Justin Hollander didn’t say anything outrageous in a long interview on The Hot Stove. In fact, it was pretty much the exact kind of calm you’d expect in mid-January.
He laid out the current infield picture like this: some combination of Cole Young, Leo Rivas, and Ben Williamson, with Colt Emerson and Michael Arroyo as potential midseason (or spring) factors. He emphasized wanting to “provide runway” for young players to show what they can do.
Totally reasonable…kind of.
But the Mariners aren’t operating in a vacuum. They’re operating as a team that’s been close enough to taste October for multiple seasons — and was one win from the World Series in 2025.