HOUSTON -- Cal Raleigh’s first career stint on the injured list comes with a lot of questions, many that the Mariners simply didn’t have answers for in the immediate aftermath.
Chief among them, what’s the severity of the right oblique strain? And what’s his timeline for recovery?
“It’s hard to say without knowing how bad it is,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “But it is one of those things that can be kind of tricky, and we just have to be as careful as possible so that he can get it back to 100 percent.”
Raleigh, who underwent imaging after the issue first surfaced two weeks ago, will almost certainly undergo more on Friday, as well as a battery of other evaluations upon meeting with team doctors who weren’t in Houston this week.
Until then, here are two questions that we have a better idea of the answers to.
Who’s behind the plate?
This all of a sudden becomes Mitch Garver’s pitching staff.
His acumen with the group was the primary reason the Mariners brought him back after Spring Training began -- at Raleigh’s urging. And doing so provided the insurance of familiarity with their roster-building outlook at the season’s outset.
“His mentoring ability and what he has meant to Cal behind the plate, and what he brings to the pitching staff behind the plate, is tremendous,” Wilson said.
It showed immediately in Thursday’s win. Yes, as Garver got off the schneid with his first homer of the season. But more so, for navigating a struggling Luis Castillo to a notable rebound -- after weeks of speculation about his status as Seattle moved to a six-man rotation.
Specifically, Garver called for Castillo to throw the changeup, which was his best secondary pitch during his career ascent in Cincinnati. They went to the changeup 22 percent of the time and held Houston to 1-for-4 with the pitch. In turn, it helped his four-seamer play up -- thanks to a velocity uptick, too -- after it was battered to a .561 slugging percentage entering play.
The four-seamer, however, was the culprit for both of Houston's run-scoring moments -- Yordan Alvarez's solo home run and Braden Shewmake's two-run double.
“It was part of the plan going into today with Garver,” Castillo said through an interpreter, “to just use everything I had, all my pitches, and throw them all with confidence.”
Jhonny Pereda will also see an enhanced role, potentially more than Garver did as the full-time backup. Garver, after all, is 35, and Pereda has the superior glove, which he showed during his Mariners debut on May 3.
Where Garver might lack in arm strength, he makes up for it with ABS -- ranking eighth among 81 qualified catchers with an 83% success rate.
The timeshare will come into focus in the coming days, but these are the two that the Mariners will lean on.
Who steps up on offense?
Subtracting the AL MVP runner-up from any lineup would be a significant blow, but there’s a lot of room here for the Mariners to withstand Raleigh’s absence. They just haven’t collectively shown it consistently, which is why they’ve hovered under .500 (22-23) all year.
“The show must go on,” Garver said. “I mean, we have to be able to win games, and we’ve got to be able to pick up where we left off.”
Julio Rodríguez needs to just keep doing what he’s doing, because it’s been borderline spectacular. Since April 3, he’s hitting .292 with an .834 OPS.
Josh Naylor has quietly turned things around, hitting .356 with a .921 OPS since April 17.
Luke Raley, albeit in a platoon that frustrates fans at times, makes the most of his playing time and leads the team with 10 homers.
Brendan Donovan, back from a left groin strain, has a whopping .396 on-base percentage, making him the perfect table setter. They’ve just got to drive him in more regularly, as he’s scored just nine runs.
Randy Arozarena’s .843 OPS is on pace for his highest since winning AL Rookie of the Year in 2021. He hit cleanup in Raleigh’s first game out on Thursday, and there’s a good chance he stays there.
Cole Young has cooled over the past two weeks, but his 24 RBIs rank second on the team behind Raley (27).
This lineup has always had elite potential, which is why the Mariners were among a small handful of World Series favorites on Opening Day. But now more than ever, it needs to play up to those expectations.