The Seattle Mariners could not have dreamed up of a better way to finish the season than the way they did. They managed to not just win the AL West crown, with the Houston Astros failing to even make it to the postseason, they also clinched a bye to the ALDS by virtue of being the second-best division winner (just behind the Toronto Blue Jays, the team that sealed homefield advantage at least through the ALCS).
While dodging the AL Wild Card series is big considering how the MLB postseason is, and has always been, a crapshoot, the Mariners will now have to battle against the possibility of accumulating rust as they wait for their ALDS opponent, the winner of the AL Wild Card series between the Cleveland Guardians and Detroit Tigers.
But Mariners star Cal Raleigh, who might be in line to win his first AL MVP award, has a plan for how to stay sharp and locked in from a physical standpoint considering that he has four full days of rest at his disposal before Game 1 of the ALDS on Friday.
“To me, motion is lotion, staying in that routine, staying moving, staying strong. making sure you get your workouts in and doing everything you need to do, trying to stay as crisp as possible,” Raleigh said, per Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times.
Whatever Raleigh has been doing in 2025 has certainly been working. In addition to being one of the best defensive catchers in MLB, he has broken out from the plate, leading the entirety of MLB in home runs with 60 home runs while flexing an OPS of .948.
The Mariners star is definitely a subscriber to the old adage of “if it ain't broke, don't fix it.”
Cal Raleigh, Mariners look to go all the way
The Mariners had a dream season in 2022, but they ended up running into the Houston Astros and bowed out of the postseason in the ALDS after they were swept by their division rival and the eventual champion. They are looking to put that completely in the rearview mirror, however, especially when they have a much-deeper squad now than they did three years ago.
The playoff draw might be favorable for them as well; the Guardians might be one of the best teams in baseball over the past month or so, but they still have a negative run differential on the season, while the Tigers have been slumping so hard in the calendar month of September.
