Mariners GM Justin Hollander Talks Success of 2025 Season
Seattle. Mariners are coming up one of the best seasons in franchise history. It was just a matter of a few outs between the, uh appearing in their first ever World Series and finishing with a nice year as runner up for that American League title. Kriley with a magical season. Brian Woof, fully establishing himself as a legit American League ace. Front office insights presented by six for it. We visit with Mariners General manager Justin Hollander on this final day of our live winter meetings coverage. We’ll start by saying congrats on a great season. I know it didn’t end the way you wanted it to, but wow, what a great run you guys had. It was the most fun I’ve ever had in baseball. And I think a lot of people that work for the Mariners was the most fun they’ve ever had. It was awesome. That’s saying something. You’ve got a lot of skin in the game. You, we were just talking about your in Anaheim you’ve been with , with Jerry in Seattle for quite a long time. That’s great to hear you say it was great. Our fans are amazing. Harold can speak to that. Better than anybody. It’s, it’s a great baseball town and to see the whole town rally around the team and just the special things that happen on the field individually. Like team wise, Cal Raley, Brian woo, everything was awesome. It was a great year. So as Cal hitting these home runs and he gets to 40 it starts going to 50. What, what, what do you like during the game? Because you get pretty excited anyway. I, I just, I can’t believe it. Like, you know, speechless loss for words. The night he hit the 60th, it was the second homer of the game. It had been going that way all year. Almost all of us were like, he’s definitely hitting the 60th as his second homer tonight on clinch night. Like that’s just the, the big moment was just, it just kept following CAL all year long to have that roll off 60. It’s crazy nuts. I want to just talk about it, matt, I real quick because he play, he caught, what, 100 and 30 games, he played 100 and 50 100 and 58 games. Thirtyish DH J 35 DH J 100 and 25 games behind the plate. It’s, it’s impossible to do that. I mean, probably a little bit more satisfying for you guys. Given that cal is a homegrown guy, right? So that’s my question with regards to 2026 according to mlb.com pipeline, you guys have more top 100 prospects than any other organization in the game is that prospect capital being used to acquire veteran players. Are those guys are gonna graduate to the major league level? Where are you in that mix? Let me go grab my phone and check now. Uh No, we uh it, that, that note is a credit to the whole organization that while being successful in the big leagues, we continue to, to develop and draft and scout players at a high level too. There’s a lot of good players that are in the Mariners organization that aren’t yet in the big leagues. I think we’re always going to be a bit a team that’s built around drafting and developing and homegrown stars. Um, we also will use those players in trades like we just did last weekend too. So, um that’s, it’s always going to be part of it. I was gonna ask you about last week and for get still, uh, talk a little bit about the purpose of that and what you were thinking in that trade. Yeah, it’s a tough one. It’s, you guys know, it’s tough to trade a player that you draft in the first round that you really believe in that you like a lot. Um Harry’s a great person who’s a really special talent, he’s unique talent, the athleticism that he has behind the plate. He just does things that not a lot of young catchers can do. Um, we have a catcher who probably should have won the MVP last year who had 60 homers. Um, his Harry’s path for development in the big league was going to be tougher. Um, and we love jose Ferrer. We think he has a chance to be an impact bullpen arm for a long time. He’s only 25 years old. Um, he adds a different element to our team that we felt like we needed and it was a chance to do something that we think helps both teams. What did you see with uh Josh Naylor when he came over and you end up giving him $100 million close to locking him up. What did you, you’re negotiating on behalf of a little bit, a little bit extra. But uh what, what did you end up seeing? I mean, it was a perfect fit. His baseball IQ is off the charts, the things he does on the field, not just in the batter’s box, but on the bases, you know, stole 19 bases for us after the deadline. Um His sense of how to position himself where to play, how to help the team win the 19 stolen bases did surprise me. I’m going to be honest about that. He’s just an incredibly smart baseball player, he’s clutch, he’s a leader, he’s competitive. He just does a lot of things to help a team win. It was an awesome fit and we did not want to let him play somewhere else. You guys have been active this winter for sure. But we’ve seen, we’ve seen more flurried activity from your front office. Is Jerry aware that he’s being out Jerri by AJ Preller these days, like he’s no longer the most hyperactive baseball executive in the sport. We were joking yesterday that we’re gonna get these two guys on the set and just make a deal live on TV. Just put the white board behind him and just start pushing players one across the line for each team and we’ll see if we can make it work next year on the air. You guys a home, like why not? Let’s do that. Ours are actually right next to each other up there too, so like literally next door. So let’s do it. Let’s make it happen. Are you surprised? We were a little surprised from your chair as a general manager that after the two big signings we got yesterday, it’s been kind of radio silence on the airwaves. I don’t know what to expect at these meetings. You know, there is an element of being patient that teams want to work through and make sure they’re vetting all the options. Um You never really can put a shot clock on things like for agent signings. Um It’s sort of only, it’s not a unilateral exercise. There’s, there’s multiple people that have to be involved and, you know, players want to make sure they’re comfortable with the decision they make, it’s really hard to get to free agency. It really is. You have to play a long time. You need to be a really good player to get six years in the big leagues to rush into a decision without full information is a lot to ask for a guy. That’s a lot. We’re, we’re about 30 seconds out. So I’m not even gonna ask a question, Matt because I know we’re gonna wrap it in 30 seconds. I just want to make a statement. Unbelievable season. We’re, we’re, we’re so excited about where the Mariners are at right now. We being Mariner fans and uh keep it going fie I’m still thinking of the game show to have Jerry and AJ. We’ll call it like the Peoria roundup where you have to consummate a trade within the 30 minutes of the show. It will be like, you know, when you play chess and you just hit the button, we’ll do that between the two of them. I appreciate the man that man needs to be in the Mariners Hall of Fame too. Just putting that out there above my pay grade here.
Mariners General Manager Justin Hollander discusses the historic 2025 season on MLB Network.
Check out http://m.mlb.com/video for our full archive of videos, and subscribe on YouTube for the best, exclusive MLB content: http://youtube.com/MLB
About MLB.com:
Commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig announced on January 19, 2000, that the 30 Major League club owners voted unanimously to centralize all of Baseball’s internet operations into an independent technology company. Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM) was formed and charged with developing, building and managing the most comprehensive baseball experience available on the internet. In August 2002, MLB.com streamed the first-ever live, full length MLB game when the Texas Rangers and New York Yankees faced off at Yankee Stadium. Since that time, millions of baseball fans around the world have subscribed to MLB.TV, the live video streaming product that airs every game in HD to nearly 400 different devices. MLB.com also provides an array of mobile apps for fans to choose from, including At Bat, the highest-grossing iOS sports app of all-time. MLB.com features a stable of club beat reporters and award-winning national columnists, the largest contingent of baseball reporters under one roof, who deliver over 100 original articles every day. MLB.com also offers extensive historical information and footage, online ticket sales, official baseball merchandise, authenticated memorabilia and collectibles and fantasy games.
Major League Baseball consists of 30 teams split between the American and National Leagues. The American League, originally founded in 1901, consists of the following teams: Baltimore Orioles; Boston Red Sox; Chicago White Sox; Cleveland Indians; Detroit Tigers; Houston Astros; Kansas City Royals; Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim; Minnesota Twins; New York Yankees; Oakland Athletics; Seattle Mariners; Tampa Bay Rays; Texas Rangers; and Toronto Blue Jays. The National League, originally founded in 1876, consists of the following teams: Arizona Diamondbacks; Atlanta Braves; Chicago Cubs; Cincinnati Reds; Colorado Rockies; Los Angeles Dodgers; Miami Marlins; Milwaukee Brewers; New York Mets; Philadelphia Phillies; Pittsburgh Pirates; San Diego Padres; San Francisco Giants; St. Louis Cardinals; and Washington Nationals.
Visit MLB.com: http://mlb.mlb.com
Subscribe to MLB.TV: mlb.tv
Download MLB.com At Bat: http://mlb.mlb.com/mobile/atbat
Get tickets: http://mlb.mlb.com/tickets
Official MLB Merchandise: http://mlb.mlb.com/shop
Join the conversation!
Twitter: http://twitter.com/mlb
Facebook: http://facebook.com/mlb
Instagram: http://instagram.com/mlb
Google+: https://plus.google.com/+MLB
Tumblr: http://drawntomlb.com/
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/MLBAM