Episode 221: Reacting To The Mariners Extending Cal Raleigh

[00:00:00] Welcome to episode number 221 of the Marine Layer Podcast. The Mariners have extended Cal Raleigh. We'll break it all down. Your guys' reminder, we just rolled out our new website. So everything you want to stay on top of involving us, it's all there. Marinelayerpod.com. You can find all our episodes. You can leave your reviews there. You can rate the show there. You can watch on YouTube. You can buy our merch, which by the way, that's all up. It's going great. You guys have seemed to love it so far. You guys are awesome for that. All that merch is over on the website.

[00:00:28] Everything else too. Everything you need are live events. Go over to our website and you'll see everything. So Marinelayerpod.com. And as always, if you want to follow us on social media, you can do so across all platforms at Marinelayerpod. Let's get it rolling.

[00:00:56] And we welcome you to this episode of the Marine Layer Podcast, part of the Just Baseball Podcast Network. Recording on Tuesday afternoon, March 25th. Lyle Goldstein, are you happy now? Wow. Yes. Yes, I am. Now I'm ready for opening day Thursday. Finally, we did it. We did it. I am set for opening day. I'm ready for baseball to be back. Yes.

[00:01:21] But details on Cal Raleigh coming out earlier this morning. He signs a six-year, $105 million contract extension with a possible seventh year as a vesting option that can bring the contract up to $123 million. So nice. It's so nice that the paranoia can go away now. It's gone. Hopefully, right?

[00:01:42] The paranoia that no more big contracts will be handed out is gone. It's refreshing to see. It's refreshing for me. I know it's refreshing for you. And I hope for everybody else to see. Listen, if they identify the right players, like they did with Julio, like they did with Castillo, like this stuff can still happen. It's not gone. I think it was fair to worry that it was. But yes, it's a nice refresher. Yes, it was fair to worry. But now they have proved us wrong. Yeah. Yeah, they have.

[00:02:12] And they lock up the best catcher in baseball for what's going to be the very foreseeable future. And there is nothing to suggest he's slowing down. The key thing, when I look at all of these largest contracts in Mariners history, this one, again, by the way, sixth largest contract in franchise history. Cano's one, Julio's two, Felix's three, Robbie Ray is four, Castillo is five. If the vesting option hits, then it's the fourth largest.

[00:02:40] What do all those guys have in common? They're franchise studs slash icons, depending on what terminology you want to use. Outside of Robbie Ray, by the way. Robbie Ray, sorry, Robbie, not in that list. Everyone else qualifies under that. So the Mariners have identified who they want, who they want in their Hall of Fame, who they want playing here a decade of their career. And now that's what we're going to get out of Cal Raleigh. And they made it happen. And this happened pretty quick.

[00:03:09] As of March 17th, when Devers said he sat down and talked to Cal Raleigh for their preview edition of the Seattle Times. Cal said they had not talked about an extension at that point. That was a week ago at this point. But now an extension's done. Mm-hmm. Do we think this has anything to do with the new streaming service, the Nintendo patches, then the deal that just got done? Anything.

[00:03:35] Or is it just what Jason Churchill said on the podcast we released today here on Tuesday, which you should still go check out because that was a great conversation. Where Church just believes as of about now, he thinks the payroll's going to start to get more flexible and it will gradually go up. The key was why Churchill said it was going to be flexible. He just said because they're going to have more stability. Like they know what's ahead of them revenue-wise. The streaming thing's one and the Nintendo thing is two. Those are multi-year things at this point.

[00:04:05] So you know where your income sources are going to be and how you have solutions to your problems like people cord-cutting, like people going to direct consumer instead and you lose less money at that point. And then the Nintendo patch, I'm sure it helps. I don't know the number of how much money they're making off that. But it's not cheap and that's revenue right there. That goes into the whole thing. Right?

[00:04:27] And then you also project, Lyle, because you are extending one of your players and your icons that people are going to want to show up to the ballpark and see, you can kind of project out attendance too. Like that goes into this too. They have these models that they're trying to predict how much revenue comes in based off of what players they have in the ballpark. All of these things come together to add some stability and give you confidence that you feel comfortable paying Calarala. You know what I honestly think played into this too? And we haven't talked about this.

[00:04:57] We were together in person earlier this afternoon doing some stuff when this broke. And we didn't talk about this then, but I've thought about this and stirred on it for another couple hours. And I want to bring this to the table too. You know what I feel like plays a factor into this? Dan Wilson. Now I'm not saying it's the biggest factor. The biggest factor is obviously the money that was presented to Cal Raleigh. That is the overarching theme here. He received what he believed and what most believe is a very, very fair offer and represents who he is as a player.

[00:05:25] And this is not to say Cal Raleigh didn't like Scott Service. I don't think that's the case at all. I do think he likes Scott Service. I think they got along. But it's been well documented just how tight and close Cal Raleigh and Dan Wilson are and have been for a while. And part of me does wonder with Dan now at the helm and running the ship. Was that just one more little incentive for Cal to say, yeah, I like the way this organization is going. I love the fact that Dan's going to be the manager for a while. That motivates me to stay.

[00:05:55] I'll say it doesn't hurt. I don't know if I'm fully on that boat with you, though, because Cal would have been with Dan even with just his Arbyers, which would have been the next three without signing an extension. That's true. I just I'm sure Cal is not thinking, oh, Dan's only going to be the manager three more years. So then I'm out. I'm assuming he believes and the Mariners probably believe that Dan's going to be here a while. And again, because those two are close. Let me again, let me make this very, very clear.

[00:06:24] I am not saying that Dan Wilson becoming the manager is why Cal is still here. I am sure if Scott Service was still the manager and they offered Cal this deal, Cal probably signs it. I'm just saying again, I think it plays some small key piece. If those two are as close as what's been documented, then it just motivates him a little bit more to want to stick around. How big of an endorsement is this for Cal Raleigh stamping the Mariners organization? Is this going to motivate other players to sign?

[00:06:56] No, because it's just it's not. OK, actually, hang on. Do you mean other guys in house or do you mean free agents in house? We can worry about the free agents later. Oh, OK, sorry. Let me change my answer on that a little bit. Does it hurt?

[00:07:14] However, of the three guys that everybody's been circling as extension candidates, Cal, Logan, George of the three, Cal is the cheapest by far. So does it help Logan Gilbert and George Kirby that Cal Raleigh is going to be the catcher of the future for a long time? Again, it doesn't hurt. The problem is Logan Gilbert is not signing a seven year, $130 million extension.

[00:07:41] Logan Gilbert is worth $250 million right now, if not more. So the Mariners walked up to Logan Gilbert right now with Cal Raleigh signed and say they offered him eight for 220. Yeah, I mean, he's probably listening real hard. That's for sure. He's probably listening, but but it's a harder one to get done than Cal. It just is.

[00:08:06] I think it helps, but I do think the Mariners offers to those two do have to start with twos. George may be still in the ones, but Logan's going to have to be two. I think they both have to start with two. And again, I think that's 220. 220. I was going to say 180 for George, so it's not that far off. All right. And I honestly still think 220 at this point could be low balling Logan, so. Could be low balling it, but it's security. It's guaranteed.

[00:08:32] He doesn't have to be a free agent and he gets to pitch to one of his great friends and the best catcher in baseball. In the best ballpark in baseball. So yeah, in the best ballpark. Right. And again, you know, the other thing you have to sell no income tax again here in the state of Washington. And it's these guys don't have to risk a Jordan Montgomery. Mm hmm. Look what happened. It blew up in his face. Yeah. And when I say best ballpark in baseball, obviously, I mean for pitchers.

[00:08:58] I'm sure Logan Gilbert is somebody who, you know, just due to how competitive he is and how driven he is. I know this is very, very far down the line and we're not even close to scratching the surface on this yet with him. But if Logan Gilbert is somebody of the mindset of I am going to be a Hall of Famer, it helps your case to pitch your entire career in Seattle.

[00:09:48] So sure. And the one thing he said in our episode that came out today that he thought the weakness of the bullpen was or the roster building was that they haven't spent money on a bullpen arm. Well, you have again now a very good sales pitch for the next handful of years. If you're going to offer someone a longer contract as a veteran bullpen arm to throw to Cal Raleigh. Just like if you're going to need to replace one of these starters, say if someone gets hurt or again because you struggle to get offense, you're going to have to trade somebody to replace one of these guys.

[00:10:17] You have the selling point of Cal Raleigh as well. I do think the endorsement of Cal Raleigh, who I would say based off he's very level-headed, he's gritty, he's competitive, he's really good. He's got a platinum glove and his entire organization and pitching staff will rave about him that I think it could have at least a tiny pixie dust effect on free agents as well of wanting to come here.

[00:10:44] If Cal is willing to put his stamp on this organ and come up and say, look, I love playing here. I think it's great for my future. I think it's great for a lot of people's future to be here. It helps when you have players selling for you instead of you trying to sell because the players are all in the union together. The front office members and owners are not. Yeah, that's how I respond to that. Yeah. Free agents, eh.

[00:11:14] Well, we won't know until it happens. Well, it doesn't hurt. Players like the free agents need something to show that the organization is serious. This says that they're serious. It would have been unserious to not sign Cal Raleigh. But they were serious about it and they paid a market value. They did. Yeah. And you could and you can go on top of that.

[00:11:37] Say, look, like it does take some stones to extend a catcher because logistically, if we had our Churchill episode coming out regularly on Wednesday, we would have asked Church. Hey, should they extend Cal Raleigh? Well, you know what Church? Like in his logical thought process would probably say, look, from a PR perspective, it's great. From an offensive production perspective, it's great. But how is he going to age behind there? Mariners play Cal Raleigh behind the plate 140 times a year.

[00:12:06] That doesn't last when you get to age 30. Well, Cal's going to be under contract until he's 33. That contract's not as valuable when you get to 31, 32, 33 if he's just DHing or playing first base. That's an expensive first baseman for the offensive production you get. A lot of Cal's value comes from the fact he's a platinum glove defender at the hardest defensive position on the field. All right. Well, we've spent enough minutes on this topic that now you're going to force me to say it.

[00:12:34] I was trying not to say it because this is supposed to be a happy-go-lucky positive episode. I really was trying. I was trying to just diffuse it. But now you forced me to say this. They will not be signing any free agents with a $15 million budget every offseason. Well, that's right. That's correct. No one's going to be taking less to come here. That's not what I was saying. Well, not less. You can't do anything with that. So signing Cal... I get that.

[00:12:59] If they're willing to pay market rate for people with the endorsement of Cal Raleigh, that you're serious. Yes. Because there's multiple parts to being serious. That's having a perception of being serious by showing that you can pay guys and then willingly allocate money to go add other guys in the offseason. If they are willing to pay market rate for guys, yes. Having Cal Raleigh and his stamp of approval and Julio's stamp of approval helps. It absolutely helps. Yes. And I will leave it at that. Because you know what?

[00:13:29] Let's just get back to talking about Cal. This is a happy episode. This is a positive. This is some of the most positive news the Mariners and their fans have gotten since the playoffs. Since they won that series against the Blue Jays, I legitimately think this is the most positive news since then. Trading for Randy? Trading for Randy maybe? No. Because they had to do that. Right. Right. Just like in the offseason last year, they had to sign Garver because they had a dire need. They had to trade for Polanco because they needed another bat.

[00:13:59] Like these are all things you kind of think. But in terms of euphoric, yeah. Euphoric is taking care of your own. You take care of your own by winning playoff series and paying your franchise icons. Yes. All right. Before we get back into all the Cal stuff, because I just want to focus on the positivity of Cal for the most part. But just to air this out, it is fair, right, to say that this is a win and a positive and a plus in every single way for everybody involved.

[00:14:29] Org, player, teammates, fans, etc. Everybody. Yes. This is a win and it still doesn't excuse what happened in the offseason. Can both be true? Both can 100% be true. Okay. But it's hard to jump around the fact the Mariners have had an A-plus week this week. Yes. A-plus. Streaming service and Cal Raleigh extension. A-plus, plus, plus. And I was going to say three. I was going to say the streaming service. I was going to say extending Cal and making the true baseball decision to move on from Mitch Hanager. Yeah.

[00:14:59] It's been a very good week. Yes. Very good week. And give ownership credit for ponying up the money. Mm-hmm. Got to do that. John Stanton, Chris Larson, the entire ownership group. Good job for making this happen. Good job to Jerry. Good job to Justin. Good job by everyone on the marketing side and Kevin Martinez, the president of business operations for, you know, securing all these other things that I know they worked really hard on. Just sort of help bring all this together. Yeah.

[00:15:29] Because it's a whole team working together to generate the revenue and get stuff like this to the finish line. Okay. Good. So we're on the same page. Yes. Doesn't excuse what happened in the offseason, but focusing on Cal in the positive, this is a win in every sense. Every sense. By everybody. It is a huge win. Okay. I do want to say this about Cal.

[00:15:50] He represents every single great thing that embodies the Mariners, that embodies baseball, that it means – of what it means to be a leader, of what it means to be a good clubhouse guy. Not only is he getting this extension because of his on-field play. It's mostly that.

[00:16:10] But along with him deserving every penny that he's getting from his performance on the field, there is so much value that can't be quantified on Savant or on fan graphs for what he does in the dugout, in the clubhouse, and who he is in the community too. Like, think about all the little things he's done over the years. How he – you know, he did the Buhner buzz cut last year. He didn't have to do that. Cal Raleigh didn't have to shave his whole head. But he said, you know, the Mariners lean into this.

[00:16:39] It's a big thing in the community. It's a big thing in Mariners history, the Buhner buzz cut nights. Yeah, I want to be a part of that. He doesn't complain one bit about catching every single day or nearly every single day. In fact, he leans into it. He embodies it. He embodies it. He loves it. He's not afraid to speak his mind. He's honest. He's great with everybody in the media. He's great with all of his teammates. Like, he embodies every single great thing of what it means to be a Mariner and just what it means to be a baseball player.

[00:17:08] So, he deserves every penny of this. And he's the ultimate guy to root for, too. He was not a blue-chip prospect coming up at all. He was not just sort of given his opportunity. He was almost forced into, if you remember, an unfair situation in 2021 when Tom Murphy gets hurt. As his option, or sorry, 2022 when Tom Murphy gets hurt. And given his option to succeed. And he took it and ran with it.

[00:17:33] And imprinted himself, I'd say, on this organization with a lot of things you just highlighted. In making this connection with all these pitchers that they trust him so much to take command of their pitching arsenal. And elevate them to the best possible things he could. While he keeps improving to pay it back to this organization. It's amazing. I couldn't think of a better guy to have a flag out there in right field as you walk in the gates there. To have it painted. Painted on the side of the stadium running down the first baseline.

[00:18:03] Like all of these things. Like all these things that you hoped that you would finally have in this new era of Mariners baseball. That you had with Ichiro there. When you had Griffey there. And you had Cano and Seager. And those guys that you could paint out front. Well, Cal's that guy now. Cal's going to be that guy in this franchise's history from now on. And I'm glad he's going to be a Mariner into his 30s. And at least for the next six years and potentially more. We're glad that he's here. He's the best. He is.

[00:18:33] And again, he just does so much out in the community. And he does so many things for the fans and just for the people. You know, he does all these autograph signings and all these appearances. And shows up to all these charity events. I heard a story, by the way. I don't think anybody would probably mind if I shared this. But I have some friends who went to high school nearby and are still involved with the baseball program. And, you know, it wasn't filmed or wasn't on camera or anything like that. But somebody had a connection to Cal.

[00:19:02] And he showed up at the high school at some point over the last couple months. And he, you know, he just showed up to talk to the entire, you know, baseball club to, you know, the whole program. And he's talking to every guy. And he's, you know, he's just kind of giving them some lessons, like life lessons and stuff. And apparently, you know, stayed and, you know, talked to all these high schoolers for a long time. Like it's even things like that. There's a lot of this that's documented that he does on either on camera or on social media.

[00:19:28] But there's so many things that probably aren't even documented that he does that, again, just make him embody every single thing that is great about being a Seattle Mariner, being a baseball player. So he deserves all of this. And not every player is like this, especially people who aren't from here. They don't have to stay here all year round. We're really far away from Cal Raleigh's home in North Carolina. You don't know where he's from or a lot of his family's from. It doesn't have to be this way, but he's chosen to make it this way. And we're very happy. It's awesome.

[00:19:57] Great job by the Mariners to get this done. It is a great, great way to send us into opening day coming up on Thursday. Yes, it is. Can I say one more thing? Just a little note, I think, just for the people. So from everything we understand, because there is a lot of discourse about this and there has been over the last few months about Cal changing agents and him leaving Boris and him, you know, moving to a different home in terms of the business side of things for him.

[00:20:27] So I don't think we can tell the whole story. But from everything that we understand and from people we've talked to and from information we've gathered just to explain it to all you guys. I actually don't think Cal leaving Scott Boris has much to do with him signing this extension. In fact, I don't think it plays much of a factor at all. I don't think we can tell the whole story, but from everything we've understood, that is actually a non-factor into this.

[00:20:56] He may have just signed this extension if he had stated Boris from everything we understand. Yep. So it's, it was definitely, it's something that looks like it makes sense on the surface, but yeah. It's, it's, yeah, it's kind of a non-story. Yeah. And we feel pretty definitive in saying that. Yeah. So point being, we just wanted to get that out there as a little piece of information for people because I know there's plenty of discourse about that. But that is a very, very small thing. We are thrilled for Cal.

[00:21:25] I don't think there's a single Mariners person, fan, executive, et cetera, out there that is not thrilled for Cal because this team needs him and this community loves him. So I can't wait to see him as a, stay in Seattle and be a Mariner for a long, long time. So it's great. All right. Short episode today, but was absolutely a warranted episode. I think that just about wraps up this edition of the Marine Layer podcast.

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[00:22:20] Go get yourself some merch. We're fired up to have that rolling out, especially with opening day right here. Everything you need is over on the website, marinelayarpod.com. And then you can find us everywhere on social media at Marine Layer Pod. That's TJ. I'm Lyle. As always, we thank you guys for tuning in. We'll talk to you soon.