By TJ Cotterill

The News Tribune

Major league baseball has launched an investigation into allegations from a former Seattle Mariners executive of racism and gender discrimination against the club.

Lorena Martin, the Mariners’ director of high performance who was fired on Oct. 10, specifically named general manager Jerry Dipoto, manager Scott Servais and director of player development Andy McKay in a string of posts on Instagram and Twitter and later to The News Tribune.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic obtained a statement from MLB on Tuesday about the allegations.

“MLB is aware of the allegations made by a former employee of the Seattle Mariners regarding the conduct of Club employees,” the statement read. “Consistent with our policies, we are investigating the allegations.”

She said that Dipoto in a January meeting called her a “cocky Latina” and later McKay called Dominican players lazy and stupid and said the same about Martin.

She said that Servais in separate meetings told her you don’t see Latino catchers or managers because “they aren’t bright enough. They are dumb,” and he didn’t allow her in certain meetings with players during spring training because she is a woman.

The Mariners strongly denied any wrongdoing in a pair of statements on Monday and called her stories fabricated.

The Mariners said that in at least one of the instances Martin used as an example of racial discrimination that “there were others in the room who can confirm that the stories did not happen as she related they did.”

When asked to speak with those corroborating sources, the Mariners on Monday night declined, at the time, to make them available.

Martin said she hired an attorney and is seeking wrongful termination.

She also indicated on Twitter that the Mariners were negotiating a way to avoid paying the remaining two years on Martin’s three-year contract with the team, and that they were doing so “to keep me quiet.”

She said the Mariners offered her three months of severance pay, but that she turned it down.

Martin said she felt the need to speak out Monday over the Mariners letting go two trainers in the Dominican Republic, Leonardo Santiago and Jose Valdez. The Seattle Times confirmed through an industry source that both men did not have their contracts renewed for next season.

The Mariners never before had a director of high performance before hiring Martin for the position on Nov. 1. Dipoto had said the club spent almost a year creating the role and identifying the best person for it. She was the only woman to head a department in the Mariners’ baseball operations.

Before joining the Mariners Martin was the director of sports performance analytics for the Los Angeles Lakers.