He’s taken foul tips off his wrist, shoulder, thigh and the place where no man wants to be struck with a baseball without leaving the game. He spent the last six weeks of the 2022 season doing anything and everything that would allow him to play through the constant pain of torn ligaments in his left thumb.
There was last season’s ordeal with a broken tooth and emergency root canal that followed, missing one game under dentist’s orders. There was the gash on his right index finger that gushed blood and should have forced him out of the game for emergency stitches. Instead, some gauze, athletic tape and more athletic tape kept him in the game.
Few will argue that he’s one of the toughest men to wear a Mariners uniform in the history of the franchise. Most might say he stands alone at the top.
But on Friday afternoon, the Mariners’ backstop for the remainder of this decade, was reduced to a tearful, emotional mess of gratitude and happiness.
With his mom and dad, two sisters and younger brother sitting in the front row of the main interview room at T-Mobile Park, Cal Raleigh answered questions from the local media — and a few fun ones from his teammates — about signing a 6-year, $105 million contract two days earlier.
After roughly 15 minutes, it looked as though there would be no more questions, and the media session was finished.
Like his walkoff homer to put the Mariners into the playoffs in 2022, Raleigh made it memorable.
“I got one more thing,” he said.
It was more than one thing. It was many things. And it encapsulated all the reasons why the Mariners made the “no brainer” decision as general manager Justin Hollander called it, to sign Raleigh to an extension.
Raleigh looked out at the faces in the room, locking in on manager Dan Wilson and bullpen coach Tony Arnerich and pitching coach Pete Woodworth, along with the entire starting pitching staff sitting in full city connect uniforms.
“I just want to say thank you to all my coaches, everybody in the organization, you guys have treated me very well over the past nine seasons,” he said. “This is the only place I’ve ever known, and I’m hoping this will be the only place that I ever have to know. So to all the people that have helped me get here, obviously my teammates, thank you very much. It really means a lot.”
Raleigh paused for a moment to take a breath. And then looking right at his father, Todd, his mother, Stephanie, his sisters, Carley and Emma, and younger brother, Todd Jr., the encompassing intensity that takes over his personality the moment he puts on a baseball uniform softened. His voice cracked, words felt difficult to say and wetness filled his eyes.
“And to my family,” he said. “Thank you guys. My mom and dad, thank you guys for giving all opportunities in the world. To my brother and sisters, for always being there for me. I know it’s hard being all the way out in Seattle, but I do love it here. Thank you guys for everything.”
Stephanie and the daughters didn’t try to hide their tears, while Todd, the man from whom Cal inherited his stoic toughness, tried to not let the moment overtake him.
Raleigh then spoke to the Mariners brass seated on the dais — Chairman John Stanton, president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto and Hollander.
“And thank you guys as well for giving me this opportunity, to believe in me and lead this team,” he said with a lump in his throat. “I’m gonna do everything I can to help you guys, and us, win a World Series.”
Always polite, he looked at everyone in the room and said: “Thank you guys for coming out today. I really appreciate it.”
They were honest and heartfelt words that were typical of Raleigh, who has always been willing to say what he thinks and speak about what he believes is right since that seminal 2022 season.
Will his teammates in attendance give him a hard time for crying? Absolutely. Do they respect him even more? Without a doubt.
With a bout of food poisoning sending Raleigh home early on Wednesday and the difficulties of scheduling an additional event on opening day, the Mariners opted to have a media session for Raleigh to discuss his contract extension on Friday. It allowed for his family to fly in from Georgia and North Carolina as well as his agent Brett Knief from Excel management and Casey Close, the owner of Excel.
As a kid growing up in North Carolina, admittedly his big league dreams didn’t have him wearing a Seattle Mariners uniform. He wasn’t even supposed to be taken by the Mariners in the third round of the 2018 draft following his junior season at Florida State. Raleigh seriously considered going back to FSU for his senior season. But he signed 10 minutes before the deadline and reported to the team’s complex in Peoria.
Now, he has a guaranteed contract through the 2030 season with a vesting option for the 2031 season.
“Honestly, I didn’t know a whole lot about Seattle at the very beginning, when I was drafted and came up here, playing for Everett,” he said. “I slowly learned the culture, and slowly learned what this organization, what this city was all about, and kind of fell in love with it.
“And especially since you know that ‘22 season when we made a run in the playoffs, the city has really embraced me, and not just me, but really all of our players. They’re great fans. They support us all the time through the ups and downs. When you have that kind of people in your background, it makes it really special and makes you want to stay here and want to play for those people.”
Can Raleigh convince teammates like Logan Gilbert and George Kirby to follow his path? Will the organization also spend the money for more extensions?
“I told him when he signed, ‘now, tell your friends,'” Dipoto said.
The Mariners, under Dipoto, have now signed Raleigh, Julio Rodriguez, Andrés Muñoz, Luis Castillo, Dylan Moore and Victor Robles to contract extensions.
Will there be more?
“It’s always been a part of what we’ve talked about doing for a number of years now,” Dipoto said. “I think building the kind of continuity that exists with this group is really important when you’re putting together a winning team, to build the trust in the clubhouse and among the players with each other, with the people around them and that there is a long term outcome for them here in Seattle, that’s the goal. Whether we can do that with other players moving forward, it takes two and we’re always open to that, and generally speaking, we will keep trying.”
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