This story was excerpted from Daniel Kramer’s Mariners Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
SEATTLE -- When news broke last week that Eugenio Suárez was returning to the Mariners in a Trade Deadline blockbuster, Cal Raleigh immediately offered more granular insights on what it meant for the organization beyond their postseason pursuit in 2025.
"This is what we talked about in Spring Training, when I was looking to sign here long term,” Raleigh said. “And these were the things we talked about -- these moments -- and it makes you feel good about those guys following through."
Raleigh was recounting a meeting in March with Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto and general manager Justin Hollander -- a rendezvous that he felt necessary before agreeing to a six-year, $105 million extension shortly after.
That meeting wasn’t about dollars or his value; those negotiations were left to his representatives at Excel Sports Management. No, it was about ensuring that the blossoming face of the franchise was philosophically on the same page as the front office’s most instrumental decision-makers about the organization’s competitive direction.
“That was the No. 1 priority for me: Is this organization and team committed to winning?” Raleigh told MLB.com a few days after the Deadline. “Obviously, long term, but also right now -- because we have a window.”
Raleigh obviously left that meeting far more aligned with Dipoto and Hollander, which wasn’t always the case.
He was the most vocally critical player towards the front office in the immediate aftermath of the Mariners being eliminated in 2023, a season in which they traded closer and good friend Paul Sewald at that year’s Deadline. He then apologized for those comments, but not for their essence of prioritizing winning -- which meant more aggressively pursuing the very best players, even if they are more expensive, whether it be through prospect capital in trades or dollars towards free agents.
“Those were the No. 1 conversations when this whole thing came about, when the possibility came to this could be something that actually does get done,” Raleigh said of the contract. “But I needed to talk to them first before I sign things. I'm not just going to sign if I'm not going to be happy for six years.”
“We had a few long conversations just talking about the future, the now, where we're at, where we need to add, where we think we're good and just kind of looking at the whole picture,” Raleigh said. “Obviously, like I said, now is important, but the future as well. And seeing what they had in the works, I liked what I saw.”
Part of those conversations, Raleigh said, centered on an unspoken agreement of the front office being as bold as the market would allow at this year’s Deadline. That’s not to say that the club hasn’t been in this era -- adding Randy Arozarena and Justin Turner in 2024 and Luis Castillo in 2022 were each among those years’ biggest Deadline deals.
But their 2025 haul -- Suárez, first baseman Josh Naylor and reliever Caleb Ferguson -- exclusively featured players who will be free agents at season’s end, and cost them six of their Top 30 prospects by MLB Pipeline, albeit none of their eight ranked within Pipeline’s Top 100 overall.
“We'll always have, I guess, a one foot in the present and one foot in the future type of mentality,” Dipoto said. “But we might have been standing more heavily on the left foot in this case.”
Suárez and Naylor were arguably the two best bats that moved, while Ferguson gives Seattle an extra lefty look to pair with Gabe Speier. Moreover, the Mariners added nearly $10 million in payroll for 2025 alone with that trio’s prorated salaries.
Dipoto said that he and Hollander kept Raleigh loosely in the loop for what they had in the works, another token towards Raleigh’s increased standing within the organization.
“In addition to being our Platinum Glove catcher and kind of burgeoning team leader and potential American League MVP, he's kind of like an assistant GM as well,” Dipoto said. “He watches the league. He observes. He knows the players. He has opinions. Cal is a great baseball guy, in addition to being great at his job on the field. He just sees things that a lot of guys don't.”
Dipoto and Hollander didn’t overthrow their roster-building strategy because of what Raleigh said at the end of 2023, or even in that Spring Training meeting. Yet there’s no doubt that his influence carries more weight than ever.
“He cares about the game in a big way, and he was pretty pumped,” Dipoto said. “There were happy texts, and when you keep star players happy, that doesn't stink either.”
Added Raleigh: “They came through big time, so it was nice to see.”