Who will start in place of Cal Raleigh? Mariners to turn to award winning catcher

Who will start in place of Cal Raleigh? Mariners to turn to award winning catcher originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The Seattle Mariners got some terrible news on Thursday morning when it was revealed that Cal Raleigh, their superstar catcher who hit 60 home runs last season, is landing on the injured list.

After an 0-for-38 streak was snapped on Tuesday night, Raleigh tweaked something in his side, and as Adam Jude of The Seattle Times reports, Raleigh was placed on the IL with a right oblique strain.

Now, with Raleigh out for some time, who will the Mariners turn to as their new starting catcher? Fortunately, Seattle has an award-winning catcher already ready to start for Seattle with Raleigh out.

Mariners have an award-winning replacement for Cal Raleigh

Seattle is going to turn to Mitch Garver, a 35-year-old veteran catcher who previously won a World Series with the Texas Rangers and was also a Silver Slugger back in 2019 with the Minnesota Twins.

During that award-winning season, Garver hit .273 with a .995 OPS with 4.1 bWAR thanks to a ridiculous 31 homers in 93 games.

Garver was last a productive player with the Rangers in 2023 when he posted 2.3 bWAR in 87 games with 19 homers and a .270 average to go with an .870 OPS.

He has been with the Mariners the last few years, as he had a .627 OPS in 2024 and then a .639 OPS in 2025 during his limited time with Seattle.

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This season, in 20 games, he has a .167 average with a .532 OPS. He will need to be a lot better than that for Seattle to help replace Raleigh, but after Raleigh's 0-for-38 streak, Garver doesn't have to be great to match Raleigh's production recently.

Seattle is forced to stick with Garver while Raleigh recovers from his right oblique strain. Jhonny Pereda is extra catching depth, and he's posted a .604 OPS in his 50 career MLB games.

Seattle does have an award-winning catcher to turn to with Raleigh on the injured list, but it's been some time since Garver has produced such elite numbers.