{"id":62146,"date":"2023-09-11T17:21:28","date_gmt":"2023-09-11T21:21:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=62146"},"modified":"2023-09-11T17:21:28","modified_gmt":"2023-09-11T21:21:28","slug":"mariners-kelenic-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/09\/11\/mariners-kelenic-return\/","title":{"rendered":"Mariners Young Star Returns from Injury"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/09\/09\/hernandez-free-agency-playoffs\/\" target=\"_self\">Seattle Mariners<\/a> outfielder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kelenja01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-09-11_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jarred Kelenic<\/a> returns from the injured list today, a much-needed boost following a series loss this weekend. In a corresponding move, outfielder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/marloca01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-09-11_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cade Marlowe<\/a> was optioned to Triple-A. Seattle lost three of four against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/08\/26\/rays-vs-yankees-clash\/\" target=\"_self\">Tampa Bay Rays<\/a> this weekend, pushing themselves to within 2 1\/2 games of the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/08\/26\/tigers-vs-astros-meadows-heroics\/\" target=\"_self\">Houston Astros<\/a> in the American League West.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Mariners roster moves:<\/p>\n<p>? Jarred Kelenic, OF, reinstated from 10-day IL.<br \/>\n? Cade Marlowe, OF, optioned to Triple-A Tacoma.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Mariners PR (@MarinersPR) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MarinersPR\/status\/1701275096902672655?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">September 11, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Jarred Kelenic&#8217;s Return<\/h2>\n<h3>Interrupted Resurgence<\/h3>\n<p>Kelenic&#8217;s return comes after almost two months of being injured. On July 20th, Kelenic fractured his left foot by kicking a water cooler in frustration after a strikeout. Now, he returns to build on the positives from the first half of the season. Once a top-five prospect in the game, Kelenic went through prodigious struggles as he began his big-league career, hitting under .200 in both 2021 and 2022.<\/p>\n<p>[metabet_core_game_tile query=&#8221;531770&#8243; size=&#8221;350&#215;300&#8243; site_id=&#8221;lastwordonsports&#8221;]<\/p>\n<p>This year, however, Kelenic has been more than 50 percent better: a .252\/.320\/.459 slash line, good for a 110 OPS+. He dramatically increased his hard-hit rate to 49.8 percent and played solid defense in the outfield. Kelenic has shown significant improvements in 2023 from both a physical and mental standpoint. His approach at the plate has evolved, and more success has come as a result.<\/p>\n<h3>Tough Week in Seattle<\/h3>\n<p>The move could not have come at a better time for Seattle. Kelenic&#8217;s return coincides with a rough September for Seattle. The Mariners posted a 21-6 record in August, best in the AL. However, their September has not been nearly as kind. With a 3-7 record, the Mariners have gone cold at the worst time, and Kelenic should give their offense a boost.<\/p>\n<p>Since the beginning of the month, Mariners hitters are only <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fangraphs.com\/leaders\/splits-leaderboards?splitArr=&amp;splitArrPitch=&amp;position=B&amp;autoPt=false&amp;splitTeams=false&amp;statType=team&amp;statgroup=2&amp;startDate=2023-09-01&amp;endDate=2023-09-11&amp;players=&amp;filter=&amp;groupBy=season&amp;wxTemperature=&amp;wxPressure=&amp;wxAirDensity=&amp;wxElevation=&amp;wxWindSpeed=&amp;sort=15,1\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">six percent<\/a> better than the league average, and their pitchers have given up more than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fangraphs.com\/leaders\/splits-leaderboards?splitArr=&amp;splitArrPitch=&amp;position=P&amp;autoPt=false&amp;splitTeams=false&amp;statType=team&amp;statgroup=1&amp;startDate=2023-09-01&amp;endDate=2023-09-11&amp;players=&amp;filter=&amp;groupBy=season&amp;wxTemperature=&amp;wxPressure=&amp;wxAirDensity=&amp;wxElevation=&amp;wxWindSpeed=&amp;sort=4,-1\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">five runs per game<\/a>. On Friday, Seattle held a one-game lead on the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/09\/08\/davis-schneider-earns-best-ops\/\" target=\"_self\">Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> for the second wild card, and 2 1\/2 games over the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/09\/02\/rangers-trade-royals-ragans\/\" target=\"_self\">Texas Rangers<\/a>. At the end of the weekend, those leads have evaporated. Now, the Mariners cling to the final Wild Card spot by just half a game. Despite Kelenic&#8217;s value, the Mariners will need more than just his addition to correct their swoon.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Seattle Mariners outfielder Jarred Kelenic returns from the injured list today, a much-needed boost following a series loss this weekend. In a corresponding move, outfielder Cade Marlowe was optioned to Triple-A. Seattle lost three of four against the Tampa Bay Rays this weekend, pushing themselves to within 2 1\/2 games of the Houston Astros in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4771,"featured_media":62160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,1071],"tags":[246,1992,566,259,36],"class_list":["post-62146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mariners","category-mlb","tag-houston-astros","tag-jarred-kelenic","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-texas-rangers","tag-toronto-blue-jays"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4771"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}