‘He just looks more natural’: Jarred Kelenic continues breakout season for Mariners

In the aftermath of Saturday’s come-from-behind victory over St. Louis , Jarred Kelenic was asked about his solo homer off Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas.

On the first pitch he saw from the right-hander – a sinking 93-mph fastball moving in toward the inner half of the plate – Kelenic unleashed a pretty swing, catching it on the barrel and sending a towering fly ball over the wall in left field. Per MLB Statcast, it had 102-mph exit velocity with a distance of 370 feet.

“The best swing of my career,” Kelenic told ROOT Sports Northwest.

Why?

“Just because it’s tough to take out a down-and-in pitch oppo,” Kelenic said. “When you can do that, you’re catching the ball deep and staying through it. So that’s ideally where you want to be.”

It was yet another of Kelenic’s recent homers that left manager Scott Servais shaking his head.

“Fantastic swing,” Servais said after Saturday’s game. “He could not do that a year ago. There’s no chance. That’s talking about the adjustments he’s made in his swing. A year ago, that’s probably a rollover (ground ball) to first base or second base. He’s staying inside that ball, staying through it. It was a sick swing.”

So why not replicate it on Sunday?

Facing Cardinals starter Jack Flaherty, Kelenic led off the second inning with a solo homer that looked eerily similar. This time it was a first-pitch slider that broke to the inner part of the plate. He stayed inside the ball and hit another fly ball over the wall in left field. This homer only had a 99-mph exit velocity and traveled 357 feet.

But it was impressive nonetheless.

It sparked a three-run inning that fell short, which dimmed it a little for Kelenic.

“They felt pretty similar,” he said. “I took a look at it, and it was basically in the same spot as it was yesterday. Just a different pitch. So I know I’m in a good spot.”

Servais knows it’s a product of hard work and talent.

“I don’t think people realize how hard it is to do,” he said. “Back in my day, and there were all kinds of factors that contributed to guys hitting the ball a long ways, but that down-and-in pitch and to hit it out to the opposite field, Mike Piazza could do that from the right side.”

That’s lofty company.

“It’s your swing path,” Servais said. “It’s the bat speed you have and all the other things lined up. But I think what’s made it for Jarred, it’s something he has worked at doing. Instead of rolling that ball over or trying to pull that ball or hitting it foul to the pull side, he’s staying inside on that ball and carving it that way. It’s really hard to do and that’s why you don’t see many guys do it.”

It was Kelenic’s team-leading sixth homer of the season.

Over his past his 14 games, he’s hitting .360 (18 for 50) with four doubles, six homers, 13 RBI and six walks.

The Mariners are quick to credit Kelenic for showing the maturity and motivation to understand he needed to make major offseason changes to his professional life, including revamping his swing and approach.

They noticed the change from the day he showed up in spring training.

“He just looks more natural,” Servais said. “It’s just more free flowing I guess is the best way for me to term to it. There’s rhythm to his swing versus ‘OK, I gotta get down and then I’m gonna let it rip.’ It’s all kind of sequencing together in the proper way.”

Not many players are willing to make such drastic changes to their setup and swing. But Kelenic admitted that what he was doing wasn’t working and might never work. He had to learn about how and why the proper swing leads to success.

The amount of work and time to make such changes is a task most players aren’t willing to endure to try something drastically different.

“Oftentimes people say, even the young players when you draft them or you’re watching them, the swing is the swing,” Servais said. “Swings don’t really change a whole lot over the course of a guy’s career. Some guys are able to do it. He has made a noticeable difference, but it does take hours and hours of work, thought, looking at video and trying to get a feel within your body so you can repeat it. A lot of guys can do it once. Some guys can do it two or three times. But to do it over and over and over again, it takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of discipline and Jarred certainly has discipline in his routines.”

Before he steps in the box for each at-bat, Kelenic takes the end of his Victus bat and tamps a small indentation out in front of the center of the plate. It’s a simple reminder of what he’s trying to do.

“It’s kind of like a mental note,” he said. “I’m just trying to make sure I catch the ball out front. It’s something I did in 2019 when I had my best year. I don’t know why I got away from it. So I started doing it again. And now I’m right where I want to be.”

When he hits in the cage, he’ll put a baseball in that spot and can see it in his peripheral vision as he hits.

For Kelenic, he’s located a hitting identity that he had gotten away from for a few seasons as he tried to make an impact at the MLB level.

“It’s who I have always been,” he said. “I’m just going to go out and keep doing it.”

With each homer and more games with success, the comparisons of what he would’ve done in the past – some sort of failure – in a similar situation will disappear. He’s moved on from the past struggles. He’s waiting for everyone else to join him in understanding who he is now and not what he once was in the past two seasons.

“I mean I’m not talking about it,” he said. “I haven’t talked about it really that much. If there’s anything I know about this game, it’s about ‘what have you done for me lately?’ It’s not about what have you done in the past. I’ve moved on. It is what it is. I’m gonna keep going.”