Seattle Mariners interpreter shares how his skills brought him to the big leagues
A skill that once helped his immigrant parents navigate a new world has now brought Freddy Llanos to the big leagues. Llanos has spent five seasons working in public relations for the Seattle Mariners and helping translate for the team’s Spanish-speaking stars. It wasn’t a straight path to get there, but it’s work Llanos has spent his whole life preparing for.
As a child, he would translate for his parents who immigrated from Mexico. “Kids that I grew up with (in the Tri Cities), same thing,” he said. “Being pulled out of school or not even going to school that day, because my dad has to go to a government office, or one of them has a doctor’s appointment.
” Still, translating for some of baseball’s biggest players was never part of Llanos’s plan. He originally went to school to study mechanical engineering, as the first in his family to go to college. “Me sitting there, just doing math all day, I was like, this is not what I want,” Llanos said.
“This isn’t my American dream. ” Llanos did love soccer and was particularly drawn to Spanish-language announcers who bring high energy to their work. “I switched over and wanted to become this soccer sideline reporter,” he said.
“I wonder if I can do that for the English side. That was my goal: bring that energy over to the English side. ” It didn’t take long for Llanos to land his first gig: a TV news reporting job in the Tri-Cities where he grew up.