The Mariners are playing a dangerous game with AL MVP candidate Cal Raleigh

You don't have to tell many people in Seattle about how special Cal Raleigh is, but it still must be satisfying for Mariners fans that the rest of the country is finally catching on.

Last year was a wake-up call for the rest of baseball, as he won both the Gold and Platinum Glove Awards and surpassed Hall of Famer Mike Piazza for the most ever home runs by a catcher in their first four seasons.

Inspired by a six-year, $105 million contract extension back in March, Raleigh is now truly taking his place as the best all around catcher in the game today. Further, as per Paul Hembekides of ESPN, the Mariners' clubhouse leader is on course for a career year:

Since the tweet (or whatever folks want to call them these days), Raleigh has added yet another home run and found himself sitting tied at the top of the Major League leader board with 17 homers as of Saturday morning, alongside Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge, and Kyle Schwaber. He's so hot right now, he might have actually hit another one while I'm in the process of writing this piece.

Cal Raleigh needs to give it a break

Regardless, as exciting as all of this is undoubtedly is for people in the Pacific Northwest, there's another part of what Hembekides wrote which should be at least some cause for concern within the Mariners fanbase. More specifically, about Raleigh playing in every single game so far this season.

Now yes, we appreciate there will be those who contend that the 28-year-old has only caught in 40 of the 50 games, but it still seems extremely ill-advised to have your catcher play every day. There's a reason why no one at the position has ever appeared in all 162 games during the course of a regular season. (The AL increased to 162 games in 1961, followed by the NL the next year.)

As much as Raleigh is the ultimate teammate and hard worker who also hates missing any games, by not sitting he is leaving himself open to more chances of getting hurt. And even if he doesn't get injured, he could quite easily wear down as we edge ever closer to the dog days of summer.

Mariners not in a position of luxury when it comes to sitting Cal Raleigh

Not helping the situation is that as (surprisingly) strong as the Mariners offense has been so far in 2025, they are dangerously thin right now, whether it be at catcher specifically or the lineup as a whole. The injury situation in Seattle has been almost ridiculous and at this moment in time manager Dan Wilson doesn't really have much of a choice when it comes to Raleigh.

So by all means, for now continue to go with the hot hand of someone who — as things stand — is a genuine AL MVP candidate. However, at some point the Mariners have to start sitting Raleigh periodically to both save him from himself and help the team in the long-term if they expect to make any serious noise come playoff time.

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