It took a long time, but regression appears to be hitting Cal Raleigh.
Should the Seattle Mariners be concerned? Maybe.
It doesn’t help that their big trade deadline acquisition, Eugenio Suarez, might be getting hit by the same bout of regression, too.
ESPN’s Bradford Doolittle provided a good explanation of this in a new article out Tuesday:
“Getting Cal Raleigh and Eugenio Suarez back in the same lineup is a coup, and there’s no doubt the Mariners’ offensive profile has improved. But it’s highly unlikely that what we’ll see from Raleigh and Suarez over the rest of the season will match what they’ve done to this point. It’s not saying they’ll collapse but to underscore how their output has been off the charts. Seattle will need plenty of production in addition to that duo, and the Mariners are well-positioned to get it.”
The idea here is that in every long baseball season, slumps happen. The game is too filled with streaks and luck to just be 162 games of brilliance by anyone.
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Raleigh set pretty much every slugging record there was for a catcher and a switch-hitter to set in the first half of the season.
It’s not that he’s a worse hitter now. It’s just that finally, for maybe the first time all season, he’s in a slump.
Suarez hit 31 homers of his own in the first half for the Diamondbacks, then hit a quick five more out of the All-Star Break. Turns out, though, that he too is human.
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Seattle has a deep lineup, like Doolittle writes, so this doesn’t automatically spell doom.
Ideally for the Mariners, Raleigh and Suarez will pick up their production again, maybe even at the same time.
But it’s a little harrowing to see them both stuck in a rut. It was bound to happen, but the timing definitely isn’t great.
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