M\u2019s Raleigh and Arozarena moment causes Baseball Classic stir<\/p>\n
Published 9:52 am Tuesday, March 10, 2026<\/p>\n
Teammates on the Seattle Mariners, there appears to be no love lost between Randy Arozarena and Cal Raleigh during the World Baseball Classic.<\/p>\n
The two were opponents Monday night in Houston as their teams met in pool play. Arozarena, a star outfielder on Team Mexico, went for a handshake with All-Star catcher Raleigh before his first at-bat, but Raleigh didn\u2019t take Arozarena\u2019s hand. In a video of the interaction, Raleigh appears to say something, and Arozarena leans in to hear before starting to set up at the plate.<\/p>\n
Arozarena was asked about the awkward encounter after the game, which Mexico lost 5-3, and it\u2019s unclear whether the frustration directed at Raleigh was legitimate or meant as playful banter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only thing he should be thankful for is having such great parents,\u201d Arozarena told Mexican journalist Luis Gilbert in Spanish. \u201cHe\u2019s very well educated, thank God. I was lucky enough to see them a few days ago at the hotel. They came over to greet me, gave me a big hug, and were genuinely proud to see me again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then, he launched into profanity-laced criticism, suggesting Raleigh should \u201cf\u2014 off\u201d and \u201cgo to hell.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat \u2018good to see you\u2019 that he said to me,\u201d Arozarena said. \u201cHe can shove it straight up his ass. I\u2019m out.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s very possible that Arozarena wasn\u2019t actually angry with his teammate of the last three seasons, though the ambiguity has caused an online stir. A similar incident happened during the 2023 World Baseball Classic, when Dodgers and Team USA catcher Will Smith also didn\u2019t shake Arozarena\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n
Arozarena brushed off the snub that time around, saying in Spanish, \u201cHe left me hanging, but I\u2019m not going to cry. I kept going and hit two doubles.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is the second time in the WBC that a starting catcher opted to avoid friendly leadoff pleasantries. Australian backstop Robbie Perkins declined to shake hands with Czech leadoff man Milan Prokop, who stuck his hand out before the game\u2019s first pitch.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no malice, we\u2019re out there competing,\u201d Perkins told The Athletic after Australia\u2019s 5-1 win over the Czechs. \u201cOnce we get on the field, we\u2019re out there to beat them. That\u2019s all it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
While both Australia and Czechia have been eliminated, a rematch between Mexico and the United States remains possible before Arozarena and Raleigh reconnect at spring training in Peoria, Ariz. as both remain eligible to advance to the quarterfinals out of Pool B.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"M\u2019s Raleigh and Arozarena moment causes Baseball Classic stir Published 9:52 am Tuesday, March 10, 2026 By Sam…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,5463,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-515503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-mariners","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}