Jarred Kelenic set to begin rehab stint next week for Mariners

SEATTLE - Seattle Mariners outfielder Jarred Kelenic is expected to be sent out on a rehab assignment with Triple-A Tacoma next week as he continues his recovery from a broken foot sustained kicking a water cooler in July.

Mariners general manager Justin Hollander said Friday that Kelenic has been doing off a Trajekt pitching machine in Arizona and is out of a walking boot.

"He's moving around and made significant progress in the last five days," Hollander said.

Hollander said that Kelenic will need a full rehab assignment to get back into form before it would be a consideration to rejoin the Mariners roster. The team will have Kelenic workout with Tacoma before returning to games. He'll see time both as a designated hitter and in the outfield during the rehab assignment.

"It will be a real rehab assignment. It's not going to be a check the box for a day," Hollander said. "Obviously, he's been out for a while. But he's progressing very well. … He will be ideally be up here sometime early next week with Tacoma working out and playing in games hopefully be the end of next week. So very positive with Jarred."

Kelenic broke his foot in a moment of frustration after a ninth inning strikeout looking against Jhoan Duran of the Minnesota Twins in a game on July 19. The strikeout came at the end of a nine-pitch battle with Duran as the Mariners trailed 6-3 with two runners on and no outs in the ninth inning.

"It was maybe one of his best at-bats of the year. It was a phenomenal at-bat," Hollander said of Kelenic. "His frustration was in the result, not in the process. And I think he learned something from this.  I don't expect it to be an ongoing thing but you also have to be who you are. You can't fake your way through emotions that aren't there. Just maybe channeling them in a different way. He knows that. I texted with him last week. He's really excited to get back."

Kelenic was apologetic and was holding back tears in speaking to reporters about the injury the day after it happened.

"I made a mistake. I let the emotions get the best of me there. I just feel terrible, especially for the guys," Kelenic said. "I just let the emotions get the best of me and I just let them down and take full responsibility for it. It’s on me. It just can’t happen."

Kelenic is having the best season of his career with the Mariners. He's batting. 252 with 11 home runs and 45 RBI with 33 walks and 118 strikeouts in 326 at-bats. He's shown to be a strong defensive outfielder and gives the team speed on the bases as well with 12 stolen bases on the year.

Hollander said the team will make sure to find a way to get Kelenic back involves in a big way when he's ready to return from the injured list.

"One of our best defensive outfielders. For big stretches of the season, he's been one of our best hitters. We will find a way -- even with everybody playing the way they are -- he fits on our team and we will be thrilled to get him back," Hollander said. "I can't say how excited I am to see him out here again. Everybody has picked it up and contributed. He was probably our most consistent offensive player for a two-month stretch of the season to start. I have no reason to believe he won't come in and hit the ground running."

Starting pitcher Marco Gonzales had surgery to address a nerve issue in his forearm that will force him to miss the rest of the season. Hollander said the belief is that Gonzales won't need extensive rehab and should be able to have a normal offseason to get prepared for spring training in February.

"It went well," Hollander said. "They released the tension around the nerve. He's back here now and will start working with our people. Based on how well they thought the procedure went., the hope is that he will have a normal offseason."

Catcher Tom Murphy has been cleared to progress in his baseball activity as he works back from the thumb injury that landed him on the injured list. Hollander said Murphy had a tendon in his thumb that became displaced and caused issues particularly in gripping a bat.

"Some of this is going to just going to be a pain/discomfort tolerance thing," Hollander said. "… He is progressing. It's a real injury he is dealing with and we'll see how this stage of it goes, but positive appointment today for Murph."

Starting pitcher Emerson Hancock has a platelet-rich plasma injection to address his right shoulder strain. Hollander said it was a Grade 1-plus strain with no tear or structural damage.

The team is going to look in depth into why Hancock has had this issue come up a couple of times in hopes of keeping it from happening again.

"He's pretty determined to show that this is a one-off or two-off thing. He does not want it to be a recurring thing," Hollander said. "Timeline is probably 6-8 weeks for him to be back. Obviously, that's why we put him on the 60-day IL. At that point it was just impossible to think that we were going to build him up to five innings in five weeks of the regular season. We need to do the right thing for Emerson in the long term and that's not rushing back from a Grade 1 strain."