PEORIA, Ariz. \u2014 When Justin Hollander entered the Petco Park press box a few summers ago, the awesome reality of his career path gobsmacked him in the face.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a full-circle moment,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n
In the same press box where he\u2019d earned $100 per Padres game two decades ago as a part-time stats stringer, Hollander had returned as general manager of the Seattle Mariners.<\/p>\n
Chatting on a recent morning at the team\u2019s spring training complex in Arizona, four months after the Mariners drew to within eight outs of their first World Series berth, the former Pacific Beach and Point Loma rental resident said the career lessons he learned might benefit job-seekers in all fields.<\/p>\n
But Hollander, 47, attached a disclaimer: good luck, he said, surely boosted his career several times.<\/p>\n
A few highlights:<\/p>\n
The kindness of several Padres employees Hollander came to know while working at Petco Park boosted his ability to learn about a key job opening and succeed in interviews and in several jobs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI owe them,\u201d he said of Padree staffers past and present who worked in San Diego\u2019s baseball operations and media relations departments between 2005 and 2007.<\/p>\n
A thirst to learn about baseball and succeed in the sport defined Hollander, said the GM and others who worked with him in San Diego and with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat stood out was how serious he was about getting into baseball,\u201d said Mike Wickham, who worked nine years for the Padres in scouting and minor league operations and held full-time jobs with five other big league clubs.<\/p>\n
Wickham added: \u201cHe had good people skills and a strong work ethic, and it was clear he was willing to put in the time to learn the game and earn the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Seattle](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/SUT-L-krasovic-0311-01.jpg\")
Seattle Mariners general manager Justin Hollander, right, watches as catcher Cal Raleigh works in the bullpen during spring training baseball practice at the team\u2019s training facility Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025, in Peoria, Ariz. (AP Photo\/Lindsey Wasson)<\/p>\n
Hollander said his love of baseball drove him.<\/p>\n
He\u2019d wanted to become a baseball GM since he was a boy in Dayton, Ohio.<\/p>\n
His desire to get a toehold in Major League Baseball was stoked further when, after he graduated from Ohio State\u2019s school of business administration and moved to San Diego to attend the University of San Diego\u2019s law school in 2001, he took a full-time job as a civil litigation attorney in Hillcrest.<\/p>\n
Lawyering wasn\u2019t for him, he found out. \u201cI was bored,\u201d said Hollander, who studied for his bar exam between innings of Padres games he attended as a fan.<\/p>\n
Obsessed by now with landing a baseball job, he saw an online ad in 2005 for part-time work with Major League Baseball Advanced Media.<\/p>\n
He reacted to the low-pay gig as an aspiring judge would react to a potential Supreme Court clerkship.<\/p>\n
MLB\u2019s Cory Schwartz hired him, landing Hollander in front of the East Village ballpark\u2019s press box, where he would type in play-by-play data for online feeds.<\/p>\n
Viewing the job as a ticket to an invaluable baseball education, Hollander discussed tactics as each game unfolded. He had a great seat, located between the official scorer and beat writers. He sought out, and learned from, numerous professionals with MLB clubs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI probably abused the privileges that the (MLB) pass granted me by going and sitting there on days when I wasn\u2019t supposed to be working and just watching the game, trying to talk to as many people as I could, going down for batting practice, which I definitely wasn\u2019t supposed to be doing, and finding scouts, finding media people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d find anyone that I thought that I could glean something from, and just try to ask as many questions, show them how passionate I was about baseball, and how much I wanted to do this for a job instead of being a lawyer.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2008 came a breakthrough: a Padres media relations staffer told Hollander the Angels were looking for an intern for their baseball front office.<\/p>\n
Hollander got the job after the Angels\u2019 first choice turned it down.<\/p>\n
He knew his income would plummet, creating debt, but he headed to Anaheim with confidence. And a clear plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest thing is, once you get in, don\u2019t let someone push you out,\u201d he said. \u201cDo as many thankless jobs as you can do. Show everyone that you\u2019re passionate, that you care, that you want to be helpful, that you\u2019ll do anything to help the team win, to make someone else\u2019s job easier.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crucially, he impressed Jerry Dipoto, his boss of the past 15 years.<\/p>\n
A former big league pitcher, Dipoto became the Angels\u2019 GM in 2011. He retained Hollander, one of the few front-office staffers who\u2019d survived an overhaul after the season. After leaving for the Mariners, Dipoto hired Hollander as director of baseball operations in 2016. Hollander was named assistant GM two years later. In October 2022, one month after the Mariners ended the sport\u2019s longest active playoff drought, he was promoted to general manager.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis passion, intelligence, people skills and creativity show up every day,\u201d Dipoto said, praising Hollander\u2019s work as a contract negotiator and trade facilitator. \u201cMoving forward, the Mariners are simply a better organization with Justin in this role.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another former Angels front-office staffer described Hollander as someone who was level-headed and bright, and loved baseball.<\/p>\n
Looking back, Hollander said his ears have served him well.<\/p>\n
As have patience and a collaborative spirit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe No. 1 thing you have to be good at is, you have to be a good listener,\u201d he said. \u201cThe job is so hard, I don\u2019t really believe that any of the people in these roles are like the super executive who can just identify talent better than everybody, who can negotiate better than everybody, like they\u2019re the super executive, and they\u2019re going to solve all the problems of an organization, just through their own unique scouting eye and negotiating mastery.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you do try to do if all yourself,\u201d he added, \u201cyou will make terrible decisions. If you hire well and listen to the very smart people you hire, you will be right more than you are wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
The relentless collaboration has helped keep the GM sane.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re really hard jobs, they\u2019re really hard,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd you feel the weight of the world on your shoulders. The truth is, it feels less of a weight if you\u2019re doing it with people as opposed to trying to solve all the world\u2019s problems by yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
The journey has enriched his personal life, too.<\/p>\n
In Anaheim, Hollander met his wife, Whitney, who was doing a fellowship at UC Irvine to become an eye surgeon. They have two children, Elliot, 10, and Lucy, 9.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s learned a lot about scouting. And about advanced statistics from in-house experts who aren\u2019t put off that he\u2019s admittedly \u201cterrible at math.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite baseball\u2019s inevitable cruelties \u2014 \u201cif you have an ego and you don\u2019t have humility in baseball, you will get flattened very quickly,\u201d he said \u2014 he seems to be having a blast.<\/p>\n
\u201cHave you ever seen the movie \u2018Almost Famous?\u2019\u201d he said of the Cameron Crowe movie whose protagonist is a teen reporter for Rolling Stone in 1973.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo,\u201d he explained, \u201cthere\u2019s a scene at the end of the movie where the reporter sits down with the guitarist to finally get the interview he wanted to get to do. He said, \u2018What do you like about being a musician?\u2019 And the guitarist says, \u201cTo begin with, everything.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do I like about my job? To begin with, everything.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PEORIA, Ariz. \u2014 When Justin Hollander entered the Petco Park press box a few summers ago, the awesome…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":618232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2392],"tags":[5,853,620,4,619,65,3235,185,3546],"class_list":{"0":"post-618231","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-seattle-mariners","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-mariners","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-seattle","13":"tag-seattle-mariners","14":"tag-seattlemariners","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-top-stories-sdut"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116209728417336097","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}