#Mariners GM Justin Hollander “Blown Away” by Josh Naylor | #SeattleSports

#Mariners GM Justin Hollander “Blown Away” by Josh Naylor | #SeattleSports

Well, big big news for Mariner fans. We’ve been talking about it, Dave, and it’s official now. Josh Naylor is going to be a Mariner for the next five seasons at least. And that’s uh that’s an early Christmas present for a lot of us out here. And a man who is a huge part of making it happen is with us now on the Emerald Queen Casino Sportsbook Hotline. He is your Mariners’s general manager. Justin Hollander is with us. How are you, buddy? I’m great. Great day for us. It it is a great day. And let me just as much as you can tell the listeners about what went into this because this was fast. This was uh it doesn’t I don’t even know if if Josh had another conversation with another team. Did he did did he even entertain free agency really? Because you guys got this done pretty quickly much to the surprise of not just local media but it seems like national media as well. Yeah. I mean you have to ask him about that. I I certainly had some conversations. Um my understanding at least from them was that this was his priority and you know we were very honest with him about him being our priority. Uh and I think we we showed it through our actions not just through our words and that resonated for everybody. You know this is uh you know something that Jerry said when we started out and something that I sort of repeated and really resonated with me. Don’t be stupid. Like if you if you have a player who fits your clubhouse, fits your team really well like perfectly is probably the best way of saying it. wants to be here. You want him here. Why wait? Why wait until December? Why wait until the winter meetings? Just go out and put your best foot forward early on and show him that you mean it when you say it, that you’re our number one priority. We want you to be here. Um don’t be stupid. And that that resonated through my head quite a bit over the last couple weeks as we were sort of winding down from the the unfortunate end to the season and ramping up into what 26 and 27 and 28 and 29 and 2030 might look like. And that was Josh was going to be an important thing for us to get done as soon as we could. Well, Justin, congratulations on a great year and then and then signing Naylor. What’s this might be a tough question, maybe not fair, but what’s the best thing that he brings to this team? We can see all the stats, but what about some of the other X factors uh about Josh Naylor? He’s a winner. Um, you know, I don’t know if I can say this on the air, he’s kind of a badass. Like, he’s competitive. He’s got grit. Um he he pushes other people uh to to to give it their all, to never quit. Um you know, he brings an edge and a personality. Um and I think all those things create an environment that’s really special. And I also think his his feel for the game, as we’ve talked about it a lot, his baseball intelligence, his IQ, that’s something that can spread throughout a clubhouse. When he’s noticing things, he can share them with the group. You know, it’s important for us to have players like Josh and Julio and Cal and JP. Um, as we start incorporating the next wave of young prospects, you know, we there has to be in-person clubhouse guides for the young players to come up. It’s really hard to to come to the big leagues and be your best self. It’s especially hard when you don’t have really good veteran players around them. We feel like we have a great core that’s going to allow young players to on board into the big leagues faster than ever. Justin, I was saying yesterday when the, you know, when the news came out that to me this this sent a message to the fan base, to the rest of the league, to that clubhouse that, you know, you just touched on it. Josh is is I mean, he is driven. That is a guy I mean, everybody in that clubhouse wants to win, right? But he he’s he’s intense about winning. And I don’t think that, you know, I know money is is there and he could have had money anywhere. To me, that sent a message him saying, you know what, I believe I can win here. this this tells me I can win here because that’s my priority. So, were there did he talk to you about the future about, hey, what are your guys plans? How do you plan to attack the offseason? Was that ever part of the conversation with him? Yeah, we had a um you know, Josh Josh referenced this at at our press conference today. Um we we had a meeting with Josh right after the season. Jerry and I flew to Arizona for the day. Uh had lunch with him and his wife and his agent. Uh and and the baby Onyx uh was there, but didn’t say peep the whole time. Uh, and we talked we just talked about, you know, Josh’s experiences growing up playing, um, how he got to where he is today, you know, time on different clubs and what that was like. And then we talked for a long time about the Mariners. And, you know, typically when you have these meetings, um, you know, the the focus is a lot on the present club. And there was a ton of talk about that and I give Josh a ton of credit. He had done a lot of homework on our organization, not just on his teammates today, but on the guys he thought might be his teammates in 26 or 27 or 28, our young players. Um, and had a lot of questions about them. Um, wanting to get to learn more about them. He’d done a like a video breakdown on a lot of them and had like full writeups on what he liked about them. Uh, it it was really impressive. Uh, I was blown away. Um, we we could have sat for hours and hours longer. I think it was four hours of a a meeting that could have gone six or seven or eight. Um, and the conversation was very easy and everybody at the table seemed focused on the same thing, which is Josh being with the Mariners and winning a World Series and not just, you know, we had a great year in 2025 and that was our apex, but like really how do we carry this forward? Um, and it was it was a very impressive presentation by him of what was important to him. And it was, you know, I I left and walked away from the meeting thinking we have to get this guy signed. He fits so well. Wow. Hey, uh, for you Justin, it’s a great year obviously and everybody was was disappointed in the end, but it was an amazing year. How long did it take you to go, okay, let’s get to work on 2026? Um, I’m sort of doing doing both right now. I’m I’m still morning 25. I’m not over it yet. But also like, you know, the the next season calls and I can’t unring the bell on last season. Uh, I can’t make, you know, one more roster move or influence one decision or, you know, find a way to help the guys get the last nine out. Like that’s gone. Um, so trying to, you know, not relive it every day. Still disappointed. I think we all are. Um, but really excited about the future. Um, you know, I have to feel like, you know, we can do a lot with the group that we have to help them get better. Um, because I think our foundation is as good as anybody in baseball. So, you know, over the last two weeks or so, uh, I’ve really started to try and put 25 behind us and focus almost exclusively on 26. And I think going to the general manager meetings and and sitting with your colleagues and talking about the team and where you want to improve it over the last week, doing that in Vegas was was a good thing for all of us to to really bury 25 and put it behind us. How how much Justin would you say the the I don’t know if the philosophy, the approach perhaps of of ownership may have shifted in a good way based on the success of last year. I mean, being eight outs away from the first World Series to me just you you got such a close sniff of what it could be and you saw this city explode. You saw the support and the the mania that followed this team. And I’m wondering if that led to a this signing happening as quickly as it did. B, it’s the biggest signing since Jerry’s been here. I mean, Mitch Garver had the biggest free agent signing prior to that, 2 years, 24 million. So this represents obviously a big step in another direction. Has has it shifted the approach perhaps of of of ownership and saying you know what we’re right there. Let’s let’s get this is or do you feel like no this is business as usual? I feel like this is more business as usual. I don’t really feel like ownership’s approach has shifted. You know I you know we had signed Robbie Ray um to a ninef figureure deal after the 21 season I believe. you know, we traded for and extended Luis Castillo in 22 to a nine figure deal. Obviously, long deals for Cal and Julio. I think the biggest thing that helped in terms of the timing with Josh from an ownership perspective is that we knew the player. He’d been here. So, there the the vetting that we needed to do um both from a club front office baseball perspective and from an ownership big picture, how’s he fit in our community perspective, a lot of those boxes were already checked. That always makes it easier when you know someone, when you spend time with them. But I I really don’t think ownership’s approach has changed at all. I think we’re all focused on how do we win the World Series next year. Um this year we got closer than ever. Um let’s find a way to to actually get it across the line this year. What’s sort of the the next priority for you Justin uh as you as you go through the off season. What you I mean I know you have you you can look at a lot of different things, but is there one priority that that stands out that you you need to address? Yeah, it’s a good question. There’s not an easy answer for that because, you know, the offseason doesn’t always unfold in sort of a linear you get to check your boxes in the order that you want to check them. Um, we would like to add another bat to the club, at least one. Um, if we can do that, you know, we’ve talked pretty openly about, you know, being interested in a reunion with Jorge Palano and a reunion with Gino Suarez. You know, can we can we make that happen? That would be great if we could. And then I think the need for for pitching depth specifically in the bullpen uh is something that we want to accomplish over the course of the next several months. Um and that could come in a bunch of different shapes and sizes. It could come in, you know, young guys like Robinson Ortiz who we just traded for over the weekend and a a trade that’s maybe a little of the smaller variety. It could come in high leverage guys signed by a free agency or via trade. Um, it also come with, you know, starting pitching depth that you acquire via trade that has options to help build out your depth in case you have more injuries like we did this previous season. So, a lot of different things we want to accomplish in the offseason. This was by far the the the biggest one that we needed to get done and hope to get done quickly and really relieved that we did. When you look at the roster, the way it it ended the season, you know, as it was constructed, it, you know, came up just a bit shy obviously as we’re all well aware. Do you feel like if if you had that roster from day one to the end of the season, we’ve got enough. Or do you feel like, you know what, we we’re right there, but we need to we need that, but we need to add a little bit more to that in order to get over the hump. Uh I probably never will feel like the the former, which is that we have enough for good. I think that would that would lead to complacency in some ways and, you know, sort of some ownership bias that, you know, we just believe in our players so much. We we think that if they all everything goes right, we have enough. It’s probably not a great way to look at things. I do feel like the roster that we had at the end of the year um was as talented as any team in the American League. Um and obviously we’re right there, you know, a great fivegame series that we were able to win and a like a gut-wrenching seven game series that unfortunately lost and feel like we were right there. Um but there’s there’s things we want to do to help the club maybe be more well-rounded, more complete for 162 games than it was this past season. And those are the things I just touched on. You know, another bat, at least one, um, and and bullpen depth. I think we pushed our our leverage relievers in particular pretty hard at the end of the season and and adding another guy to that mix would be really, you know, critical for us this off season. Justin, in 2025, just seemed like the the rotation, it was just just bad luck. Um, you know, as far as uh injuries and everything. Um, now that the season’s over, how do you how do you view the the rotation uh from last year and going forward? Yeah, I uh those guys battled a lot last year, you know, um physical battles and you know, sort of the emotional battles of of a lot of them dealing with injuries for the first time in their lives. Um George really never has missed time in the regular season with an injury. Logan’s really miss never missed time in the major league season for an injury. You know, Bryce, same thing. You know, Bryce has been healthy um since the day we drafted him. So to have those guys go through bumps and bruises and sometimes a little more than that um I think took a toll on them. They felt frustrated. They couldn’t help the team like they wanted to and then there’s a natural acclamation period on boarding period when you come off an injury and you haven’t pitched at this level um to get going again. And I think it took them all a little bit of time. I you know I feel confident that we didn’t see the the best of this group in 2025. And I think they know that. Um, and the things that they can control, my guess is they’re going to get after it pretty hard this off seasonason and look to come in and get back to the 2022 23 24 version of this group, which was one of the best in baseball, if not the best. Hey Justin, how how comfortable are you? And I know spring training will will determine a lot of how you feel about it, but just going into it as in this conversation now looking at your infield and going, “Okay, you got you got potentially a lot of youth in there.” I mean, if if you know, we’ll see what happens with with Palano, but you you potentially have Cole Young or Ryan Bliss there with a combo of the two, one of the two, and then obviously Williamson at third. If if Gino doesn’t come back, are you comfortable having those I won’t say completely unproven, but they they haven’t had a full season under their belt. Could you have two young guys in the lineup and feel okay about it? Or do you feel like, you know, we we we would like to have a little more veteran leadership in that in that lineup? Uh, you know, and maybe have one young guy and see how it goes. How do how do you feel about youth sort of peppering the lineup? I think youth peppering the lineup’s important. It doesn’t mean that we don’t want to add more certain, you know, one or two spots in the lineup that are occupied by younger players, you know, finding their way. sort of, you know, climbing up the ladder on their major league career. I think that’s important for the way we want to operate to do that. Um, I think it gives us the best upside that we can have to figure out what guys can do. Let them come to the big leagues, maybe fail a little bit, find their stride, let the league adjust back to them and them adjust back to them. It takes a little while for guys to stabilize. I think it’s important for us to give those guys enough runway to do that, but I don’t want to forsake, you know, the floor of the team to provide upside for young players. So, it’s a balance. Uh, and that’s something that we talk about all the time. Would love to to continue to add, you know, both veteran leadership on the field and just, you know, like certain more certain production than you typically get from players in their early 20s, uh, on the field. Those are things that, you know, we’re working towards this off season. But, if the season started today, I wouldn’t be nervous at all about Ben Williamson running out the third base, Cole Young running out to second bases. Those guys are are wired the right way. They’re really talented. Um, if that’s how we end up rolling it out, I’ll be really confident about what they bring every day. Justin, what’s a guy that when you look back on, and I I know you’re probably not monitoring the the media constantly, but somebody in 2025 that’s sort of a unsung hero that you think don’t didn’t get talked about enough. Wow, that’s a great question. Um, Gabe Spire um did a ton for us this year and really really happy for Gabe. He put the work in. You know, really I could I could cite a bunch of guys in the bullpen. You know, the way Matt Brash bounced back from Tommy John, it’s the first time he’s ever really had an injury uh of significance in his career. Uh and to come back on or ahead of schedule and pick right back up where he left off was was really impressive to see. You know, Gabe battled injuries in 24 and had the best year of his career in 25. Really a dominant setup guy versus lefties and righties. Um Edward Bazardo um had the best year of his career by far and really established himself as a a legit late inning option for us. Um really happy for all those guys. You know, Carlos Vargas was fighting for a job in spring training uh and got some critical late inning outs particularly early in the season before Matt came back. Um so those guys are all unsung heroes. And then uh I would be remiss if I didn’t throw some flowers Domone’s way. You know he’d been sent to TripleA. Ross had gotten hurt. We claimed Leveris on waiverss and unfortunately that didn’t work the way we had hoped. Uh and we decided to give Dom a shot and he took it and ran with it. Um you know had like an 850 OPS for the last couple months of the season. Got some really big hits for us. Uh and really brought a different element to the the latter third of our lineup. Um so all of those guys really unsung heroes and guys that we’re going to be counting on going forward. Justin, are we not giving enough attention to some of the uh non-players that have moved on? I mean, the Mariners lost Andy McKay, who was the assistant GM, Tony Arnich, who was the bullpin coach, and Christopher Negron, who’s your first base outfield coach. I mean, those those are names that have been there and have had impact, and I know you’re happy for them moving on. How how tough is it to replace those guys? And maybe for fans that aren’t quite aware of of their impact, just talk about maybe the impact they’ve had. Yeah, it’s impossible to replace those guys. Um, you know, I I could, you know, start with Andy. Uh Andy’s been like a a pillar of our organization, you know, like if you go to the mall, he’s like our anchor store. He’s our Nordstrom. Um in terms of his impact organizationally and and what he’s done, you know, I could look around at the organization. You know, Pete Woodworth, Trent Blank, Chris Negron when he was here, like these are all Andy McKay hires. Andy is responsible for so many of the people that that made a difference um in player development and other departments um both in their hiring and in their sort of upbringing in baseball ops or in coaching. Um he’s just a huge factor in what we’ve done and I’m thrilled for Andy. He’s made a huge difference in my executive career um and being a sounding board and making me smarter and I think a better leader in a lot of ways and and that’s going to be like really hard organizationally. I told him I’m still going to call him like three times a day just to check in and I’m really happy for him to get the opportunity to go on the field in Cleveland. Um and then you know with Chris and Tony you know Tony been here nine years. I think Chris five or six. Um you know that that institutional knowledge um their feel and just the quality of human that you know their new teams are getting is just off the charts. Um we were really lucky to have them for as long as we did. It was coming at some point. Um you can only have so many spots in the dugout. only one person gets to be the bench coach. And for us over the last year to lose Carson Vatitali to Miami to be the bench coach and then uh Tony Arch to Cleveland to be their bench coach and Chris Negron to Pittsburgh to be there the bench coach like that’s that’s a lot of loss uh of of quality coaching and trust that you have organizationally. Um and we have to find a way to replace that and we’ll go through that process over the next week or 10 days. Um but you know I miss those guys every day. I’m also so happy for them and also I think it’s a good thing for the organization in some ways that like I wouldn’t want to work for an organization where nobody ever called to ask permission to talk to your employees about the next job up. You know that’s that that just doesn’t speak well of the organization. I think we’ve built a place where people notice that we do things well and when that happens they usually call and ask for permission and we have to be okay with you know that bargain which is that we get a lot from the employee and at the end of the day they get a platform to showcase what they can do so it’ll be tough to replace them you know I in some cases impossible to replace them um because of who they are and what they bring but I ultimately I think it’s it’s a credit to the organization and not some sort of demerit or dark cloud hanging over us. Justin, pretty cool last night that on top of T-Mobile there’s the the JN and uh I wonder if uh if if Josh noticed that. It was just a really cool idea. Uh who who whose idea was that? And did did you see if Josh reacted to that or not? So he did notice it. Um Jack Mossman got a text from Josh’s wife, Chantel, that they when they were at the hotel, they saw it and they thought it was awesome. Uh the idea came from Trevor Gooby, uh who just does a ton of things to make it go around here and a ton of credit to him. I was actually sitting with Trevor. There was a um an Eddie veteran Cameron Crow uh book event last night and we went to it together when the picture started coming out. It was it was really cool to be with Trevor and to to see the satisfaction on his face when people started talking about how cool it was and Josh’s wife had sent a picture of it. Um, you know, I’d like to think that, you know, we do a lot to sort of put our players out there and and, you know, be creative in in ways that engage the fan base. Um, whether that’s with Trevor or our marketing team, with Greg Green, our PR team, they do a great job of of engaging our fan base and that was just another example of a cool idea that they brought to life. Yeah, that was that was a really cool gesture. I can’t imagine Josh not loving seeing that. Uh, hey Justin, one more before we let you go. I I I’m just I said prior to the MVP vote that if Cal Raleigh played any other position other than catcher that I would have voted for Aaron Judge. Aaron Judge had a remarkable year. And if Cal were a first baseman, second baseman, right fielder, what have you, then to me it was a no-brainer. The difference to me was what he does, what he’s asked to do, the responsibility, the physical toll. It is just not comparable to me. So, that was why I felt Cal deserved the MVP. I wasn’t surprised by the vote. I’m just curious to get your reaction to it. Did you kind of feel like that’s how it was going to go or you How did you feel uh when that when that vote came out? I didn’t really have a a sense one way or the other. I thought it would be close and it was close and I don’t you know, who am I to judge the way somebody votes for the MVP? These guys are both awesome and I think whenever um I get asked about it, I want to be sure to point out that I think both players are like MVP worthy and had awesome seasons. Aaron Judge is the best hitter in the world by not just a little bit. Um he’s incredible. I don’t relish whenever we have to face him. Uh but I do think Cal is the MVP this year. I’m biased and I know that. Um the the amount of mental energy that Cal has to expend versus anybody that doesn’t play that position um is just it’s really not comparable. And it’s the physical toll is one thing. the foul tips, the squatting, um the the sort of the idea of switch hitting and and working on both sides of the plate. But for me, it’s the sort of the intellectual and mental toll that it takes to go catch that many games in a season, like, you know, 125, 130 starts behind the plate, you know, 130 pitches a night that you’re responsible for dictating, you know, throwing out runners, blocking balls, all that stuff. But just the, you know, when a hitter goes up to the plate and ha makes an out or or has a bad night and goes 0 for four with two strikeouts and leaves a runner on base a couple times, like there’s a toll that it exacts a person to not have come through that night. So that’s that’s a normal thing for every hitter. Cal goes through that and Aaron Judge goes through that and everybody else. The thing that Cal goes through is the 130 buttons he has to push a night. And if we give up a homer in the seventh inning of a game in July that Cal feels like, “Oh man, I wish I would have called a fast ball instead of a slider or vice versa,” like he has to live through that and putting that behind him as well. And that’s just not comparable to what anybody else has to deal with both mentally and emotionally um to go to go through and he’s right back out there the next day hitting 60 homers and, you know, leading the league in RBI’s and just doing things that nobody else has really ever done. Um, so I just think it’s hard to to overstate how amazing a season Cal had. Uh, I didn’t get a vote. If I had, I would have voted for Cal. Obviously, respect the kind of superhuman Aaron judges, though. Yeah. Yeah. I I agree with you 100%. Uh, look, Justin, always always appreciate your cander and and you giving us the time that you do. And let me just say, congratulations on what was for me the most fun I’ve ever had covering the Mariners in all my years. It was an amazing season. And I absolutely cannot wait for spring training. You guys crushed it at the trade deadline. You crushed it by getting uh getting uh Josh locked up right out of the gate. I think fans are excited and we can’t wait to see what you guys have in store before uh spring training and getting the season going. Thank you so much, man. Thanks. I really appreciate the nice words. It was the most fun I’ve ever had working for the Mariners, whatever it’s worth. And I uh I’d like to have even more fun next year. Uh it’s it’s a great group. We’re really lucky. Uh, and I think our community is is recognizing of that that like we’re really lucky to have this community support us and I think our players are really lucky to have the kind of fan base that we have and I think it’s a huge advantage to us when players get here when they see what kind of awesome town they get to play in for 81 nights a year. Uh, it makes a big difference. So, thank you to everyone for supporting us and like I said, I hope next year’s even better.

Mariners General Manager Justin Hollander joins Dave Wyman & Bob Stelton (Wyman & Bob) to talk the Mariners signing of Josh Naylor, the priorities of the offseason, and reflecting on 2025.

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0:00 – Intro
0:30 – Winning game 1
1:25 – How much work went into MLB deadline
2:30 – When trade talks start
3:30 – Meeting with other GMs
4:30 – Any surprise deals in MLB
5:45 – Conversations with GMs
7:05 – Not giving up a Top 100 Prospect
9:10 – Who is Josh Naylor?
10:18 – Change in M’s deadline philosophy?
12:20 – What do M’s do differently with pitching
14:45 – Geno’s reunion on Mariners plane
16:34 – How did Geno make such an impact?
17:39 – Ben Williamson’s 2025 year
20:30 – What’s next?
22:00 – Ownership’s credit

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