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The Seattle Mariners were one of the surprise teams for a big chunk of the 2018 season as they were challenging the Astros for supremacy atop the AL West. Not only were then unable to maintain that momentum, but now they find themselves with some very serious accusations leveled against them.
Dr. Lorena Martin, who up until October 10th was employed by the Mariners as their high performance coach, was recently fired by the team. On social media yesterday, she leveled some very serious accusations against members of the Mariners organization including general manager Jerry DiPoto, manager Scott Servais, and director of player development Andy McKay which included specific accusations of racism and sexism towards her and others.
Here’s @CoreyBrockMLB on the dispute between Lorena Martin and the #Mariners. Includes fresh reporting on Martin’s tenure with the Los Angeles Lakers: https://t.co/E0SZSu0g0l $
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) November 13, 2018
We are still very early in the reporting on this issue, but to say that these accusations have been damning seems fair. Martin has gone into detail about instances where comments and actions have been made towards her that referenced her ethnicity (calling her a “cocky Latina”) as well as her gender (preventing her from participating in team activities because she was a woman) in addition to making derogatory comments about Latino players in general.
The Mariners very quickly issued a blanket denial of Martin’s claims.
Mariners fired Dr. Lorena Martin on Oct. 10 and clearly the situation got ugly. Martin issued some serious charges today toward GM Jerry Dipoto about racism and lack of leadership on her Twitter account @LMHighPerform. Here is Mariners' response. pic.twitter.com/39rOsRlXFP
— Greg Johns (@GregJohnsMLB) November 13, 2018
Based on the reporting that is coming out today, it is clear that this is not an issue that is going away any time soon. We will keep you posted on the details on this situation as this story develops.