Cal Raleigh Just Blamed Himself for the Mariners’ Struggles, and He’s Wrong About One Thing
Cal Raleigh stood in front of his locker Tuesday night, staring down another loss, and said the quiet part loud. “I’m awful,” the Mariners catcher told reporters. “Ultimately, I’m the worst of the group right now.”
Seattle had just dropped their fifth in a row, a 4-1 loss to the Yankees. Raleigh went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts. His season line sits at .159 with 12 home runs and 43 RBIs, a stunning nosedive for the guy who slugged 60 bombs last year and finished second in AL MVP voting.
Give Him Credit for This Much
Raleigh didn’t hide behind a slump. He didn’t blame the schedule or the umpires or the ballpark. He walked out there after a loss, took the microphone, and pointed at himself. That takes a spine most veterans don’t have, let alone a guy who owns the AL Silver Slugger for catchers.
He’s also not wrong that he’s been part of the problem. When your cleanup hitter is hitting like an American League pitcher used to, that’s going to sink a lineup. The Mariners need Big Dumper to be Big Dumper, and he hasn’t been for months.
Here’s Where He’s Wrong
Raleigh is the face of the Mariners, so he’s going to eat the loudest criticism. Fine. But the idea that this five-game skid is on his shoulders alone is a bad read of what’s happening in Seattle.
The rotation has been leaking runs, the bullpen has been arson-adjacent, and the lineup around him has zero pop when Julio Rodriguez cools off, which he does regularly. This roster was built with paper-thin margins, and Jerry Dipoto’s front office spent the trade deadline doing very little to shore anything up.
When Raleigh says he’s the worst of the group, he’s protecting his teammates and his front office. That’s a captain move. It also happens to be inaccurate. The Mariners are broken in five different places, and Raleigh happens to be the loudest one.
The Bigger Problem in Seattle
Last year’s 60-homer season was supposed to be the turning point. Instead, Seattle spent the winter refusing to add real offense around him, then watched the whole thing collapse when the catcher regressed to something closer to his career norms. Blaming Raleigh for that lets a lot of people off the hook.
The Mariners are staring at another year outside the AL West race. Their playoff odds are on life support. Even if Raleigh wakes up tomorrow and starts hitting again, one bat isn’t fixing this.
What Actually Helps
The healthiest thing Seattle could do is stop letting their catcher fall on the sword. Every time Raleigh calls himself awful, it lets the guys who assembled this mess off the hook. And the guys who assembled this mess are the ones who need to answer for a payroll trending toward another October on the couch.
Raleigh will hit again. He’s too good, and the sample is too big, to think otherwise. But when he does, this front office should hope he still has the mic. Because if he stops taking the blame himself, someone else is going to have to.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
