Not long ago, Jarred Kelenic was supposed to be the future.
Heading into the 2021 season, Kelenic was widely regarded as one of the top five prospects in all of Major League Baseball — a can’t-miss star, a cornerstone bat, and a central figure in the Seattle Mariners’ long-awaited rebuild. Scouts raved. Fans dreamed. The expectations were enormous.
On Wednesday, that vision collided with a far harsher reality.
Kelenic has signed a minor league contract with the Chicago White Sox, complete with a non-guaranteed invitation to spring training, hoping — not expecting — to earn a spot on the Opening Day roster. At 26 years old, a player once projected to anchor a franchise is now fighting simply to stay in the league.
It’s a stunning turn for one of baseball’s most polarizing former prospects.
Selected sixth overall by the New York Mets in the 2018 MLB Draft, Kelenic’s rise through the minors only fueled the hype. His athleticism, raw power, and intensity made him a consensus elite prospect almost immediately. When Seattle acquired him later that year in the blockbuster trade that sent Robinson Canó and Edwin Díaz to New York, he became the symbolic face of a new Mariners era.
But promise does not guarantee production — and Kelenic has learned that lesson the hard way.
Across parts of five MLB seasons, Kelenic has appeared in 407 games, compiling 1,488 plate appearances and a career slash line of .211/.282/.376. The counting stats — 49 home runs, 156 RBIs, 31 stolen bases — suggest flashes of usefulness. The underlying problem has been consistency. A 30.8% strikeout rate has haunted him at every stop, turning stretches of promise into long droughts of frustration.
The raw tools never disappeared. The results did.
Kelenic’s 2025 season may have been the lowest point yet. After being traded to the Atlanta Braves, he bounced between the major league club and Triple-A Gwinnett, never finding traction at either level. In just 24 games with Atlanta, he slashed .167/.231/.300 across 98 plate appearances, striking out 23 times. His Triple-A numbers were only marginally better, offering little reassurance that a breakthrough was coming.
Eventually, the Braves designated him for assignment. Kelenic chose free agency rather than accept an outright assignment to the minors — a quiet but telling moment in a career that once seemed untouchable.
Ironically, his best season still came in Seattle.
In 2023, as the Mariners’ everyday left fielder, Kelenic finally looked like he was turning a corner. He posted a .253/.327/.419 slash line across 105 games, producing extra-base power and holding his own defensively. By FanGraphs’ WAR metric, it remains the high-water mark of his big league career.
Then came the moment that seemed to capture everything about Kelenic’s journey. On July 19, 2023, after striking out against the Minnesota Twins at T-Mobile Park, he fractured his left foot in a moment of frustration. The injury ended his momentum and sidelined him until September. He was never quite the same afterward.
Seattle, operating under payroll constraints and increasingly impatient with his stalled development, moved on. Kelenic was shipped to Atlanta alongside Marco Gonzales and Evan White in what was widely viewed as a salary-dump deal, bringing back pitchers Cole Phillips and Jackson Kowar. For the Mariners, it was a reset. For Kelenic, it was a warning.
Now, the White Sox represent something far more fragile than opportunity — they represent survival.
Chicago is rebuilding, desperate for upside plays and willing to take chances on talent that hasn’t fully translated. For Kelenic, the appeal is obvious. There is playing time to be won. There is less pressure. And there is one final chance to rewrite the narrative.
But make no mistake: this is not a reclamation project with guarantees. This is a prove-it-or-it’s-over moment.
Baseball history is littered with former elite prospects who never quite found their footing. Kelenic’s story stands out not because of a lack of talent, but because of how close he came — and how quickly it slipped away.
Spring training will decide everything. If the bat plays, if the strikeouts come down, if confidence returns, Kelenic could still carve out a meaningful career. If not, this minor league deal may be remembered as the final chapter, not the turning point.
Once, Jarred Kelenic was untouchable.
Now, he’s running out of time — and the game he once seemed destined to dominate is no longer waiting.
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