Seattle Mariners' Leader Says Team "Needs to Figure it Out" Moving Forward
When the Major League Baseball playoffs begin on Tuesday afternoon, the Seattle Mariners will be sitting at home for the second straight year.
After making the playoffs, the Mariners have regressed to 88 and 85 wins in 2023 and 2024. Those were still good win totals, but caused the M's to miss the playoffs by one game in each year.
Speaking to the media this weekend, Mariners catcher and team leader Cal Raleigh said that the team needs to "figure it out" moving forward.
Per Adam Jude of the Seattle Times:
“The season’s more than five weeks; it’s a long season,” catcher Cal Raleigh said Saturday afternoon in an end-of-season exit interview. “… I’d like to say it was a good step in the right direction, but that doesn’t really mean much at the end of the year when you’re not in the playoffs. We’ve got to take the offseason, got to get better — each person, myself included. And we’ve got to figure it out.”
The Mariners, despite leading the AL West by 10 games in mid-June, ultimately came up short of a postseason berth for the second year in a row.
— Seattle Times Sports (@SeaTimesSports) September 29, 2024
“Expectations were high... Disappointing year overall," catcher Cal Raleigh said.
More from @A_Jude: https://t.co/1XLsG8UQoN
Raleigh was referring to the team's last five weeks, which were strong under new manager Dan Wilson. After firing Scott Servais in late August, the M's went 21-13. That included a sweep of the A's in the final weekend of the season series wins over the San Francisco Giants, Houston Astros, Tampa Bay Rays, St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers (twice).
As for Raleigh, he had a phenomenal year across the board. He led all catchers in home runs with 34 and also finished with an even 100 RBI. He has more home runs that any Mariner through their first 40 seasons (93), surpassing Alvin Davis.
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