Cal Raleigh addresses the Mariners’ ‘collective failure’ this season

The Seattle Mariners have had some disappointing seasons over their 50-year history, but none may reach the levels of frustration that were produced by what transpired on the field this year.

Seattle Mariners officially eliminated from playoff contention

The club was a popular pick to represent the American League in the World Series after falling just one game shy of accomplishing the feat the year prior. And with the AL West looking as feeble as ever, just about any analyst around the game believed Seattle would win its second straight division title.

The Mariners themselves embraced the high expectations and made it clear they had their sights set on the World Series.

But with four games remaining in the season Thursday, the club saw it’s playoff hopes unceremoniously dashed as it could do nothing but watch while the Texas Rangers beat the New York Mets 3-1 in a game that finished roughly 4 1/2 hours before the M’s took the field for their series opener against the Los Angeles Angels.

With the fate of their season officially sealed, catcher Cal Raleigh addressed what led to his team’s underwhelming year.

“I think we could point to a lot of things that went wrong, but I don’t think it was one thing, I don’t I think it was one person, I don’t think it was one department that failed this year,” Raleigh told reporters in the Mariners’ dugout Thursday at T-Mobile Park. “I think it was a collective failure, unfortunately. It’s going to take a lot of people having some self-reflection – myself included – on the direction of where we’re heading, what we want to be and who we want to be as a team.”

Raleigh believes this year’s Mariners lacked an identity and failed to seek out the edges needed to win games during the grueling schedule that is the 162-game baseball season, even using the “chasing edges” mantra Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald is known for.

“I don’t feel like there was (an identity) this year,” Raleigh said. “That is partly on me as a leader of this team. It’s not all on me, but as somebody who’s been here, it’s important for us to kind of come together and figure that out… We just never really got there with it. You can’t rely on starting pitching to carry you. You can’t rely on the bullpen. You can’t rely on the big home run every single time. You have to be able to win in different fashions, win in different ways, find a way to sneak out those one-run ballgames.”

MLB Standings

Raleigh pointed to many areas Seattle struggled in this year – defense, playing on the road, hitting with runners in scoring position, record in one-run games – as reasons why this year went in the direction did. He called out the club for “a lack of focus, a lack of execution (and) a lack of energy.”

“It’s disappointing. We definitely didn’t deserve to make the playoffs. Just a frustrating year in general,” he said.

There was also perhaps too much faith in their own talent that the season would eventually turn itself around.

“I think it’s staff, I think it’s front office, I think it’s players, I think it’s from top to bottom – we could have been a little more aggressive,” Raleigh said. “… We’re grown men here, we’re trying to get to the same the same goal. And if it hurts somebody’s feelings, it hurt somebody’s feelings for a day, but at least that got taken care of… That’s something that’s that will be addressed and be better.”

The word “accountability” came up several times as Raleigh answered questions. He said this offseason should give players time to reflect on what went wrong and start to figure out what needs to be done to avoid the same sort of disappointment in 2027.

“If it happens once, it’s one too many times. And if it happens again, it becomes a habit,” Raleigh said. “So, it’s just about changing that and making sure you turn it around.”

As for the uncharacteristic struggles from Seattle’s pitching staff, Raleigh highlighted early injuries to the bullpen (Matt Brash and Cooper Criswell landed on the IL on consecutive days in June) as a contributing factor, but said the team needs more depth and more pitchers who can get swing and miss in that area. He also noticed how teams were attacking the club’s strike-throwing starting rotation.

“I saw a lot of very aggressive hitters and guys that were ready to go from pitch one because that’s kind of been our DNA,” Raleigh said. “We got to continue to get better and continue finding ways to combat that. I think we’ve done a great job with that and creating pitchers and having guys that are really good at (throwing strikes). But at the end of day, it’s about execution. It’s not about chasing a stat or doing anything like that. It’s just about getting better.”

Raleigh still believes in the core of this Mariners team, but feels it ultimately needs to get better from within.

“It’s not always bring in extra pieces that are going to help. Do we need to bring in more people in certain areas of the game? Yes, 100%. We need to get better and that’s always going to help,” Raleigh said, “but at the same time, when you look at the core guys, I think you could look at most of the guys and they would tell you that they did not have the season they wanted and team-wise did not have the season we wanted.”

Seattle Mariners news and more

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• Has J.P. Crawford made the case for a Seattle Mariners return in ’27?

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