Cal gives his take on upcoming Deadline: 'Playoff teams want to add'

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.

LOS ANGELES -- Cal Raleigh said out loud what has been increasingly clear for the Mariners throughout this Trade Deadline season.

Which is that, especially in a buyer-heavy market and no aircraft-carrier-type bats out there, Seattle’s late-season upgrades primarily must come from within.

“I feel like we’ve got a really good team here right now as it is,” Raleigh said this week at Dodger Stadium. “I don’t even know if, necessarily, you have to add. But I think, obviously, playoff teams want to add. Ultimately, we’re still gunning for the World Series, so we’re going to add, and I’m excited about that.

“At the same time, I feel really good about the guys that are in here right now. Regardless of what happens, it’s going to be up to this core group here to decide, ultimately, where this team ends up going.”

Despite a 53-56 record and third-place standing in the American League West, Seattle’s front office actively intends to buy before Monday’s 3 p.m. PT Deadline.

A right-handed bat and bullpen help are the only items on its shopping list.

In that sense, this is probably the most complete roster during Raleigh’s time in Seattle -- albeit one that has mightily underachieved. Wednesday’s listless loss after Tuesday’s dramatic win represented a 24-hour encapsulation to their entire season.

“We’re missing some guys with injuries, and we’re going to get [them] back,” Raleigh said, citing the expected returns of utility man Brendan Donovan and relievers Matt Brash and Cooper Criswell. “You can’t keep running a seven-man bullpen, especially, and that has to get figured out in itself. But besides that, yeah, I mean, there’s always little things you can nitpick and things that you want or whatever.”

Moreover, as Raleigh alluded, Tuesday night’s win illustrated the group’s potential -- maybe more than in any game this season, and especially given the championship-caliber opponent and hostile environment.

Raleigh hit the first of Seattle’s season-high five homers, along with Julio Rodríguez, Rob Refsnyder and Dominic Canzone, who went yard twice.

The bullpen then locked down a near-scoreless effort, featuring all four of its highest-leverage relievers -- Gabe Speier, Jose A. Ferrer, Eduard Bazardo and Andrés Muñoz, who despite surrendering the group’s lone run in the ninth, flashed some of his most electric stuff of the year.

“At the end of the day, I do feel good about every single man in this locker room,” Raleigh said. “I think we all do. It’s just a matter of us going out there and executing and getting those wins like we should. I believe that is going to happen.”

What about Tuesday night allows him to believe that?

“It was a good overall focus tonight,” Raleigh said postgame on Tuesday. “Like I said, we kept our composure. We didn't get too high, didn't get too low. We kept that good focus all night long.”

Raleigh repeated the word “focus” multiple times, then was asked if focus was something that had gotten away from the Mariners during this up-and-down season.

“I mean, baseball is hard,” Raleigh said. “It's just a long season. It's hard. Things can happen, and sometimes you need something like that to kind of get you back on track. And by no means am I saying is everything fixed, or [we're] back to where we were. But I think that was a step in the right direction.”