Cal Raleigh and Josh Naylor finished Seattle’s season with more than a few hard swings still left in them. Both will now spend the opening part of the offseason recovering from surgery, with the Mariners expecting each player to be ready when Spring Training arrives.
The result
Raleigh underwent a left shoulder acromioclavicular debridement Saturday at the University of Washington Medical Center. Dr. Albert Gee performed the procedure.
Naylor had surgery on his right wrist the same day, with Dr. Jerry Huang repairing the triangular fibrocartilage complex. The wrist had been an apparent issue for much of the summer, even if Naylor had not offered much publicly about its severity.
Neither surgery had appeared on the club’s injury updates during the season. In Raleigh’s case, the shoulder trouble adds a significant piece of context to an uneven follow-up to his remarkable 60-homer 2025 campaign.
Raleigh’s slugging percentage fell 221 points to .368, the largest decline in the majors among qualified regulars. He batted .182 with a .664 OPS, both his lowest marks since his brief 2021 rookie season. Still, he found a better rhythm over his final 25 games, posting an .824 OPS in that stretch.
The catcher also missed a month after landing on the injured list May 14 with a right oblique strain. He initially tried to continue playing through that problem for two weeks before aggravating it and being shut down.
Raleigh did not point to the injury list when Seattle’s season ended without a postseason berth, even with the club falling short in an American League West that had been there for the taking.
“Every team deals with that,” Raleigh said. “Players have aches, pains and injuries. It would be silly to make that an excuse. There are 29 other clubs dealing with the same things, and it came down to how we played on the field.”
Naylor carried a similar approach through his wrist discomfort. The first baseman’s power dried up as the season moved along: his slugging percentage dropped 112 points to .350, the eighth-steepest fall in the majors. He hit only two home runs after June 12 and did not homer after Aug. 8, while often showing visible pain following more forceful swings.
“Everybody plays through pain,” Naylor said during Seattle’s last homestand. “Everybody wants to play baseball at the highest level and do the best they can. If you have 50 percent that day, give your 50. If you have 20, give your 20. I do not like using it as an excuse. If you are not willing to play through pain, this is the wrong job.”
Seattle has reason to believe the procedures can give both bats a cleaner runway into 2027. Raleigh and Naylor were central figures when the Mariners won the AL West in 2025, with Raleigh’s historic home-run season leading the way and Naylor arriving in a Trade Deadline deal that helped complete the roster.
Naylor has just completed the first year of his five-year, $92.5 million contract. He and Raleigh are both under club control for four more seasons, leaving the Mariners to count on healthier versions of two cornerstone sluggers after a disappointing 2026.
