The Seattle Mariners placed catcher Cal Raleigh on the 10-day injured list Thursday morning with a right oblique strain. The move sidelines a core piece of the Seattle lineup right after a grinding 4-3, 10-inning loss to the Houston Astros on Wednesday.
He aggravated his right side during the Astros game, exiting in the eighth inning. The issue isn’t entirely new. He previously sat out three games between May 2 and May 4 dealing with general soreness in that exact area. This is the first IL stint of Raleigh’s six-year major league career. To fill the gap behind the plate, the team placed Raleigh on the 10-day IL with an oblique strain and recalled 30-year-old catcher Jhonny Pereda from Triple-A Tacoma.
The injury pauses a remarkably difficult 2026 campaign for Raleigh. Following a 2025 season where he hit 60 home runs and finished as the American League MVP runner-up, his production plummeted. He is currently batting just .161 with a .560 OPS and seven home runs across 41 games. That average is the second-lowest among all qualified major league hitters, sitting just ahead of Cedric Mullins at .150. He recently endured an 0-for-38 hitless streak before finally hitting two singles on Tuesday night.
Manager Dan Wilson addressed the injury and Raleigh’s .161 batting average statistical struggles directly, stating, “Nobody wants to go on the IL, and especially not Cal… But I think at this point it’s the smart thing to do.”
Seattle made a few other bullpen adjustments alongside the catcher swap. The team formalized the additional corresponding Mariners roster moves involving Jose Ferrer and Josh Simpson. They reinstated Ferrer from the paternity list and optioned Simpson to Tacoma.