Menu
Forty Under 40

Forty Under 40: Chris Marinak

Chris Marinak

Age: 34
League: MLB
Title: Senior vice president, league economics and strategy
Where born: Virgina Beach, Va.
Education: University of Virginia (B.S., computer engineering), Harvard Business School (MBA)
Family: Wife, Jennifer; daughter, Julie Anne (1)


Cause supported: Tony La Russa’s Animal Rescue Foundation.
Most thrilling/adventurous thing I’ve ever done: Diving the Great Blue Hole in Belize next to a bull shark.
Person in the industry I’d most like to meet: Kevin Plank.
If I could change jobs with anyone for a day, it would be: Tony Bennett, U.Va. men’s basketball coach.
2015 will be a good year if: The average 9-inning MLB game is back under 3 hours.
My fellow Forty Under 40 class members would be surprised to know that I:
Once had dinner with Warren Buffett at Gorat’s in Omaha.


TAYLOR BAUCOM / MLB PHOTOS VIA GETTY IMAGES

New MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred is predictably making plenty of headlines in the early days of his tenure and on a variety of issues, such as pace of play and expanded instant replay. Behind the scenes, Chris Marinak is playing a key role in making those and many other initiatives happen.

{podcast}

SBJ Podcast:
Forty Under 40 editor Mark Mensheha and Executive Editor Abraham Madkour discuss this year's class, some of the more interesting stories in it and how the selection process works.

A key sounding board and adviser to Manfred, but himself not in the media limelight, Marinak leads baseball’s strategy division that focuses on industrywide matters such as replay, scheduling, youth participation, labor relations and club economics. In short, if there’s a major issue within the sport in which Manfred is trying to promote significant change, Marinak is heavily involved.

A former pitcher at the University of Virginia and with degrees in computer engineering and business administration, Marinak is among a select group of MLB staffers who regularly interact with both on-field personnel and club owners, and he’s been widely praised for his ability to communicate with both camps.

“Rob’s a very analytical guy and values that kind of studied approach to issues,” Marinak said. “I, too, like to use numbers and data a lot when thinking things through, so we took to each other well right away when I started at baseball. He’s taking that same kind of analytical approach leaguewide in his new role, so we’ve continued to work closely together.”

Marinak, who’s been at MLB since 2008, is also a primary figure in the sport’s emerging One Baseball effort that seeks to more closely align the operations of MLB with various levels of amateur play. Within that, he is helping lead a study to track and identify the causes and outcomes of on-field injuries.

“It’s a big priority for us,” Marinak said of One Baseball. “There are a lot of organizations like Little League and USA Baseball that want be more active with us and in that conversation, so we’re very hopeful.”

— Eric Fisher

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 18, 2024

Sports Business Awards nominees unveiled; NWSL's historic opening weekend and takeaways from CFP deal

ESPN’s Jay Bilas, BTN’s Meghan McKeown, and a deep dive into AppleTV+’s The Dynasty

On this week’s Sports Media Podcast from the New York Post and Sports Business Journal, ESPN’s Jay Bilas talks all things NCAA. Big Ten Network’s Meghan McKeown shares her insight into the Caitlin Clark craze. The Boston Globe’s Chad Finn chats all things Bean Town. And SBJ’s Xavier Hunter drops in to share his findings on how the NWSL is making a social media push.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2015/03/30/Forty-Under-40/Chris-Marinak.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2015/03/30/Forty-Under-40/Chris-Marinak.aspx

CLOSE