Cal: Why Mariners want to ‘push the envelope’ on the basepaths

Stolen bases have been a key part of the Seattle Mariners’ offense all season, but they have become even more prevalent since the All-Star break.

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The Mariners entered Wednesday leading the majors with 30 stolen bases since the Midsummer Classic, which was at least 11 more than all but one other MLB team during the stretch. And Seattle had been incredibly efficient in its efforts, recording only one caught stealing in 31 attempts.

During the latest edition of The Cal Raleigh Show on Seattle Sports with Mariners insider Shannon Drayer, M’s catcher Cal Raleigh detailed the importance of the club’s success on the basepaths and the not-so-obvious impacts it can have on opponents.

“Lately it’s been a lot more, but I feel like this year we’ve done a better job of when we get guys on, guys are looking to go,” Raleigh said. “I think that’s kind of a cornerstone of a good baserunner, is he gets on first and he wants to get to second, and then gets on second and he wants to get to third and all the way home. So, you got to have guys who want to get to second, want to get the third and are not just satisfied with just getting on first.”

Applying pressure

There is one very obvious benefit to stealing bases. The runner or runners move 90 feet closer to reaching home plate and scoring a run. In certain situations, like when a runner is on first with less than two outs, it can get a team out of a double-play situation.

Causing havoc on the basepaths can also impact the opposing pitcher and defense by applying pressure, as Raleigh noted.

“You gotta put pressure on the defense and make them play good, fundamental defense. It’s not always an easy thing. Putting pressure on pitchers to be quick to the plate and catchers to play catch with the second baseman, it’s not always very easy (for them),” said Raleigh, who has a career-high 12 stolen bases this season. “It can leak into other things, too. (If) the pitcher is worried about the guy at first (and) accidentally leaves the ball over the middle of the plate … next thing you know the hitter (gets) a fastball in the heart of the plate and hits a home run.”

The Mariners had a prime example of how distractions on the basepaths can cause a pitcher to make a mistake in Tuesday night’s win over the White Sox. Julio Rodríguez drew a pair of pickoff throws to first base from White Sox left-hander Bryan Hudson early during a Josh Naylor at-bat in the seventh inning. After throwing over to first twice, Hudson tried to make a deceptive delivery to home plate in an effort hold Rodríguez on, but he ended up hanging a sweeper over the middle of the plate that Naylor crushed for a two-run home run.

Speaking of Naylor, he has racked up a surprising eight stolen bases in his first 11 games with Seattle. For reference, Naylor’s 3rd percentile sprint speed, per Baseball Savant, ranks lower than former Mariners first baseman Ty France.

“I doesn’t take super fast guys to be good baserunners,” Raleigh said. “You can be a good baserunner by being prepared, making sure you’re doing your homework, doing things you need to do and pushing the envelope.”

A new mindset

The Mariners finished last year ninth in stolen bases, so it’s not like they weren’t running at all before this season. But there has been a noticeable uptick since Dan Wilson became manager on Aug. 22 last year.

The M’s were 11th in steals before Wilson took over and fourth afterwards. They’ve also reached the stolen base numbers they have this year with two of their top base-stealing threats – outfielder Victor Robles and second baseman Ryan Bliss – out with injuries since early April.

“I think our whole staff’s been very positive when it comes to guys wanting to run, guys challenging guys to want to steal bags, push the envelope, take the extra base,” Raleigh said. “They’ve definitely given us the reins. They want us to do that. We want to be known as that aggressive team, and it’s kind of started with Dan starting with that style.”

“Even if we do get thrown out, not being scared to keep going and keep trying to push it to the limit to where you still want to be smart, but be aggressive as well,” Raleigh added.

Seattle’s emphasis on running is a bit of knowing who they are as a team and where they play 81 games a year at.

“Definitely in the past (we had) a lot more red lights, a lot more station-to-station baseball. Which if you’re built that way as a team, then usually you got a lot of power hitters and stuff like that,” Raleigh said. “But being in this ballpark and understanding that every run is precious and we do play a lot of tight games, we know that we need to push the envelope sometimes. You can’t wait always for that one big hit or that one thing to happen. Sometimes we got to go make things happen and force the defense to make a play.”

The Cal Raleigh Show airs weekly during Seattle Sports’ Wyman and Bob. 

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