Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh on the state of the ballclub: "We're not a good baseball team right now"
Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh is just as bummed about the fortunes of the ballclub as anyone else surrounding the team.
Raleigh is in his third MLB season, his career to this point spent exclusively with the Seattle Mariners. He has been part of both of the Mariners' 90-72 ballclubs of the 2021 and 2022 seasons. Last year, Seattle advanced to the postseason for the first time since 2001. The Mariners were swept 3-0 by the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League Division Series. However, the organization was optimistic for the 2023 season.
Raleigh, being interviewed after a 7-4 loss to the Washington Nationals on Tuesday, told reporters:
"We're not a good baseball team right now."
From #Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh, "We're not a good baseball team right now." https://t.co/igyiCZOb1P
The optimismfrom last season has fallen on hard times. Cal Raleigh and his Seattle Mariners teammates have mustered just a 38-40 record as the MLB season nears its halfway point.
The Mariners are 9.5 games behind the AL West-leading Texas Rangers entering Wednesday's series finale against the Nationals. They are 4.5 games away from securing Seattle's second-straight Wild Card playoff berth.
The city of Seattle and disappointing baseball have gone together for the majority of the organization's 47-year run in the Emerald City.
The Mariners have just five playoff appearances since debuting as an AL expansion club in 1977. Seattle has the same number of 100-loss seasons as it does playoff berths.
Seattle famously set an MLB record with 116 wins in 2001, but still could not advance to the World Series. The Mariners lost the AL Championship Series to the New York Yankees in five games that season.
Cal Raleigh a beloved catcher for Seattle Mariners
Raleigh, nicknamed "Big Dumper" by Mariners teammates and fans, was a third-round selection by Seattle in the 2018 MLB draft.
In 234 career games with the Mariners entering Wednesday, Raleigh was hitting just .210 with 40 home runs and 109 RBIs. This season, he is hitting a career-best .227 and has 11 homers so far after hitting 27 in 2022.