Drayer: Rise of Cal Raleigh can be tracked back to Day 1 in Mariners’ system

It has been quite a week for Cal Raleigh, who in one five-game stretch became the Seattle Mariners franchise home run leader at catcher, the second-fastest Mariners player to 100 career home runs, and completed the feat of homering from both sides of the plate for the fourth time in his career. That was all part of a week that saw him leading baseball in home runs (six) and wRC+ (293).

Why red-hot Cal Raleigh is using torpedo bat from left side only

Mariners assistant general manager Andy McKay was the team’s farm director when Raleigh was drafted in the third round of the 2018 MLB Draft, as well as responsible for his continued development in the minor leagues. McKay is with the team on Seattle’s current road trip and watched Raleigh’s historic night Tuesday at Cincinnati’s Great American Ballpark from the box adjacent to the visiting radio booth.

Thursday morning, we knocked on the window and asked McKay to join us on the roundtable segment of the Seattle Sports radio pregame show, and he shared his experience of watching Raleigh – now a Platinum Glove winner – continue to cement his place in Mariners history.

“There were so many little things,” McKay said. “When I saw the graphic about how quickly he got (to 100 home runs) compared to some other players, that was, wow, like that group of players? That’s rare. But it’s super cool.

“On my phone, his contact is still his picture from Florida State where he just kind of looks like a kid. You think about those days in Everett, and we were talking last night about how he had one of the most incredible like six-week runs in Modesto I’ve ever seen a hitter go on.”

Making Raleigh’s rise all the more fun to watch is how it has happened alongside Seattle’s first-round pick from the same 2018 draft, All-Star pitcher Logan Gilbert.

“I think one of my fondest thoughts around Cal is the friendship with Logan,” McKay said, “and watching that develop between the two of them over the years of kind of being kids and now they’re grown men. (They’re) two of the best in the world at what they do and just watching them go through that journey together has been super cool.”

Checking all the boxes

What the Mariners had found in Raleigh when they selected him out of Florida State was a foundational catcher for the franchise. In short, he checked all of the boxes for a position that has far more boxes than any other. There are of course no guarantees what a player will turn into when they’re first signed, but Raleigh’s answer at the time to the simple “Who is your favorite player?” question that McKay asks all young players – “Jason Varitek” – gave him hope they were on the right path with the then-21 year old.

“It does reveal what are they drawn to,” McKay said of the question. “What are they attracted to? And it was always Varitek. That gave you real insight as the type of person that he was wanting to be. So with Cal, it’s always been actually quite easy. Like, if you point him in a direction, he takes it on. He goes for it. From Day 1, he wanted to be the Varitek-type of team captain, quarterback on the field. The leader. He wanted that responsibility. He still craves it.”

With Gilbert stepping into a leadership role and ascending to the position of the No. 1 and opening day starter in the rotation, Mariners broadcaster Gary Hill pointed out in the conversation with McKay that Seattle had found two franchise pillars in the 2018 draft. He then asked just how foundational that particular draft has been to everything that has come since.

“It’s been massive,” McKay said before turning to the two drafts previous to 2018 that the M’s hoped would set the foundation. “Unfortunately, the Kyle Lewis and Evan White thing, it still haunts me because they are two (first-round picks) and you couldn’t have better kids. You couldn’t have better players and it didn’t work for them, obviously, for injury reasons. And that’s just heartbreaking. And I think about those guys all the time.

“But when you’re involved in the draft and you look at how we ended up with those players, how we got to George Kirby (in the 2019 draft), it’s all fascinating and the good thing is we’ve been able to keep it going. These last couple drafts with the (Jonny) Farmelo and the Colt Emerson and Harry (Ford) and Cole (Young), and Ben Williamson getting him where we were able to get him. (Mariners vice president of amateur scouting) Scott Hunter, the group, they’ve done a phenomenal job with that. But yeah, going back, if every draft you could say you’re going to get two franchise players in your first three every year? I think everybody would be raising both hands and say sign me up. The world would be great if we could pull that one off.”

Hear the full conversation with Mariners assistant general manager Andy McKay from the roundtable segment of Thursday’s Seattle Sports pregame show at this link or in the player near the top of this post.

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