In the weeks after he fractured his left foot by kicking a water cooler following a strikeout in July, Jarred Kelenic reflected.
In a boot for a month, he could not play. With the help of his family and friends, he began learning from the mistake that he now considers to be a turning point in his career. It taught him lessons about baseball and life. It helped him grow.
“I took a step back and I just kept thinking to myself, ‘What am I doing? I’m not happy. I’m way too frustrated, I’m letting my emotions get the best of me. I’m not even enjoying this.’ I guess it made me take a step back and realize how lucky and how thankful I am to be in the position that I am,” Kelenic said Wednesday over a Zoom call with media.
“Ever since I was a young kid, I’ve wanted to play in the big leagues, and here I am. When I’m in the big leagues and I’m breaking my foot out of frustration, that just can’t happen. It made me appreciate the game a little bit more. Even when I was on my rehab assignment and I was just back on a baseball field, I hadn’t felt that joy, just to be back on a field. I just truly felt thankful to have the opportunity to be out there and playing again.”
In a way, Kelenic’s foot fracture – which made many people forget about his hot start to the 2023 season – is a microcosm of the early years of his career. A former first-round pick and top prospect, Kelenic hasn’t fully blossomed. Whether it be because of his swing, his emotional attitude or something else, he hasn’t yet reached his potential.
Kelenic’s status, of course, came with pressure. Only five players were selected before him in the 2018 MLB draft. Eventually, he became the centerpiece in a deal that sent Edwin Diaz and Robinson Canó to the Mets. Seattle hoped it netted a future star.
Instead, Kelenic needed time. He probably still needs time. He is only 24 years old, which can be forgotten because he was a heralded prospect.
“I would say that when I first came up to the big leagues, I didn’t know what to expect, honestly,” Kelenic said. “Looking back on the struggles that I’ve had in the big leagues and stuff like that, some of those struggles were some of the biggest lessons that I’ve learned and some of the ones that I needed to learn. Some of the biggest takeaways from my first three seasons in the big leagues would be (about) learning how to kind of turn the page and just kind of let things go. My foot was a prime example of that, of a real turning point – not only in just baseball, but also just, like, my life in general and how I view it. Granted, it was a terrible thing, but it was one of the best things that had ever happened to me.
“I look at the struggles that I had there, they made me who I am today, but also they taught me a lot, and I feel like now – like anything, the older I get, the more information I learn and the better off I’m going to be. A lot of learning the last three years, that’s for sure.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
This is, then, the perfect fit for the Braves, who had an opening in left field. Kelenic is supremely talented – he homered 11 times over his first 59 games in 2023 and plays great defense – but doesn’t need to be “The Man” in Atlanta. The Braves have Ronald Acuña Jr., Matt Olson, Austin Riley, Ozzie Albies and others. They have star power.
Jarred Kelenic needs only to be Jarred Kelenic.
Except that now, unlike in previous years, he perhaps is more mature. He’s seen how understanding what he can control and what he cannot control has freed his mind. He knows baseball is about mindset. His success and failures have taught him a lot.
“I still believe in the ability that I have,” Kelenic said. “I know what I’m capable of doing. (We) talked about my first two months last year – I think I’m capable of doing that throughout a season. At the same time, I’m human, too. When you go through struggles, you’re gonna be humbled. That’s just the nature of the beast. One thing that I am thankful for is I have a really good support staff behind me, and my family is unbelievable to help me get through tough times like that. But those tough times are things that I need in order to give me that confidence moving forward. Granted there was a lot of tough times, I’m thankful for it all.”
Kelenic said he’s excited to watch Acuña, Olson and Riley. He wants to observe how they go about their business on a daily basis because, he said, it’s obviously working. “They’re some of the best players in the game on that roster,” Keleic added. The extra lineup protection won’t hurt.
That said, the Braves clearly believe in Kelenic. To acquire him, they took on Marco Gonzales and Evan White – and their bad contracts. They sent Gonzales and cash to Pittsburgh. To unload White, they acquired David Fletcher – and his hefty $6 million salary for a utility infielder – and Max Stassi. The Braves then had to flip Stassi, whom they didn’t need, to Chicago, along with sending money to the White Sox.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
That is a lot of moves, and money spent, for Kelenic, who hasn’t yet posted consistent results in the majors. But it’s the type of upside buy with which the Braves excel. They are as adept as any club at identifying talent, then maximizing it. If they felt Kelenic was worth this, they probably deserve to be trusted.
The Braves see this as spending $15 million to $17 million for five years – the amount of team control Kelenic has remaining.
On the phone after the trade, Kelenic said, members of the Braves’ front office expressed their confidence in him.
“At the end of the day, I know that I need to just go out and take care of business and do my job, and that’s all I can control,” he said. “But to hear the support that I have from an organization that I haven’t even played for yet was definitely reassuring. It makes me just super excited to get to work and get out to Florida and start spring training right away.”
Kelenic has buddies who play, or have played, in the Braves’ system. “Everything that they talk about is they do it the right way, and they truly care about the players,” he said. This means a lot to Kelenic, who comes from a blue-collar family in Waukesha, Wisconsin. To the Kelenics, relationships and being a good person are everything.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Kelenic takes pride in coming from Wisconsin. In addition to having a house in Arizona, he still owns a farm in Wisconsin. He loves hunting and the outdoors in general. When each season ends, he goes to his farm to hibernate for a couple of months.
His Wisconsin roots are one reason he felt so disappointed after kicking the water cooler. He comes from a cold-weather state that doesn’t produce many professional baseball players. He understands that he’s a role model for younger kids there.
“To know that you’re setting an example every single day you go out on the field, you take pride in that,” Kelenic said. “I keep kind of going back to lessons that I learned breaking my foot. When that had happened and I thought about all the kids back in Wisconsin that see something like that, but that’s not what I want them to see, that’s not what I want them to be. And so when I had time to really reflect on that, it made me realize that there’s a lot of younger kids that look up to me as a baseball player and as a man. That isn’t something that I was gonna let slide, and I was never gonna let that happen again.
“I don’t want to be the example, I want to set the example. And that’s something that I really believe in. I take pride in being a role model for younger kids, especially in Wisconsin or anywhere, really.”
Kelenic, who debuted in 2021, has hit .204 with a .656 OPS over 872 at-bats in the majors. He believes he’s the player from earlier this year – the one who excelled before fracturing his foot. He can play good defense, too.
As much as this next chapter is about baseball, it also is about Kelenic’s growth since he kicked that water cooler.
“I definitely am looking forward to a fresh new start, but being able to (have) gone through the adversity that I went through, and being able to just apply it in my day-to-day work as I move forward throughout my career, I’m really looking forward to just being myself and having a clean slate,” Kelenic said.
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