One Missed Cal

 

Lot of law firm guys in the bigs these days. Emerson Hancock, Hurston Waldrep, Warming Bernabel. Just put an ampersand in between any of those and you're in business. 

Anyway, the Mariners have overcome a rough start by putting together an extremely even team. In the past it's been either all pitching or all hitting, here both sides are doing their part. There have been well-pitched months from Emerson Hancock, George Kirby, Logan Gilbert and Bryan Woo, in addition to welcome production from Randy Arozarena, Julio Rodriguez and Cole Young, the latter finally cementing himself as a worthy piece of this team. Brendan Donovan just came off the IL and is getting back to his old tricks as a contact bat. And even on a night where Hancock gets rocked a bit, you can't entirely count him out because most of his other starts he can go 6 strong without giving up many runs. After years of faulty appearances, seeing a more composed, confident version of Hancock is a welcome sight, especially alongside a healthier version of George Kirby. 

Now...there's a fundamental flaw in this team, and it's one that could be avoided over time but is worrying people already. This is a 2020s Mariners team, and everyone is performing pretty well...except for Cal Raleigh.

Raleigh is months removed from his coronation, his biggest season yet, and one of the best hitting seasons from a catcher since the 50s. To his credit, he has 7 home runs and 18 RBIs, which isn't terrible. But the multifaceted Raleigh who could also hit for contact and rely on assets other than power hasn't really shown up. He's hitting .175 with twice as many strikeouts as hits. The accuracy and power Raleigh showed frequently in 2025 has been sparse this year, and it's in a year where the team thought they could finally rely on him to lead things. Not that Julio and Randy CAN'T per se, but more is falling on them than previously figured, and it's a bit awkward at times.

Raleigh insists there's a larger issue, and he's sat a bit dealing with that thumb trouble, but hopefully it's as simple as that. Say the thumb heals and the rough patch continues. What then? What needs to be reassessed? 

The M's are good enough now that they can balance the work elsewhere, but they're being kept out of first by the A's. This division was supposed to be theirs, and it's been closer than they'd like. Hopefully they have it in them to pull away again this year, but with Raleigh struggling it's been put into question.

Coming Tonight: The opposite of Superman. He puts on glasses and becomes unstoppable.