See Mariners’ Cal Raleigh in his Team USA gear for World Baseball Classic

You can add another nickname to the list for Seattle Mariners star Cal Raleigh. Now “Big Dumper” is also “America’s Catcher.”

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Raleigh has joined the camp for Team USA ahead of the World Baseball Classic, which begins later this week, and he looks very patriotic in red, white and blue gear.

See for yourself in this video from FOX Sports:

Cal Raleigh is getting ready for the World Baseball Classic 💪 pic.twitter.com/waS8jpYXxP

— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) March 2, 2026

Raleigh was also seen catching up with Mariners legend Ken Griffey Jr., who played for Team USA in the inaugural 2006 WBC while a member of the Cincinnati Reds, in this photo from former KING 5 reporter Jake García, currently of 12 Sports in Arizona.

Fresh off of the USA’s dual gold medal victories in men’s and women’s hockey in the Olympics, now the country’s baseball team will look to win the WBC for the second time ever and first time since 2017.

The journey will begin at 12:05 p.m. Tuesday when Raleigh and the Americans hit the field for their first exhibition game, which will be against the San Francisco Giants in Scottsdale, Ariz., and air live on ESPN. Team USA will then face the Colorado Rockies at 12:10 p.m. Wednesday before opening actual WBC play against Brazil at 5 p.m. in Houston. TV coverage of Friday’s game will be on FOX.

https://t.co/4cNrVQ6a47 pic.twitter.com/O6x9eMliBJ

— USA Baseball (@USABaseball) March 2, 2026

Raleigh and Gabe Speier, a left-handed reliever, are breaking some new ground as Seattle Mariners playing for Team USA. The only Mariners player to ever suit up for Team USA in a previous edition of the World Baseball Classic was starting pitcher Drew Smyly, but the rub is that he never actually played a game in a Seattle uniform. Smyly was an offseason addition in a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays, and he missed the entire 2017 season due to Tommy John surgery as he came out of the WBC with a “soggy” arm, as then Seattle manager Scott Servais memorably termed it. Smyly also missed the 2018 season before returning to the big leagues with Texas in 2019, having never thrown a pitch for the M’s.

Raleigh and Speier are two of 18 Mariners players involved in the 2026 WBC, which is tied for the most from a single team in the tournament with the New York Mets.

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