If there was one game that could make the Mariners feel a lot better about Cal Raleigh’s oblique issue, this was probably it. Raleigh entered his second rehab game, first with the Tacoma Rainiers, and went right to work by using Cheney Stadium as his own personal launching pad.
Raleigh went 2-for-3 with two home runs, including a two-run shot in his first at-bat and a grand slam in his third. Then he was replaced by Brian O’Keefe, because at that point, honestly, what else did the Mariners need to see in that game.
That is about as loud as a rehab assignment can get. Oblique injuries are tricky because they can hang around, mess with rotation and make a hitter look like he is protecting something even when he is technically cleared to play. We saw that with Raleigh before he hit the IL. He wasn’t himself in the batter’s box. This outing was the first real sign that the violence in his swing had returned, and then he backed it up by doing it again later in the game.
If this rehab could look like anything, we’d call it a warning flare. The Mariners have been waiting for Raleigh to show them that the oblique strain is no longer running the show. One homer would have been encouraging enough. A two-homer game with a grand slam turns the whole thing into something closer to a return countdown.
Whenever Raleigh returns, the Mariners are going to have a catcher decision waiting for them. Carrying three catchers doesn’t feel realistic, which means the conversation will quickly shift to Jhonny Pereda and Mitch Garver.
If we are being honest, Pereda has made that conversation a lot more uncomfortable than the Mariners probably expected. He has produced and helped keep the position from turning into a complete offensive crater. The Mariners can call that a good problem if they want, but it’s still a problem.
Garver, meanwhile, still has value. He has experience with the pitching staff. But if we are stacking up the offensive production, Pereda has outperformed him by a landslide. The Mariners can talk about roles, trust, history and process all they want. But at some point, the better player has to matter.
That is not Raleigh’s problem though. His job is to get healthy and bring power back to a Mariners lineup. Based on what happened in Tacoma, he looks ready to do exactly that.
The Mariners wanted a return signal. Raleigh provided two of them.
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