Mariners’ Cal Raleigh gets heartwarming praise from Mitch Garver before Opening Day

March 23, 2026 · Yahoo Sports

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The Seattle Mariners are locked in heading into the 2026 regular season, as they will be looking to get over the hump after coming up short in the ALCS last year. Cal Raleigh is coming off a huge 2025 campaign in which he finished second in the AL MVP voting to Aaron Judge, and there’s no reason to believe that he’ll be slowing down much after smacking 60 home runs and driving in 125 runs in a bonkers 9.1 fWAR season.

But of course, playing behind the dish is the most demanding defensive position in baseball, and it’s hard to fathom how Raleigh is able to crouch for most of the game and still be one of the most menacing power hitters in all of MLB. The Mariners have to give him a break here and there, and this is where backup catcher Mitch Garver, a former World Series champion and Silver Slugger winner, comes in.

It didn’t look as though the Mariners would bring Garver back. But Raleigh trusts him as a locker room voice, and the team brought him back in February on a minor-league deal that will pay him $2.25 million if he makes it to the majors at any point in the season, which it looks like he will.

Garver could not be any more thankful that Raleigh thought of him in this manner, and he expressed his gratitude towards the Mariners star.

“It means a lot that he would want me to come back and be there for him whenever he needs to take a breather. So, I’m happy to do it. Happy to just put on the gear and catch guys when they need me the most and couldn’t be happy to be where we’re at,” Garver said, per Daniel Kramer of MLB.com.

Garver has struggled mightily over the past two seasons. Spring Training hasn’t been very kind to him either. But Raleigh wanted him back for a reason, and the Mariners could very well find a use case for Garver’s leadership throughout the 2026 season.

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