Twist in Luke Raley injury saga reveals how much time Mariners wasted

When J.P. Crawford and Luke Raley were placed on the 10-day Injured List on consecutive days last Friday and Saturday, no one was particularly surprised. After all, one of the main storylines of this Mariners season has been a seemingly never-ending stream of injuries. However, a further update on Raley has brought us back to another storyline of this 2026 campaign, about how injuries have been dealt with in Seattle.

As per Zac Hereth of Seattle Sports, Mariners general manager Justin Hollander admitted on Monday that Raley is "probably" going to miss the rest of this season due to his left forearm strain. This is obviously a shame for the 31-year-old, who did his best to deal with the issue, including wearing a protective sleeve. However, this was to little avail as his results on the field suffered significantly.

Raley had a dire .152 batting average and .441 OPS over his last 41 games before going on the Injured List. Contrast this with his previous 54 games through the end of May, when he hit .280 and produced a tremendous .932 OPS. It was clear that he was struggling and should have gone on the Injured List sooner, and yet this was another misguided example of someone attempting to play through his injuries.

This is a failed playbook that we wrote about previously at the beginning of July, with the main example being how Cal Raleigh was dealt with. We'll stress again that his attempt to play through his oblique issue and help the team was admirable, but it instead ended up having the opposite impact before he belatedly went on the Injured List. Even in the face of this and how the team suffered as a result, the Mariners still decided to take a similar approach with Raley and now he's likely done for 2026.

Justin Hollander was right to defend the Mariners training staff, but some criticism is still valid

Hollander made a point of passionately defending the Mariners training staff at the end of June, taking aim at those in sports talk radio and on social media alike for calling for their heads. He contended that they were being thrown under the bus and criticized for things outside their control. For the most part we applauded Hollander's comments, but at some point it does come within your control, especially if you're repeating an approach which has already spawned disastrous results.

As per Daniel Kramer of MLB.com, we can acknowledge comments by Mariners manager Dan Wilson, that Raley's issue was as a result of wear and tear, and something he has dealt with for several years. However, this doesn't change the fact his results had suffered for the past two months by attempting to play through the pain, and something should have been done earlier.

Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana perhaps put it best, when he said: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Mariners fans can only hope the team takes a different approach moving forward on the injury front, as it could make all the difference in their chances of making the playoffs.

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