At the end of the season, “The Big Dumper” Cal Raleigh made some powerful comments that reverberated within the Seattle community, he wants to win. You can’t fault him for that, but the comments made could have been taken that he was calling out the front office. The day after those said comments he retracted them. However, he didn’t apologize for wanting to win. Nor should he, the Mariners have only been to the playoffs twice in the last two decades.

“I wasn’t trying to say anything to call anybody out,” said Raleigh, who slugged a career-high 30 home runs in 2023. “It came from a place of winning, and that’s what I want to do. That’s what guys in the clubhouse want to do.”

Cal Raleigh stated that the Club’s leaders have all agreed on “wanting to win.” The Mariners certainly have the talent to do so with Julio Rodriguez, Raleigh, J.P. Crawford, Ty France and the young pitching nucleus.

“We know we have the talent. We’re right there at the cusp,” Raleigh said. “We’ve been close. We just want to get over the edge, and that’s all it comes down to. And not just us but the fans. The fans want to see a winner, as well. They want to come out, they want to support us, they want to see playoff games, they want to see us in a World Series. That’s where it’s coming from. Everybody here wants to win. There’s no secret to it. We want to win, and we want to play as well as we can and we just want to do our best for the fans and for the city.”

At the end of the day, the front office puts the talent on the field but its on the players to produce and play at the caliber of winning. Spending money doesn’t buy championships. There have been several times where a team has spent money, been picked to win the World Series and failed. Just last year we saw the Arizona Diamondbacks make the World Series without any true star players.

“It doesn’t matter what staff, ownership, whoever (does),” he said. “If we don’t go out there and be prepared and play as hard as we can every day and do our jobs the right way, it doesn’t matter what kind of team is on the field.”

As the catcher, Raleigh is a proclaimed leader due to the traditions of baseball. He wants to symbolize that and help lead the Mariners to the promised land.

“It starts with me as the catcher and as a guy that pitchers throw to, as a guy that you know fielders are looking to. It starts with me and I have to make those adjustments, as well,” he said.

In fact, the Mariners payroll last season was only at $131M. While, adding a star player definitely could help there’s not really a need to make a drastic improvement to the payroll. In 2023, the Mariners finished two games short of the AL West title and one game short of the wildcard. With the moves the Mariners have made some additions are likely.

“The offseason is not over. We’re waiting, we’re still hoping we can try to add to make our team better,” he said. “It’s sad to see those guys go.”

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