Braves win in Jarred Kelenic trade only getting bigger with latest Mariners news

Early this offseason the Atlanta Braves pulled off a stunning trade, acquiring former Mets top prospect Jarred Kelenic in a trade with the Seattle Mariners in exchange for a package that could only be described as light.

While Kelenic hasn't quite lived up to his elite prospect status yet, he's just 24 years old and has shown flashes of star potential. Just last season he had an .846 OPS through the first two months of the season.

The reason the package was underwhelming from a Mariners perspective is because Seattle threw in the contracts of Marco Gonzales and Evan White that they did not want. With the Braves taking on a good amount of money there, they got Kelenic for not very much.

The two players who went from Atlanta to Seattle in the trade were Cole Phillips and Jackson Kowar. Phillips, Atlanta's seventh-ranked prospect at the time, underwent Tommy John Surgery that will knock him out for all of 2024 and part of 2025. To make matters worse, the other player the Mariners acquired is being evaluated for a possible arm injury of his own. Yikes.

Injury to Mariners player acquired in Jarred Kelenic deal means the Braves won offseason trade by an even wider margin

An injury to Jackson Kowar, a pitcher with a 9.12 MLB ERA in 39 appearances might not seem like a huge deal, but he had a chance to make Seattle's Opening Day roster. He wasn't as big of a piece as Phillips, but he was impressing in camp and had thrown two scoreless innings, allowing no base runners and striking out three. He's a hard thrower who might have found a way to click away from the Royals where he had his struggles.

There's a reason Atlanta acquired him for Kyle Wright early this winter and there's a reason why the Mariners acquired him and not somebody else in the Kelenic deal.

It's a good thing from Seattle's perspective that the Braves ate money, but on the player side, The trade looks like Kelenic for nobody right now with both players the Mariners acquired being injured already. We hope Kowar's injury is minor, but the Mariners being concerned about a potential arm injury is not a great look.

The deal looked like an instant win for the Braves because they got Kelenic for an underwhelming package. It looked like more of a win when Phillips went down. It somehow got even worse for the Mariners with this latest update. Just a shame.