Mariners GM Justin Hollander on Building on the 2025 Season | Seattle Sports

Mariners GM Justin Hollander on Building on the 2025 Season | Seattle Sports

All right. Well, this is so much fun on a day of giving thanks in this case for a season that was that was super fun and for a lot of people, myself included, I’ll raise my hand. Kind of came out of nowhere. Not out of nowhere, that’s not fair. Justin Hollander is with us, Mariners GM. And we just want to take a look back at what was a a really unique and certainly entertaining, rewarding type of a season. And maybe that is the place to start because for me again I wouldn’t say it came out of nowhere but I was not expecting the level of success that you guys had. How did it develop for you? Just in a straight line the whole time we are consistent as can be. Uh no it’s baseball seasons are weird. Um you know there’s days and I’m as guilty of this as anyone. I I have none of the tools that you need to possess to be a professional athlete either physically or emotionally to deal with the ups and the downs. There’s days where you feel like you’re invincible. Um we didn’t lose a game for felt like three straight weeks. Um we lost one actually. Um and then there were days where you lose four or five in a row and you’re like what’s going on? You know this we’re never going to get to where we think we should be. Um I think it makes it more fun in some ways that it isn’t a straight line. It’s not like the NBA or the NFL in some ways where you’re pretty convicted week to week who the best teams are. Um you kind of figure it out along the way and um the 162 games is a real proving ground for for whether you’re good or not. And I think we believe this team had the potential to be good. And it’s a huge credit to the guys downstairs every day that when it came time to be good, they were really good. What do you do in those moments when you’ve lost three or four straight and the average fan or media member wants to cut people, trade people, DFA people, go downstairs and throw over a Gatorade table. You can’t do that. So, what do you do to keep that even keel if it’s not in your nature? I I try and separate things that might make me feel better versus things that will actually make it better. Um, you know, like if if I go down and I I yell at someone or I say, “Oh, we should DFA this guy or send this guy down,” is that actually going to make us better in a moment? Probably not. There’s a reason that the player’s on the roster right now. And once that player’s gone, he’s gone in a lot of cases and you never get them back. So, try not to act rashly. Try not to act emotionally. Take a breath. Try and get some sleep. I don’t do a good job of that in season. Um, you know, every waiver claim that doesn’t work out or every three-game losing streak, it does feel like the walls are closing in on you a little bit. Um, and every three-game winning streak, it feels like you’re riding high. We’re going to go ride the parade right now. Um, so it’s just try and be measured about how we take it. Um, and trust trust the group around me. I mean, they’re really good for me. We have a lot of really great people, great humans. Um, and they we all keep each other in line. We all check each other. What was your favorite memory? Let’s just let’s just have fun. things that maybe we don’t know about, but your favorite memory when you think back upon this season, what will jump out to you? There’ll be a bunch of different ones. I I think everyone in Seattle will remember game five against Detroit um and game five against Toronto. Those are two like special the stadium was shaking for hours and hours on end. I do remember when when Polo came to the plate. I usually just sit for most of the game. I try and not stand up and not walk around. I’ll I’ll snack and things like that. And when Polo came up with the bases loaded, I actually got on my knees. I like I got down and I I you know I could see over our little counter uh and I just got down on my knees and I like prayed to all the gods, any of them that would help us put a ball in play to win that game. A sense he had that that it was going to work out there. I think everyone did. There was something about that moment you’re like this going to happen. I did. I said to my wife, we’re going to win right here. Um, and there were a lot of moments in that game where we could have lost the game. And you know, we did things that that helped us keep the game going or they did things to help us keep the game going. And I think of Bizardo coming in and getting the double play with Bay or getting the two outs with Bayz, um, hitting it right to to Gino at third. There were just a lot of cool things in the season. You know, the memories that people don’t see. I remember going to Atlanta uh, and we were not in a great spot coming into Atlanta. Um and Julio kind of took over the game on Saturday, the the second game of the series and hit the two homers and everybody took a breath and on Sunday it was like we went out and just played one of our best games of the season and just just kicked the crap out of them that day and it was like wow we are good. We we have a good team and like you know from there um we came home had an awesome home stand you know both played well and won a bunch of games and also like won the games even when we didn’t play that well and it felt like it was it was just off and running at that point. The one thing you miss out it’s too bad. I mean, you get a lot of great there’s a lot of pretty good perks to your job, don’t get me wrong, but one thing that dawns on me is like I love the way baseball follows you as a fan to different places. So, like when you bring up a game like that game in Atlanta, my mind instantly flashes to where I was like, “Oh, that was the game I watched at this restaurant up in Bo Edison because I was with like I love the way you can connect so quickly to baseball games and the setting you were in because that’s six months, seven months, eight months in this case of of following the team.” I have a lot of that too for whatever it’s worth. Do you get to go and see it in some different places? Well, yeah. I mean, I I don’t go to all the road games. I think I would definitely be divorced if if that were the case. So, um, I I, you know, this is not like a fun memory, but I remember the the the game we had the brawl, I think it was in 22 against the Angels when when Phil Nevin put out a hit list on our team. Um, and um, you know, that was really, really ugly. And I was actually at the beach with my kids and my wife was like, “You are a lunatic right now. You’re losing your mind.” And I was like, I I felt like I had to do something. I wanted to do something. You know, guys getting ejected left and right. And I saw our our season flash before our eyes and I wanted to do something to stop it and there was nothing I could do at the beach with the kids. Season flash before your eyes. It was the best thing for you. Bonded the team. They took off after that. Um, you know, people ordered pizzas for Jesse Winker. Like it was it was good. No. So like I have those too where you’re watching on your phone somewhere. You know, I I don’t miss many pitches, but I don’t either watch them all in person or watch them sitting in front of a TV. You know, the dinner’s out where I’ve got the phone propped up on a on a glass of water or something like that. That’s a huge hit in my house, let me tell you. When we’re doing that, but your wife loves that. Well, it’s a we’re big fans of that. What was the most impressive thing you saw over the course of the season? One I mean, look, obviously Cal 60 home run, but one impressive feat, one moment that just stands out like I can’t believe that person was able to do that. I mean, it’s Cal. It’s It’s that no one’s ever done anything like that. I’ve never seen anything like that. And it’s not just the 60 homers. It’s the catching every day. It’s the posting. It’s also like the the sort of the big moments, you know, when clinch day, he hits the two homers, he hits the 60th in his last AV. His feel for the moment has always been great and this year it was just next level. Um really and then to go out in the playoffs and play the way he played in the playoffs. So he was awesome in the playoffs. It wasn’t like he had this great regular season then, you know, kind of came back to earth in in the playoffs. He was awesome in the playoffs. And I think if we’d won game seven, the story would have been Julio, Cal, and Nails. The way they played in that ALCS was awesome. They they carried us. They were unbelievable in that series. All right. So, take me back then to the spring training meeting with Cal. Obviously, you’ve talked about it a lot. Cal’s talked about it. We talked about it throughout the year, but even just a couple days ago, I found myself thinking about how that really was a seinal moment. I mean, the more there have been a lot of them. It’s not like you can just point to one moment where this team became whether you want to go all the way back to the draft or signing Julio like there’s so many but for at least for this year that moment where Cal you know heard your vision for the future and said okay I’m in can you take me back inside what that meeting was really like? Sure. It was it was you know it was different than anything I’d experienced before. You know we had started talking finances and and Cal’s reps at Excel had reached out and said this is important to Cal like you know before we get too deep into the finances. He just wants to talk about his vision and your vision and make sure they’re all aligned you know are you open for that? I said of course what day do you guys want to come in? And their response was we don’t need to come in. Cal’s a big boy. Like he’ll set it up with you guys. Like that’s just important that he set it up. So Cal came up in full uniform. I joked with him that he could have showered. Like we were we were okay. Like we we weren’t in a rush. Um and I thought it would go like 45 minutes and it was probably close to 2 and a half hours of just talking. Um and there wasn’t like we had slides made up or it was formal. It was just talking. He had a little notebook that he referenced a couple times with questions and thoughts on both on our major league team and what we might need to add along the way and also on our our prospects and where he saw this going. And then just wanted to hear from us like we’ve been building to a certain point. You know, where are we at? Are we are we looking at like a shorter run and then we have to step back a little bit? Are we looking to to sort of push all in and go all in for a year? Are we looking to sort of steady eddy it and get better along the way? Um, and I think his questions were great and thoughtful. Um, and I think probably reassured us that we were betting on the right person. And I hope you’d have to ask him. I assume so since he said yes. it. Um, I hope that our answers reassured him that we did share a vision that we all want to bring World Series trophies and AOS penants to Seattle over and over and over again. Did anything he said or maybe even asked in that meeting make you think or Jerry, just your group think any differently, act any differently, uh, look at something from a new perspective after having that conversation? Not really, because I think we really did share a lot of the same thoughts about where we were headed and what we needed to do. um both in season in the short term and sort of long term what the Mariners were going to be about. I think it you know every step along the way Cal does things to assure you that he’s just a different type of player, different type of leader um than a lot of us have ever experienced before. for and that was just another moment that I’ll I’ll put in my sort of internal like head check on when I when I meet players I get to know players like that’s kind of the bar that’s the bar for being competitive for wanting to win for for that being more meaningful than anything else and he just possesses very unique traits in that way. uh talking to Justin Hollander, Mariners’s general manager, and maybe there’s there’s no way to answer this, but I I I’ve heard that there are players that really um it really unlocks them mentally and emotionally to have that deal done. Do you think Cal hits 60 home runs and has the kind of season he does if that is hanging over his head? It’s so much a better question for him. And I don’t I don’t There’s no way to know for us. and you know, I don’t want to pretend I know him better than I do. Um, that would be a great question for him or his family, his girlfriend. Like, they’re the people who probably had the conversations in the background about sort of weighing the pros and cons of do I sign now, do I wait? Um, Jerry and I were, and Cal will say this, we’re pretty steadfast that we wanted to get a deal done. We, you know, we had conversations the year before. Obviously, it was important for us. We had Julio locked up um for the rest of his career, we hope. And it was, it’s important for us to build a foundation that’s longlasting. I I think you’ve seen us become a lot less transactional over the over the in recent years. Um there was a lot of turnover for a lot of time. And in recent years, whether it’s sort of the day-to-day roster movement or in the offseason, we’re not really turning the roster over in big ways. But part of avoiding doing that is signing guys to long-term deals. Um and when you have the best catcher in baseball and the best center fielder in baseball, that’s a really good place to start. This is a an interview that’s about the past, but I got to ask one question about Cal in the future, which is essentially, how do you start or think about projecting him forward after such a huge leap in productivity? It seems unreasonable to expect he’s going to hit 60 every year. So, how do you project what Cal is now moving forward? I’ve got him down for 70 next year. Oh, even better. Well, I had him down for 30 and argued about it and said that he wasn’t one of the most intriguing players on the team. So, don’t ask me. But what how do you project a player like that now? Uh again, he’s just breaking the scale on a lot of things you’ve ever done. So take your models with a grain of salt a little bit and that he’s just able to do things that no one else does. If you think about like how players evolve and how players age, a lot of how they evolve in age is based on where their peak is. You know, guys who are three- win players age differently than guys who are six- win players. Guys who hit 60 homers age different than guys who hit 30 homers. So we’re just sort of dealing in unknown territory right now. Um, I just have sort of focused on the idea that Cal’s our catcher and he’s the best in baseball and we’re really lucky to have it and you know we have internal models that predict and somewhere between what he did last year and those models is probably where I’d have him right now. You had a similar meeting with Josh Naylor it sounds like after the season but let’s go back to trading for Josh Naylor at the end of July. another of the seinal moments of the season and and Gino plays a role. I understand there’s more to it, but let’s just start with those conversations with I assume Mike Hazen and the Diamondbacks and you’re you’re trying to figure out, okay, how do we bring this guy in? How long did it take? When did you finally get your guy? Yeah, so the way that Jerry and I and our front office group has done it over the years is we just sort of split up by familiarity. Um, I’ve had the Diamondbacks for a number of number of years. So, I was talking to their assistant GM, Ammy Alsade. Um, who’s a great guy and who Jerry and I have known along with Hayes for a long time. Um, and I think that relationships helps and that I could just keep calling him and just checking in like where you guys are at. Um, as you remember, they they played us and they they kicked our butt over a three-game series. Nails in particular was just a pain in the, you know, what for the whole series. We couldn’t get him out. Um, no matter what we did, um, he just found a way to impact the game. And, you know, we lost some close games in that series. I think if there was an extra inning game that Kzone hit a homer to tie the game, there was a game where I think maybe the same game Nails hit a walk-off grand slam. Um it was just a challenging series for us and they’re a challenging team to figure out because they’re a good team that had injuries. So I didn’t want to be disrespectful to their season in any way, but just kept checking in with Ammy uh over and over and over again about potentially Gino’s availability and Josh’s availability. Um they reached a point in their season where they felt like it was time to at least listen. Um they called us, we exchanged proposals over the course of a couple of weeks. Um finally he called me just kind of out of the blue. We hadn’t talked in four or five days and said, “Would you do this?” And my gut was we would. So I walked next door to Jerry’s office and said, “What do you think?” He said, “I would do that. Would you do that?” And I said, “I would do that.” Um and so he went and called John Stanton and we said yes. Like we didn’t. So it happens that quick. Yeah. I mean once you reach a certain point, we had exchanged names before and there were names that we wouldn’t do. there were names that we would do and it just got to a point for us where it made sense given what we were getting to give up what they asked for. Um, so we said yes and it was, you know, basically at that point it was in medical review. I think the answer from John was a yes. If you guys think it’s the right thing to do, let’s go do it. I think it did help that it was the week before the trading deadline and not on the trading deadline. Just more games on the calendar, more days that we got Josh Naylor as part of our team. Well, what did you then learn about him? Because I mean, you knew what he was as a player. You couldn’t have fully understood Josh Naylor, the human yet. What did you learn about him between then and now? Super competitive. I mean, I think that you can see some of that from the outside. Um, I think what you can’t see or don’t see from the outside when you don’t have him on your team is the baseball feel for all the parts of the game. And again, I’ve joked about it like I didn’t have the 30 stolen bases this year. Um, and I don’t think anybody would, but it’s all the other stuff. It’s reading pitchers. It’s understanding situations. like he’ll go up on an at bat and try and shoot the ball to left field in a given at bat and then the next at bat where you think he might do it again he’s sitting on a change up and he’s trying to launch and so like his versatility or ability to morph into different types of hitters at the plate his ability to impact the game defensively through you know great hands good glove work good instincts like he’s a really complete player and I don’t know that you can have a sense of how complete he is until you watch him every day is some of at you said the 30 stolen bases, right? Nobody thought he was going to come here and steal 19 bags in whatever it was, two months, but is some of that headiness and mental feel for the game. I mean, I would think that would in some ways be exemplified by the stolen bases given the sprint speed or lack thereof. For sure. I also think he’s a winning player. There weren’t a lot of the stolen bases that were just like, we’re up five and he’s just tacking one on for the stat sheet or something like that. you know, he’s they were big stolen bases. It’s like what we saw in the in the playoff game against Scooball where he hits the double. And again, that’s a great example where he just goes with the pitch uh in a spot, puts the ball in play, and hits a line drive down the left field line, and then he understands how valuable it is to get the third. Like, he almost stole that base standing up. Um, and that that rudder on third is a huge run um where he gets to third with with less than two outs. And it’s it’s a lot of those type of things where it’s the extra base is really meaningful for the team in that moment. um you know, way he positions himself defensively, how locked in he is on every pitch on all sides of the ball. Those are just winning traits and I do think they permeate a clubhouse when one of your best players exemplifies those traits. Give me something behind the scenes that was funny. Something funny that happened this year that you’ll remember for a while. Like, man, that guy’s a riot. Oh, wow. That’s a that’s a great one. Um give me a second to think about it. I’m just going to say some words while I do. We we have 26 28 in September like really good dudes who do things the right way and who get along really well. Um I think some of the like the more unique or or funny moments this year came from guys rooting for the the starting pitching group in particular when they were injured like rooting for the guys who were filling in for them. like the way that Logan Evans was welcomed to the club and some of the fun that the guys had around Logan Evans, the joy they felt. Um the the fun moments that like guys had with like Miles Mastrobi on big moments that he came in and did it. I’m like searching for a really funny story that’s air appropriate and I don’t I don’t have one that’s on air. Funny that you bring it up that way because the next question I was going to ask was tell me about a supportive moment behind the scenes of maybe a leader, not just Cal, but any of the the many leaders on this team who found a way to support each other and lean on each other. And it’s interesting that you almost went there naturally. Yeah. Um this is a great group of guys um to think about it in those terms. Um I actually wasn’t there for it, but I I’ll share a little bit anyway. um you know when they had a team meeting in Tampa um sort of right before we got hot during a bad stretch and I think the group from what I understand really talked about each other’s responsibility to the person next to them there wasn’t fingerpointing or or blaming that somebody wasn’t playing well in a moment was all about like exemplifying the best versions of themselves good process getting back online believing in each other like you know without getting into any specific details that probably don’t need to come out like that’s that’s the mark of a good team that’s the mark of good people um that want to compete for the person next to them. They don’t want to compete for their stat sheet or for what the contract that might be coming. So th those are the things that I think really drive good teams and keep teams from going off the rails when it starts to go sideways is playing for the person next to you. And our guys just do that over and over and over again. I don’t know. Do you guys do exit meetings? Not really. Um so what we do is um we have something called our BVY meetings. The best version of yourself. They’re not really exit meetings. They’re more like entrance meetings for the next season. But I I guess I’m asking more to see if you do any intake of thoughts from the guys on what they’re thinking on the way out at the end of the year. Casual conversations, things like that, but nothing formal with those guys. But we do we do learn a lot. You know, those those meetings are ongoing now. Um and you do learn a lot in that meeting about what guys feel like they need to work on, what they saw last year, what didn’t work for them. You know, that’s a coaching staff driven thing. Um, mostly I remove myself from that process because I think that you got to know who you are in your position. And I think if I go sit in on those meetings, guys will get a lot less vulnerable. Sure. Like they just they will. And it’s important for them to be honest about what they saw last year, what they’re trying to work on, and how they want to get better. So Dan does a great job with those along with our whole staff. I guess I’m asking more about vibe, feeling of of, you know, impressions of the club, kind of where what the view is of the Mariners, either within the clubhouse or maybe even from outside the clubhouse and around the league. I get a lot of feedback from agents actually on on that year to year on what works and what doesn’t. And you know, I think that if you develop enough trust with with the players, reps, they’ll tell you the truth. They’ll tell you when it’s not working well and hey, this guy doesn’t really fit. You know, I’ve heard from several of our guys or whatever that this guy might not fit. Um, in this case, you know, I’ve heard from a couple guys, their reps, that last year’s group was the best clubhouse that their players had ever been a part of. Not longtime Mariners, guys who had been a bunch of different places. Um, that it was a really unique environment starting with Dan and the whole major league staff and then going to the player group. just as supportive and fun. You know, I’ll tell you sort of a it probably won’t resonate as like haha funny, but you know that that weekend in Atlanta is college football Saturday and there’s a select group of players like me who are big college football fans and we had added Luke Jackson to the roster just a couple days before that and this guy’s like the mayor in our clubhouse 5 days in like he’s changing the channels. He’s messing with everybody. you know, I’m sitting with Cal and Emerson Hancock and everybody just kind of like, you know, ragging on the other guys’ teams and talking about like who’s good and who’s bad and and Luke is like a connector with everybody. He’s been our clubhouse for five minutes and like everybody just welcomes them in. He’s getting along with everybody. Um, and that’s, you know, a good clubhouse is welcoming for that sort of thing. A good clubhouse like everybody comes in and they they feel like they’ve been there for a long time. Even if they’ve been there for five minutes, it lets guys be who they are. And that’s I think like probably the best part about our clubhouse, you know, outside looking in and also hearing it from players is everybody that came in felt like they could be themselves right away. I think it’s a really hard question to answer, but I’m going to ask it anyway because growing up in Boston, the four teams there all did uh for the Red Sox, it was the the 10th player award. Yeah. The player that has exceeded expectations the most. Right. All four teams would do it. It’s a great tradition. That’s awesome. I I don’t know how you would ch you got a lot of candidates. Yeah. And maybe the easy answer is just no one could have ever expected 60 home runs. But if I take Cal out of it, who is your 10th player award winner from this season? The guy who most exceeded everyone’s expectations. So I think it’s a it is a tough one to answer. I think I would choose Polo um for that one because I don’t think a lot of our players and certainly our fans didn’t see the real Polo in 24. Um, and from you you remember last April, he was on fire from right out of the gates. He was awesome. He had the little rut in in May and like the first part of June and then got back to sort of the best version of him for most the rest of the season. And I think him being able to show what kind of player he is. I think that would be an example. And the other guy sort of obviously stands out as Woo. Um, I think Brian Woo had been this sort of like mystery box of potential that we got for some amount of time and then you know unfortunately injury bugs and some weird things the year before like the hamstring getting him like that’s not like a serious injury. It just but you can’t pitch with a bum hamstring. So like everybody getting to see what he did and I think him taking it to just a whole another level with the however many starts it was 25 consecutive six inning starts like no one does that in 2025 Major League Baseball. And for him to go out there with all the starting pitching injuries he we had and some bullpen depth issues too and going out there and getting us through the six every five days was just amazing both for him personally and professionally and us as a team. We needed it and he delivered. Yeah. You could almost write a script that says uh the team with the most 10th player candidates maybe has the best season, right? Because you could point to Bazardo. Certainly his name would have to be on that list. Certainly Spire. I think you would probably point to Ben Williamson who played a key role for a big part of the I mean you could kind of go on and on and on and Cal should be in there as well. Um no it it it presents a team that looks totally different. So So tell me about Palano should be the other one to talk through a little bit because as you said not everyone was expecting that. I think there was a lot of frustration when he was brought back. I didn’t hear any of that. No, I’m sure you didn’t. It’s nice to live in your ivory tower where nothing ever comes your way. and I and I’ll raise my hand. And look, the polo that was a DH second baseman is a little different from Jorge Palano expected to play third every day as well. But maybe there’s a thought there just on the evolution of a roster from the way you envision it in February to the way it ends up playing out over the course of the next seven months. Yeah, baseball will humble you. I think I’ve said that over and over again. If you don’t approach every baseball season with humility um and be open to learning lessons along the way, then then you’re going to be look really stupid really quickly. Um I think that you could have what you think is the most complete roster in the league. You know, every year’s Dodgers team looks awesome from opening day and they still need to go out and do things at the deadline to make their team better. They still have holes to fix and and we’re going to be no different than that and maybe even more than that. like we’re going to have to lean on young players and and young players bring uncertainty over time and giving them the runway to show who they can be um to prove that they can or can’t fill a role and then being willing to go out and adjust along the way I think is important and that’s that’s that’s just one like subset of the player population every year you know like the 22 23 24 it’s hard to imagine a more stable rotation than what the Mariners brought every day and then like that it becomes very unstable table towards the end of spring. Um, and you have guys that are dealing with things they never dealt with before and now you’re looking up and it’s like, oh, now we’re on starter six, seven, and eight and we’re on them 3 weeks into the season. And that just changes the the dynamic of of what your team looks like. And I think we did a good job this year adjusting along the way. I hope in future years we do as good a job we’re going to need to. It’s never going to be perfect. You’re never going to have the team that you want to have in September and April. Um, that’s just, you know, there’s there’s opportunities along the way. there’s a whole like season of player acquisition to go make your team better. Um, it doesn’t mean we want to have an incomplete roster when you start, but you know, sometimes you just you find yourself in that spot. Well, and and that’s a great segue into kind of finishing this thing and thinking about next year. And yes, single game tickets for 2026 are on sale now. You can go to mariners.com/tick. Reserve your spot at some of the season’s biggest games, including Randy Johnson’s jersey retirement. That’ll be on May 2nd. Mariners 50th anniversary weekend. That’s August 7th through 9th. You can get seats today at mariners.com/tick. I’ve talked about a little bit on the show is this new challenge you guys have and it’s an awesome one to continue down the road you’ve been going with really successful players. Look for new players who can help you get even better and provide room for some of the young players to step up and and have some room to fail and then succeed. So, how how do you balance these three things that aren’t nec, you know, they’re all pushing up against each other at the same great problems to have like you you have to have good prospects. You have to have a talented team. Um, so like and you want to have veteran players. So, like those are those are three things that you need and want to have and I’ll welcome that challenge anytime. I I think you have to pick and choose. cannot incorporate four or five especially position players on the on the on a major league team that is good at the same time. It’s just the the jump to the big leagues is too hard. Asking four or five half your lineup to be, you know, first year players is is probably not a good recipe. You also can’t sign over guys and just never give them room to breathe and say, “Oh, you’ve got 30 played appearances to show us you’re a good major league player.” That that’s not a great environment for cultivating success. So, I I think for us, it’s always going to be about making sure that we develop players at the appropriate pace and that we allow them to push people out of the way and when they tell us it’s their time, don’t artificially block them. But also like then be willing to ride the the highs and the lows. You know, like Cole Young last year is a great example of like giving guys a little room, getting some benefit, and also understanding like that maybe he did run out of gas a little bit at the end and being willing to adjust appropriately. Like his first 20 or 30 play appearances, not great. I think he was one for 20 and you know looked a little overwhelmed. He made an adjustment and had a great six or seven weeks where he was controlled the strike zone. He played good defense. He was a sort of a vital cog in the in the bottom half of our lineup and then he sort of ran out of gas. And we were fortunate enough that we have Polo, we have Leo Revas that could go give him some some room to breathe and as we were got got into the playoffs, we weren’t counting on him to go catch his breath again. I’m confident next year when we get in the season that he will have caught his breath. he will have made the next adjustment and he will be off and running. But you kind of have to have that balance. You have to have the balance of role players who can step in when you need them to, veterans that have some versatility, and young players that have a real ceiling to to push everyone out of the way when it’s their time. You guys got all three. You got a really fun offseason ahead of you. It was certainly a really great season. Thank you. Uh just on behalf of Mariner fans who don’t all get a chance to talk to you as often as I do, uh thanks. It was a lot of fun. It was fun to cover. It was fun to watch. It was fun to be a part of. It didn’t end the way any of us wanted. Obviously, yourself included, but man, what a what an incredible ride and and a lot of I think hope now generated for where it can go next. It was the most fun I’ve ever had. And I I I think I’ I called in as a joke that one day, but like true. Um, our fans are just they make it the most fun. You know, comparing the environments that we see around the league, there is no comparison to what our fans bring every night. And I’ve said it before and I mean this all compliment. They’re weird. They’re awesome. They’re fun. They’re really into it. Um, and they deserve a winner every year. And to watch the joy that they got from what we were able to deliver this year and know that there’s another step to take. I can’t wait to be around them this year. You know, opening day is going to be a lot of fun. Seeing the banner go up and I think their expectations are in the right place, which is we have a really good team. Um, they deserve to see more big games like we saw this year and they’re just they’re the best. So, thank thank you to them. Well, thank you to you. Happy Thanksgiving. a perfect time for everybody to say thank you and uh we’ll be right back. Thanks again. Thanks

Mariners GM Justin Hollander joins Mike Salk (Brock & Salk) to recap Seattle’s historic 2025 season and how the M’s can build on it for next season.

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0:00 – The Journey of the 2025 season
2:45 – Favorite moments of the 2025 season
5:05 – How Justin follows the team throughout the season
6:15 – Cal’s historic season
7:10 – Spring Training meeting with Cal Raleigh before the season
11:41 – Projecting Cal Raleigh’s production
12:45 – Trading for Josh Naylor
15:00 – Josh Naylor’s impact on the team
17:10 – Team comradery on the 2025 Mariners
19:45 – Player feedback about the team
21:50 – Mariners unsung heroes in 2025
24:00 – How rosters evolve throughout a season
26:45 – Balancing contending with developing young players
29:00 – How fans impact the team

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Listen to The Brock & Salk Show weekdays from 6 a.m. – 10 a.m. on Seattle Sports 710 AM or on-demand wherever you listen to podcasts.
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📰: For more Mariners coverage from SeattleSports.com, visit:
https://sports.mynorthwest.com/category/mariners/

🎧: More info on The Brock & Salk Show here:
https://sports.mynorthwest.com/category/brock-and-salk/