Martinez earns promotion to Mariners' president of business operations

The Mariners have their new president of business operations, and it’s a familiar face who knows the organization well.

Kevin Martinez, senior vice president of marketing and communications, who has been with the organization for most of the past three decades, was promoted to the role. The 2025 season will be Martinez’s 35th in Seattle.

Martinez held his most recent role for the past seven seasons, overseeing the Mariners’ marketing and promotions activities, including branding, advertising, social media, digital content creation, research, in-park entertainment and special events as well as directing the club’s communications departments, including broadcasting, baseball, brand and internal communications.

Martinez spent 16 seasons as the Mariners’ vice president of marketing after being promoted to that role in December 2001. He was originally the club’s promotions manager in 1990 then was promoted to director of promotions in 1993.

He left the organization to join the NBA’s Boston Celtics in a comparable role from 1994-96 before returning to the Mariners as the club’s director of marketing. In Boston, his responsibilities included planning and executing promotions and marketing for the final season in Boston Garden and the Inaugural Season in the FleetCenter, now the TD Garden.

Martinez takes over for Catie Griggs, who abruptly resigned on July 5 after just under three years on the job. Wanting to be closer to family, Griggs -- who grew up in North Carolina and was in Atlanta before joining the Mariners -- was hired three days later by the Orioles in the same role.

Mariners chairman and managing general partner John Stanton had overseen the role in the interim. He said in an exclusive interview with MLB.com last week that he hoped to make a hire soon to allow the candidate to be part of the planning process for 2025, in terms of budgeting, ticketing, etc.

To hire Griggs’ replacement, Stanton worked in tandem with Jeff Raikes, a member of the Mariners’ partnership group and who oversaw the extensive hiring process of Griggs over a four-month period in 2021. Many internal candidates were considered, Stanton said.

A native of Edison, New Jersey, Martinez graduated from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.