In 2 ways, Mariners GM trying to strike balance with roster

With just over a month to go until spring training, Seattle Mariners general manager Justin Hollander has crossed a lot of items off of his offseason checklist.

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While one big one remains, and we will get to that below, another – the acquisition of veteran outfielder Rob Refsnyder – filled at least a part-time need in the lineup. Refsnyder comes to the Mariners having put up impressive numbers against lefties, the past three years recording a .909 OPS that ranks sixth-best in baseball (minimum 400 plate appearances) and a 152 wRC+ that ranks fifth-best.

“He’s not just a platoon guy, he’s like the best platoon guy,” Hollander said Tuesday on the 2026 premiere of The Hot Stove on Seattle Sports. “He’s done it year after year after year. A perfect fit for our roster with (Luke) Raley and (Dominic) Canzone and some of the other left-handed hitters that we have on the team, in that we really need to provide ourselves, our lineup, with balance.”

The outfield that will be anchored by Julio Rodríguez and Randy Arozarena could see Refsnyder, Raley, Canzone and Victor Robles as a right field and often designated hitter mix. Hollander laid out what the usage plan with the current roster could initially look like.

“Luke and Dom would play a ton against right-handed pitching. Victor and Rob Refsnyder would play a lot against left-handed pitching,” Hollander said. “Those four guys together, in sort of pairs of two and two, I think make a ton of sense on our roster.”

Hollander likes the outfield depth the Mariners currently have and stressed he does not want to create hard boundaries for them in terms of how they are played. He allows for both the good things and bad things that can affect a roster over the course of a season.

“If Victor’s more like 2024 Victor and someone has an injury, Victor is fully capable of going out there and playing every day,” he said. “The same thing for Dom. Luke has played some against left-handed pitching. I think providing more options for (manager Dan Wilson) and more depth is a good thing because you just don’t know, like what Luke went through last year, having an oblique strain to be down for a while. And just making sure that the options that we provide are deep enough that we’re not caught shorthanded.”

A decision about that mix may have to be made if another player is added to the roster, but the Mariners have found balance in their lineup with their outfield options. There’s another kind of balance they’re looking to strike, though, that involves the infield and the current wave of young players pushing for time in the big leagues.

Allowing space for development

For now, the status of the infield remains uncertain. Whether or not the Mariners are able to land another everyday player remains to be seen. According to Hollander, if the season were to start today, the M’s would go with some sort of combination of Cole Young, Leo Rivas and Ben Williamson to cover second and third base, with Colt Emerson possibly in the mix. Hollander also pointed to Miles Mastrobuoni and prospect Michael Arroyo as players who could work their way in.

“I don’t know if it’ll look different than that when we get into spring training or not,” he said. “We do, as a group, want to provide runway for our young players to show us what they can do. I think that’s really important for our roster. It’s how you figure out how good Cal Raleigh can be. It’s how you figure out how good J.P. Crawford can be, is to provide guys runway to show us what they can be.”

With expectations high coming off a season that ended in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series, the roster at the moment appears incomplete. There is little doubt the preference of the Mariners would be to have that proven veteran at second or third base, but if they are unable to acquire that player, more at-bats will go to a younger player. At-bats will go to younger players regardless, and managing that will require a tricky balance.

“It’s hard,” Hollander admitted. “You’re not going to introduce five young position players into the big leagues on a team that has division title expectations and aspirations all at once. You also can’t box those players out from showing what they can do. And either that’s boxing them out to start the season or giving them such a short path that the first 0 for 15 that comes, you’re ready to pull the plug on them. Putting the player in that mind space is never going to lead to getting the best version of that player and really finding out.”

The necessity of this balance will not be unique to this season, with development a key part of the Mariners’ continuing plan to build and sustain competitive rosters. The Mariners have produced and incorporated wave after wave of pitching talent both in lean and competitive seasons, but we are unaccustomed to seeing them do the same on the position player/hitting side. If there is a sense of unease about it, especially without a track record and the stakes so high in 2026, that is understandable. Fair warning, however, this is likely not a one-and-done situation.

“I think that we as an organization are sort of committed to the idea that we’re always going to have a mix of Randy Arozarenas and Cole Youngs,” said Hollander. “Players who are in their prime of their career, who we have real certainty about what they’re going to bring, who have made All-Star teams, who are sort of 20-20 locks, with players who have cut their teeth in the minor leagues and really don’t have anything left to prove in the minor leagues.

“The best version of the Mariners is that balance, and we’ll constantly work to find that balance. There’s no right answer. It doesn’t mean that we will forsake all opportunity to look around and see if we can’t provide more ceiling and more floor. But it also means we are cognizant of the idea that the most upside that we may have in August may come from giving a player, with a little less certainty, some run in April and May and seeing where it goes.”

Catch a new episode of The Hot Stove from 7-9 p.m. each Tuesday night on Seattle Sports leading up to spring training. Find podcasts of previous episodes at this link.

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