Randy Arozarena's side of Cal Raleigh drama is officially getting weird for Mariners

At this point, one wonders what a poll of which Seattle Mariners fans are "Team Cal" and which are "Team Randy" would turn up. The controversy that enveloped the two of them at the World Baseball Classic just won't die, and that is increasingly because of Randy Arozarena's silence.

OK, so, Arozarena has actually spoken since directing two of the seven words you can't say on TV at his Mariners teammate last week. But only in the form of a statement, issued via the Mariners after he returned to Peoria from his stint with Mexico during the WBC:

"We didn’t get the results we wanted with Team Mexico, but I’m glad to be back in camp with my teammates. The WBC is behind us now, and I don’t want anything to take away from the Mariners. I’m focused on the season and helping this team compete for a World Series."

Randy Arozarena

Riveting stuff. It really clears up the central question of whether or not Arozarena was insulted by Raleigh's handshake stiff-arm during Mexico's clash with Team USA. Seriously,

Hey, at least Arozarena stayed true to himself with that statement, as Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times observed that the two-time All-Star "isn't verbose."

A week later, the Randy Arozarena-Cal Raleigh thing still casts a cloud over Mariners camp

For something that was quickly played off as a non-story by Mariners fans who clearly wanted that to be the case, it's amazing how this thing has not only lingered, but taken on a life of its own.

Josh Naylor had some fun with it when he and Canada met Raleigh and Team USA in the WBC quarterfinals last Friday. Having even more fun with it are the Savannah Bananas, who turned the thing into a whole-ass gag over the weekend.

For the Mariners, though, the reality is that this thing is only getting harder to laugh off.

The notion that Arozarena was merely joking with all those F-bombs and A-bombs was the popular interpretation initially, but not so much anymore. And given that he reportedly had a heads up that Raleigh wasn't going to be doing friendly fraternizing at the WBC, the picture flips on its head. It wasn't Raleigh putting Arozarena in an uncomfortable spot, but the other way around.

In the middle of it all is Dan Wilson, who wants nothing more than to bury the whole thing and redirect focus where he wants it. As he said, via Divish: “Our goal here is to win a World Series, and putting that behind us is a big part of that goal."

But for this to happen, Arozarena must do his part to clear the air. And since he passed on a chance to do that publicly, the only real hope is that he and Raleigh will hash things out privately once Raleigh is done with the WBC.

It bears mentioning that Arozarena invited all this negative energy at a bad time. You get the sense he's still widely liked by Mariners fans, but he really let the base down by disappearing offensively in the final months of 2025.

He entered spring training with some hype to win back. After all that has transpired over the last week, now he has some goodwill to win back as well.