Mariners president Catie Griggs is part of wave of female sports bosses

You must spend some time around Griggs to realize this is truly who she is. She isn’t performing for a reporter, presenting herself as ordinary and hospitable. She holds an elite job without an elitist approach. She has the mental agility to wow and intimidate a room, and she is direct as a communicator. But curiosity and servant leadership are the traits that separate her as a boss navigating a nascent era in which women are gaining more power and influence in men’s professional sports.

“I’m not someone who set out as an 18-year-old saying, ‘One day, I’m going to be the president of a Major League Baseball club,’ ” said Griggs, who has been on the job for a year. “And here I am. In all candor, it never would have occurred to me to even aspire to be the president of a Major League Baseball team. I think, from a career trajectory and career-pathing standpoint, it really all ties back to that innate curiosity. I like learning new things. I like putting myself in situations where I’m challenged, where I have certain skills and experiences I can bring to bear, but where I’m missing something that I need to do the job particularly well, and I can build that muscle. I’ve been very fortunate to have others who’ve given me those chances.”

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In addition to Griggs, the Miami Marlins employ Caroline O’Connor as their chief operating officer and Kim Ng as their general manager. The New York Mets hired Elizabeth Benn in February to be their director of major league operations, making her the highest-ranking female executive in franchise history. In the NFL, the Las Vegas Raiders named Sandra Douglass Morgan the league’s first Black female team president this summer. In the NBA, there is an abundance of female representation in the middle ranks and near the top of various organizations.

After an embarrassingly slow trek to this point, the opportunity exists now for greater gender inclusivity in male-dominant arenas. It has been more of a point of emphasis everywhere, including the NHL and Major League Soccer. While it’s still hard to predict how close we are to seeing a woman rise to head coach or manager, it’s already downright absurd to think about how long it took for the business side of these multibillion-dollar franchises to embrace female management.

Griggs doesn’t handle the Mariners’ roster. Jerry Dipoto, the president of baseball operations, is in charge of that. He has spent seven years steering the franchise toward contention on the field, and after finishing 90-72 a year ago and falling short of the playoffs on the season’s final day, the Mariners are in position to earn a wild-card berth as the final quarter of this 2022 run begins. They hope to make the postseason for the first time in 21 years, the longest drought among all teams in the four most celebrated American pro sports leagues (MLB, NFL, NBA and NHL).

In that sense, Griggs arrived at an ideal time after she left her job as the chief business officer of Atlanta United FC and traded soccer for baseball. As the ultimate fan-focused leader, she has a knack for bottling excitement and deepening the connection between a team and its fan base. But she also came to Seattle knowing she had to help repair faith in upper management. Former Mariners president and CEO Kevin Mather resigned in February 2021 after video surfaced of offensive comments he made about players to a local Rotary Club.

Mariners president Catie Griggs is part of wave of female sports bosses