Mariners’ Cal Raleigh out starting lineup again with ‘general soreness’

SEATTLE – Cal Raleigh has never been placed on the 10-day injured list in his MLB career. He’s hoping that it won’t happen in the next few days due to discomfort in his right side.

For the second straight day, the Mariners’ ultra durable catcher was out of the starting lineup, raising a high level of concern in the fan base. Manager Dan Wilson was even more vague than usual following’s Saturday’s extra-innings loss to the Royals, characterizing the injury as “general soreness” and not wanting to delve into the specific area of the soreness, which only led to more speculation.

Wilson was slightly more expansive in Sunday’s pregame media session, actually listing where Raleigh felt that soreness.

“Cal is continuing to make strides,” Wilson said. “He’s got a little soreness in the side. We’ll continue to look at it day to day and go from there and continue to assess it.”

But Raleigh opted to speak to the media after Wilson’s session to provide more details, listing the specific area of soreness – his right side – and when it occurred.

“I just kind of felt it postgame Friday night, and didn’t really think too much of it,” he said. “It’s normal. Things happen in games throughout the season, but I woke up the next day and it stayed sore, and I let the staff know. I was just trying to play it safe.”

Any issues with the core area are not taken lightly. The Mariners had Raleigh undergo an MRI and other tests.

“As an athlete you use your core a lot, just obviously rotating stuff,” he said. “It was just a little sore, and I think they’re just trying to be precautious with it, play it safe.”

He wasn’t certain on the results of the MRI before the game.

“We were still waiting to hear,” he said. “Those things, unfortunately, take longer than you want, but all signs point to the positive.”

Raleigh said he felt much better when he woke up Sunday morning and even took swings in the cage pregame to test his oblique area.

“It felt good,” he said. “Today was a good day. Obviously everybody’s leaning on the cautionary side, which is to be expected. In the moment, you hate it, but down the line, I think they’ll pay dividends.”

The Mariners could still place Raleigh on the injured list and back date it to Friday. They can backdate the 10-days up to the last game a player participated in, but it can’t exceed three days . Infielder Ryan Bliss was in the clubhouse as a member of the taxi squad for a possible roster move.

“As of right now, it’s one day at a time,” Raleigh said. “We’ll see how I feel. We’re still in the early stages. I don’t know where we’re at, but compared to where it was feeling postgame Friday and yesterday early, very positive, very encouraging. So that’s kind of where we’re at right now.”

Raleigh hates not playing. He loves the grind of a baseball season. So missing any time due to injury is not ideal. But this isn’t something he can play through and not make worse. After seeing multiple teammates sideline with oblique strains, he understands the need for caution.

“You kind of got to put your ego and pride aside and think of others and everybody else on the team,” he said. “if I went out and gutted it out and made it worse, am I hurting the team in the long run? Obviously, I want to be out there, and everybody does too. But being smart and making sure that we handle this on the front end, that way nothing pops up on the back end, when it’s crunch time, it’s going to be key.”

It’s been an interesting 48 hours of roster moves for the Mariners following Thursday’s day off.

Before Friday’s series opener vs. the Royals, reliever Matt Brash was placed on the 15-day injured list with a right lat strain. Left-hander Josh Simpson was recalled from Triple-A Tacoma.

Simpson’s stay was short-lived. He was optioned back to Triple-A Tacoma on Saturday afternoon and right-hander Nick Davila.

Also infielder Will Wilson was placed on the injured list with a fractured thumb on Saturday with catcher Jhonny Pereda recalled to serve as the back-up with Raleigh unavailable. The Mariners played Sunday’s game without a true backup infielder.

Wilson said that Wilson actually injured the thumb just before he was called up from Triple-A Tacoma on a slide. He was playing through the pain on the MLB roster, but it wasn’t responding with treatment. The Mariners had him under good imaging that revealed a small fracture.

“He’s been able to work through it,” Dan Wilson said. “I think it was something that was continuing to bother him. It wasn’t getting better. The prudent thing to do was to take a look and there was a little bit of a fracture in there, it was, it was, the idea was to get him healthy.”

The Mariners also made another roster move right before the game started, claiming left-handed reliever Jose Suarez off waivers from the Atlanta Braves and adding him to the 40-man roster.

To make room, Tacoma outfielder Rhylan Thomas was designated for assignment.

Suarez has pitched in parts of eight MLB seasons, most of them with the Angels (2019-24) as a starter. He is out of minor league options and will need to be added to the active roster when he reports to the team.