Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh made a cameo appearance in the dugout during last night\u2019s 5-1 win against the Diamondbacks, marking the first time he\u2019s been in Seattle since going to the Mariners\u2019 facility in Arizona a week ago to rehab his injured oblique.<\/p>\n
Despite a plan to have him at the park pregame, Raleigh was delayed getting into town and only popped up in the dugout in the sixth inning, surprising his teammates, who had been asking where Cal was all day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was glad I got to come watch a good one last night, and see the boys, and hang out in the dugout,\u201d Raleigh told the media during a pregame scrum on Sunday.<\/p>\n
It was a brief respite for Raleigh from what he describes as \u201ca lot of nothing\u201d in his rehab in Arizona, getting to be close to his team again and in a game situation, even if it wasn\u2019t one he was playing in.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was good to get down there and focus on what I needed to focus on, but I miss the guys. I miss being here each day. It\u2019s tough, watching these games on TV.\u201d<\/p>\n
Raleigh is progressing steadily in his rehab, doing tee work and flips at moderate intensity, standing in (no swings) on bullpens and against the Trajekt machine, and even caught a bullpen while in Arizona. A complicating factor in Raleigh\u2019s rehab is the fact that he\u2019s a switch-hitter, so he feels the injury differently from each side: more at the beginning of the swing when hitting right-handed and more at the end of the swing when hitting lefty. Yesterday he hit off a tee, fifteen swings per side, and said it went well.<\/p>\n
\u201cFelt really good, really promising. Didn\u2019t feel anything. Obviously you\u2019re not going as hard as you can but it felt good to get in there, take some swings, and feel the ball off the bat, see where we\u2019re at.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s plan involves mostly monitoring, checking in with the training staff and doing light rehab, before attempting to dial up the intensity tomorrow. Raleigh is hoping to have a better idea by Wednesday of what the next steps will look like, saying rehab games are \u201cstill up in the air,\u201d but he seems optimistic that the bulk of his Arizona time is over, saying \u201cI think for the most part I\u2019ll probably be up here for good.\u201d (Source: Cal Raleigh, notably not GM Justin Hollander, head athletic trainer Kyle Torgerson, or any of the other stakeholders.)<\/p>\n
\u201cThese next two days will be pretty telling as far as how things are going. Ramping up the baseball slowly but surely, checking boxes, and from there it\u2019ll just be communication with the staff and trying to set a plan up to get back as soon as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018As soon as he can\u2019 comes with caveats. For as anxious as Raleigh is to get back on the field, he\u2019s aware of the specific nature of an oblique injury and the challenges rehabbing one can present. From talking with good friend Luke Raley, who dealt with a similar injury last year, Raleigh knows how temperamental oblique muscles can be in the rehab process.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hard part about it is you can\u2019t really replicate in-game swings, having that same kind of energy and percentile and that adrenaline going, it\u2019s hard to replicate. So everything can feel great now, and then you get into a game and you might feel it, or have a little setback. So I\u2019m just hoping with all the work I put in it\u2019ll get there. I\u2019m trying to be smart about getting back as quick as I can, but making sure this thing doesn\u2019t linger for the rest of the year. It\u2019s definitely been a topic we\u2019ve talked about a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
So Raleigh is attempting to practice patience. He\u2019s trying to take things day-by-day, but for a player who is used to being one of the first to the park and one of the last to leave, with every free moment tightly scheduled in between, the sudden shift in schedule has been a sudden and unwelcome adjustment, requiring Raleigh speed-run the stages of grieving his injury straight to \u201cacceptance.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first couple days didn\u2019t feel real, didn\u2019t feel right. And then once I got to Arizona, it was kind of like, the acceptance stage, I guess. Once I got there, I was able to accept it and realize I had to try to get back as quick as I can. Control what you can control.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, that doesn\u2019t make it fun. Raleigh dryly describes his daily schedule at the complex:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been rehabbing, rehabbing some more, and then training, lifting weights and running, trying to stay on top of that. And then more rehab stuff. So you get home early, you don\u2019t really know what to do with yourself, just waiting for the games to come on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watching the Mariners from afar for the first time has been both a pain point and a source of introspection, and even inspiration, for Raleigh.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really hard watching the games on TV. It\u2019s weird, watching it and not being there – it\u2019s like a Twilight Zone kind of feeling. But I think it makes you appreciate it a little more when you\u2019re that far away and you realize you don\u2019t get to do it every day, the thing you love. So it gave me a little more appreciation for getting to play every day, being around the guys. It\u2019s eye-opening\u2026Realizing how much I miss it, how much I enjoy playing the game and being with the guys, it\u2019s very eye-opening.<\/p>\n
And it makes me never want to go back on the IL again.\u201d<\/p>\n
That bird\u2019s-eye view of the team has also allowed him to take a step back and gain a new perspective on the team: one that maybe wasn\u2019t available to Raleigh as he was mired in his own struggles at the plate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest thing I noticed is how talented this team really is. It\u2019s so much fun to watch. Me not being here stinks, and I hate it, but sitting back and realizing, I\u2019m like, oh my gosh, this is a really good team. And the team seems to be hitting a really good stride right now. It\u2019s a lot of fun to watch when we\u2019re doing all three facets of the game like we\u2019re doing it – pitching, hitting, and defense.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWatching them do it from afar and seeing them do it without you, you kind of notice a few more things that you don\u2019t really notice when you\u2019re in it. Sometimes you\u2019re so close that you don\u2019t see certain things, or it just takes a while to notice things like that. So it\u2019s been a different kind of perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n
Without being able to contribute in games, Raleigh has still found a way to impact his team from afar, even if he rolls his eyes about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like that relative that texts you after every game. Like if anyone hits a home run I\u2019m like, \u2018nice swing, dude.\u2019 I feel like such a loser right now, sitting on the bench. So I\u2019m a big cheerleader from afar. I was trying to stay in touch, trying to keep it light and be funny with the guys as much as I could.\u201d<\/p>\n
But praise only – any critiques Raleigh has, he\u2019s keeping to himself for now.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not saying a word. They\u2019re on a five-game winning streak. I don\u2019t want to do anything to mess it up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh made a cameo appearance in the dugout during last night\u2019s 5-1 win against the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,269706,99],"class_list":["post-676669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-seattle-mariners-injuries","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676669","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=676669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}