate was poor but not terrible, but he simply didn't hit the ball very hard when he did make contact, producing just a 5.3 percent barrel rate. Kelenic is still only 21 years old, so there's plenty of time for him to get back on track.
JUNE 7, 2021 • ROTOWIRE