Blue Jays' weird beef with Cal Raleigh could bite them in ALCS vs. Mariners

The only question that matters regarding the American League Championship Series is whether the Seattle Mariners or Toronto Blue Jays will punch a ticket to the World Series. And yet, we can't help but wonder about another: Will the Blue Jays keep their traps shut about Cal Raleigh?

This is something the Blue Jays have been unable to do in the past, most notably in April of 2023. That was when Blue Jays manager John Schneider deliberately poked the bear with a statement on Raleigh that, unsurprisingly, has been making the rounds again:

"He’s not very tough to pitch to when you execute your pitches. He’s hitting .200. I know he’s done damage against us and I think if you execute, he’s obviously got big damage potential and he’s got a lot of strikeout potential, too, and when you execute your pitches, you usually get the job done."

John Schneider, April 2023

It was kind of a weird take, given that Raleigh was coming off a breakout 27-homer season in 2022 and that he had homered three times in the series the Mariners and Blue Jays had just concluded.

Even a year later, "Big Dumper" was still thinking about what Schneider had said, and he pretty much removed all doubt that he was using the skipper's words as motivation.

“I know a lot of guys have beef with him in the league,” Raleigh told the media in April of 2024. “His comments aren’t surprising and I don’t have much to say. If you don’t have anything nice, don’t say it at all I guess, if you don’t want it to come back on you. Like I said, he’s got a lot of beef with people in the league and he kind of did it to himself.”

The shots the Blue Jays have taken at Cal Raleigh loom large ahead of ALCS

To his credit, Raleigh has spoken just as loudly with his bat when he and the Mariners have come up against the Blue Jays. Here are his last three seasons against them:

• 2023: 1.586 OPS, 5 HR, 8 RBI
• 2024: .868 OPS, 2 HR, 3 RBI
• 2025: .935 OPS, 1 HR, 4 RBI

Add it all up, and you get a 1.116 OPS, eight home runs and 15 RBI in 17 games. As Raleigh has an .825 OPS against all teams across the last three seasons, it's self-evident that he turns it up a notch when he looks out and sees a Blue Jays pitcher 60 feet and six inches away from him.

Oh, and lest anyone forget, it was only earlier this year that a new front on the Blue Jays-Raleigh beef front opened when José Berríos caused a benches-clearing incident by jawing at Raleigh during a game in Toronto in April:

Berríos suspected that Raleigh was relaying pitches from second base, which Raleigh shrugged off by saying: “I didn't have the pitches. But that's just how it is. I'd want my pitchers doing the same thing if somebody thought they were tipping."

This ended up being another case of the Blue Jays wrecking themselves after failing to check themselves. Raleigh destroyed a game-tying double off Berríos his next time up, and the Mariners went on to win 8-4 in extra innings.

If we're going to see something like this play out again in the ALCS, it's probably going to involve Josh Naylor, who isn't subtle about looking like he's relaying information to hitters when he's at second base. If he does have something and it helps, it's a win for the Mariners. If he doesn't have anything and he gets in the heads of Toronto players, it's also a win for the Mariners.

Either way, you would think the Blue Jays would have learned their lesson about not pissing off Cal Raleigh. But even if they have, that doesn't mean he has to forgive them.