Cal Raleigh Show: What we learned from the Mariners catcher

With the new Cal Raleigh Show on Seattle Sports, we’re going to learn a lot from the star Seattle Mariners catcher over the next six months.

And the learning started right away with the debut episode, which aired in its usual time of 5 p.m. Thursday during Seattle Sports’ Wyman and Bob.

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Here are three things that stood out from Raleigh’s conversation with Mariners insider Shannon Drayer.

The Seattle Mariners’ best poker face

The big news around the Mariners last week – prior to opening day, at least – was Raleigh’s big new contract extension worth $105 million over six years that goes through at least 2030.

If you were surprised by the extension, you’re not alone. In fact, most of Raleigh’s teammates had no idea he and the team were going through contract talks during spring training.

“I may have had a conversation with one or two of them, really close and tight (friends),” Raleigh said. “But for the most part not a lot of them knew about it. But, you know, I did that out of respect to the team, and myself as well. Didn’t want to have any distractions going on and wanted guys to be able to focus and do what they do.”

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Drayer said she doesn’t recall that big of a secret being kept that well and told Raleigh he probably has the “best poker face on the team” as a result. So what was going on this spring while Raleigh and the Mariners made it seem like nothing was happening?

“It was really different. It was, honestly, from the beginning of spring too,” Raleigh said. “At first I didn’t get a lot of time to myself because there’s a lot of conversations going on and a lot of stuff away from the field more so (than) in the past (when) it’s baseball, baseball, baseball, go home, relax, get up, do it again. And I felt like I was kind of bringing work home with me a little bit. But in a good way.

“Obviously those are good conversations, good things to do. So it was interesting, it was different kind of doing the business side of things. I’m really thankful that we were on the same page of getting this done before the season started and not letting it linger. That was a big emphasis for me going into it because I didn’t want to affect any of my playing.”

Who gets the gifts?

In baseball, catchers are referred to as the quarterback of the pitching staff. And in football, it’s regular practice for the quarterback who signs a big contract to use some of their new fortune to buy gifts for the offensive linemen whose job it is to protect them.

You see where this is going, right?

Raleigh was asked by M’s pitcher Bryan Woo about this interesting parallel during a press conference last week, and Drayer brought the subject up again to see if there’s an update on potential gifts for Seattle’s pitchers – though she acknowledged Raleigh’s probably right that it should be more the other way around should one of the M’s starters sign a big deal.

“They said cars and watches,” Raleigh said of the pitchers’ gift requests. “Maybe (I’ll buy them) like a little Hot Wheel or something like that. We’ll think of something.”

Bat fads

At the end of the conversation, Drayer asked Raleigh for his take on the torpedo bats that are taking MLB by storm. If you’re unfamiliar, the new style of bat has a torpedo-like shape with the barrel moved a bit down the bat than we’re used to seeing.

More: Designer of torpedo bats says it’s more about players than bat

Raleigh related it to other bat styles that have gone through periods of popularity in recent years.

“Everybody’s going crazy right now because it’s the fad, it’s the thing right now. I look back a couple of years ago, axe handle was the thing, and then it was the hockey puck knob was the thing for a while there,” he said. “So you’re going to be seeing a lot more of them. It makes perfect sense. It will be interesting to see those and if they play a role and if they help or not.”

And for the record, Raleigh isn’t above seeing if there’s anything to this fad.

“I think so. I’m willing to give anything a try,” he said when asked if he’d try out the torpedo bat style. “I think there’s different models so they’re not all the same, but I’m sure you’ll see more and more as the year goes on, as the companies get more wood out to guys. You’ll definitely see it a lot this year.”

The Cal Raleigh Show airs at 5 p.m. each Thursday during Seattle Sports’ Wyman and Bob. Find the debut edition in the podcast at this link, or in either the player near the top of this post.

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