HOUSTON -- For the first time in his career, Cal Raleigh is heading to the IL.
The Mariners placed the reigning American League MVP runner-up on the 10-day injured list ahead of Thursday afternoon’s series finale against the Astros with a right oblique strain. It’s an injury that first surfaced nearly two weeks ago and was aggravated during the eighth inning in Wednesday’s walk-off loss.
In a corresponding move, catcher Jhonny Pereda was recalled from Triple-A Tacoma and made the tight turnaround to arrive at Daikin Park. Pereda was pulled from the Rainiers’ game during the seventh inning on Wednesday and he took a red-eye to Houston.
Raleigh will undergo a more thorough evaluation once the club returns to Seattle, and as such, the Mariners do not have a timeline on his return.
“It really depends on the severity of the issue,” manager Dan Wilson said. “And I think we'll know a little bit more in the next couple of days as he gets images and whatnot. But I think it’s hard to say. I have to be honest with you, it's hard to say without knowing how bad it is.”
Raleigh missed three games earlier this month after the issue first cropped in a May 1 loss vs. the Royals. But he and the club felt good enough about his prognosis to avoid the IL. Yet, including the game where he first hurt himself and upon returning, he went through an 0-for-38 stretch that wasn’t snapped until Monday.
“As hard as he works and as tough as he is, he got to a place after the first three or four days that we held him back to where it felt good enough to go,” Wilson said. “And then, I think, you continue to have stuff every once in a while, and you have a play like last night that's kind of a reminder. So I think we all just felt like this was the time.”
That play in question came late in Wednesday’s loss, when Raleigh was backing up a relay throw from Julio Rodríguez on a costly error from Eduard Bazardo in the eighth, just before Houston tied the game.
Raleigh was seen grimacing, then a few moments later, he held off throwing to first base on a would-be, 6-2-3 double play that would’ve helped Seattle escape that jam clinging to a one-run lead. Instead, the play resulted in a forceout at the plate for the first out, and in the next at-bat, Jose Altuve hit a go-ahead sacrifice fly for the second out.
“He had to change directions, and it kind of grabbed on him there,” Wilson said. “And I think that's, again, he's been really good about being diligent and trying to take care of it as much as he can. And I think something like that makes it tricky. It kind of jumps up at you a little bit, and you realize that it's time to kind of take a step back and get fully healthy.”
This is the latest -- and biggest -- blow for Raleigh in what’s been an incredibly challenging season, on the heels of his 60-homer campaign in which he was arguably the sport’s biggest storyline.
Raleigh’s slash line sits at .161/.243/.317 (.560 OPS), with a 31.5% strikeout rate and 9.9% walk rate over 181 plate appearances across 41 games. He does rank second on the team with seven homers, all of which came during a 20-game stretch from April 6-27, just before the oblique discomfort surfaced.
“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 the season left,” Wilson said. “And I think that's really the silver lining here.”
In Raleigh’s stead, Mitch Garver will see a bulk of the catching duties, though he’s also not had much going at the plate, either. The veteran is hitting .167 with a .532 OPS and just one extra-base hit.
Pereda is the superior defender, and at Tacoma, he was hitting .321 with an .831 OPS.
As for the Mariners (21-23 entering Thursday) more holistically, they’re still trying to climb above .500 for the first time since March 30. And now they’ll do so without arguably their most important player.
“Guys find ways to step up and get the job done,” Wilson said. “That's what all good teams do. And I know that that's going to happen.”