Justin Hollander, face of the M's front office?

It's been a heck of an offseason for the Mariners' front office. Jerry Dipoto, the team's President of Baseball Operations, made some interesting comments, with several players voicing their displeasure with Dipoto and general manager Justin Hollander's inability to augment the young core. Dipoto has been the frontman since joining the organization in September 2015. That role included weekly in-season radio appearances on local radio stations and several national media engagements with Sirius XM and MLB Network. 

Dipoto had a good run as the voice of the front office, but it is time to turn the reins over to Hollander

The interesting thing is that behind closed doors; the Mariners could've already steered in this direction because Hollander has appeared on Seattle Sports' Hot Stove Show and had an extensive sit-down last night with Niko Tamaurin from KOMO News. The latter interview was a masterclass in changing the narrative, showing remorse for a failed trade deadline, and instilling confidence in the team as they prepare for spring training. 

"We worked very hard this offseason to build ourselves a bigger safety net to make sure we weren't counting on just everything going right, and if it didn't, we would come up short again. I think it's really important that we honor the talent that existed on this club by making this team better and getting us back to where we belong, where we were in 2022, which is a playoff team."

- Hollander on building a better roster

Another thing to remember is most if not all teams have their general managers lead the charge with the media. You don't see Hank Steinbrenner from the New York Yankees on television or hear him on the radio. It's Brian Cashman, the general manager. The Atlanta Braves have their general manager, Alex Anthopoulos, run the point. Those two well-respected executives have a few decades of experience compared to the Mariner's fledging executive (two years in the role). However, Hollander is media savvy iand continues to show it this offseason when given the chance.

Clips of Hollander's recent media engagements are littered across the X timeline, and fans are slinging superlatives his way, and rightfully so. He's charismatic, clear, concise, and delivers compelling messaging. It's time to let Dipoto continue to cook up the transactions; while Hollander needs to be the franchise's voice, he's more than earned it.