THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: Promise is one thing, but the numbers don't lie

We were warned.

And by Jarred Kelenic’s biggest fan, no less.

Remember when the Mariners had to endure all that fuss, when former CEO Kevin Mather stupidly told guests at a Rotary Club breakfast outing that the organization could, and would, manipulate young players’ service time.

The kid in the spotlight was Kelenic, one of the top prospects in baseball.

Mather was saying, clear as day, that the Mariners would not bring Kelenic to the major leagues in the shortened 2020 season — and that it would be no cinch the following year, either.

Kelenic is an ambitious, confident young man (perhaps not as confident now, but still…) and he was upset about the club’s reluctance to let him save the franchise.

His agent was even more furious.

The average fan saw all this comedy play out, and probably wondered, if Kelenic was all of THAT, why wouldn’t the Mariners let him rip it up in Seattle?

IF WE needed a warning, well, it came from the boss.

General manager Jerry Dipoto, who would probably bet his house, car, and boat on Kelenic’s eventual success (yep, even now), tried to tell us back then about the perils of rushing prospects to the big leagues too quickly.

At the time, Kelenic looked great — but Dipoto mentioned over and over that the 20-year-old phenom had only 92 at-bats above Class A, and was wasting a summer during COVID intramurals.

“You have to play this game to understand how tough it is,” Dipoto said at the time. “Each step up, it gets more difficult.

“There are a lot of guys just killing the ball at Class A or AA, but the hitters at those levels haven’t seen really great pitching.

“They need to be prepared before they do. That’s the whole point of development.”

The problem, of course, was that the Mariners were caught in a bit of a trap.

Having been accused of holding back a player admired by everyone in baseball, what could they possibly do when Kelenic opened up this season by appearing to overwhelm AAA pitching during one exciting week in Tacoma?

I suspect that Dipoto, deep in his baseball heart, knew that it was still too soon.

But, what can you do?

Kelenic played six games in Tacoma, and hit .370 with two homers, a couple of steals, and…

He looked like “The Natural.”

DIPOTO certainly tried to sound optimistic when Kelenic was summoned to Seattle.

But read these words two or three times, and you can almost hear a baseball lifer fighting to explain how difficult the job might be.

Here’s part of Dipoto’s explanation for calling up Kelenic…

“I have to say the first six games were fairly convincing.

It was pretty loud.

“This was never about a lack of belief in what Jarred would do, it was always about making sure that we were building a foundation for success — against left-handers, seeing upper-level pitching, guys who pitch backward when you’re behind in the count.

“And I don’t know if he’s seen enough of that, but I do know that it’s been loud enough.”

As it turned out, Kelenic had NOT seen enough of the game’s very best pitchers, and even though he appeared to stay on an even keel when at-bats turned into outs, that started to change.

Baseball people will tell you that hitters under pressure get themselves out, usually by chasing bad pitches and losing their normal routine.

AND THAT’S what happened to Kelenic, who needs Tacoma pretty desperately right now.

Jarred’s fellow rookie outfielder Taylor Trammell has also been with the Mariners (to start the season), began to fail when pitchers found a hole in his swing, and was sent to Tacoma to fix it.

Trammell has since returned to Seattle, and he understands exactly what Kelenic is suffering.

In an interview with The Athletic just before Kelenic was demoted, Trammell said he was optimistic.

“When you start to worry about certain guys is when they start to give up, and he’s not doing that,” Trammell said of fellow struggling newcomer.

“He comes in here every single day, we go into the cages at the same time and he works.

“He’s still competing every single time. I look at him and see kind of the same things I went through. And I’m still learning.

“It’s a very, very tough and unforgiving game.”

Indeed, it is.

Jarred Kelenic is far more likely to concede that point that he would have been a year ago.

Or a month ago.

An .096 batting average has a way of telling you the truth.

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Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. “Moments, Memories and Madness,” his reminiscences from several decades as a sports journalist, runs each Sunday.

Steve also writes Zags Tracker, a commentary on Gonzaga basketball which is published monthly during the offseason.