Mariners Get Bad News on Cal Raleigh Amid Slugger's Struggles

Cal Raleigh finally ended his unfortunate 0-for-38 hitless streak by hitting not one, but two singles on Tuesday night. Despite his luck appearing to improve, the Mariners received poor news about the catcher on Thursday.

Raleigh landed on the injured list for the first time in his career on Thursday as he deals with a right oblique strain that he suffered Wednesday night. For being 29 and in his sixth MLB season, it's pretty impressive it's taken him this long to land on IL. However, the timing couldn’t be worse for the catcher.

Raleigh looked to finally be getting his mojo back on Tuesday after being in a pretty historic slump the last few weeks. If Raleigh had gone seven more at-bats without getting a hit, he would’ve found himself on the five longest hitless streaks in MLB history list. It was definitely the worst slump in Raleigh’s career, and it's crazy how it came the season after he led the league in home runs and was named the AL MVP runner-up to Aaron Judge.

If the catcher was finally finding his footing back offensively, then we’ll see what an at least 10-day absence does for his 2026 performance. Maybe it’ll be the break he needs to full reset this season and evaluate what has happened the past few weeks on the baseball field. Or, it could set him back even further and begin another slump as he recovers from an injury. We’ll see what ends up being the case.

Mariners manager Dan Wilson seems to be taking a positive outlook on Raleigh’s trip to the IL, which is a good sign for the catcher.

“The good news here is that he's got a chance to get himself back, to get himself healthy and to come back with a lot of a lot of the season left. And I think that's really the silver lining here,” Wilson said, via MLB’s Daniel Kramer.

The Mariners return to Seattle on Friday where Raleigh will be further evaluated for how severe his oblique strain is. There’s a chance he could be out longer than the 10 days, but that is unknown at this time. If he ends up missing only 10 days, then Raleigh should be available to return on Sunday, May 24 against the Royals in Kansas City.

Through 41 games this season, Raleigh is slashing .161/.243/.317, the lowest he’s averaged since his rookie season. His batting average is currently the lowest in his career. He’s tallied 26 hits, 18 RBIs, 16 runs and seven home runs, while also striking out 57 times.

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