Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Will Cal Raleigh Break the Mariners' Single-Season Home Run Record?

Episode Date: August 25, 2025

It's Mailbag Monday! Ty and Colby answer your Mariners questions, including if Cal Raleigh will break any more single-season home run records.Check out our Patreon!Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11Follow the show on Bluesky: @lockedonmariners | @tdg | @mlbcolbyLocked On Podcast Network listener surveySupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!5-Hour ENERGYTime to fuel up and turn it up with 5-hour ENERGY®️ Transfusion! Go to https://5hourenergy.com today and use my promo code LOCKEDONGOLF to receive 20% off your order. This offer is only valid until September 30th on one order and cannot be used with other promotions. The code is not good on subscription orders.  Supply HouseJoin the TradeMaster program today at SupplyHouse.com/TM and start ordering plumbing, HVAC, and electrical supplies with just a few clicks. Plus, use promo code S-H-5 for 5% off your first order. That’s SupplyHouse.com!OpenPhoneStreamline and scale your customer communications with OpenPhone. Get 20% off your first 6 months at www.openphone.com/lockedonmlbGameday HueLet your colors talk—because colors speak louder than words. Right now, you can get 15% off with code MLB15 at GamedayHue.com. Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONMLB at monarchmoney.com/lockedonmlb for 50% off your first year.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get ONE HUNDRED FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Cow Raleigh now has the most home runs by a catcher in a single season. But how far will he take the record? And will he break a couple more along the way? We'll answer that and more coming up here on Mailbag Monday. Colby, hit it. You are Locked-on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day.

Ahoy, Sailors. It is Monday, August 25th, 2025. This is Taddy Gonzalez and Colby Patnaud for the Lockdown Marys podcast. as part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. This episode is brought to you by five-hour energy. Enter for a chance to win a dream golf trip for two to any golf tournament in the USA. Visit 5H-E-WIN.com for full rules and entry. No purchase necessary.

Excludes the Masters tournament ends October 31st, 2025. And as always, if you want to hear from me and Colby even more and help support the show, you can check out our Patreon. All you have to do to check that out is clear. click the link in the description of this episode. All right, let's open up the mailbag like we do here every Monday and answer some of your Mariners questions, starting with Dolphin MJF,

who wants to know with Emerson Hancock touching 99 coming out of the bullpen in AAA. Is there a chance we see him getting recalled as a reliever for the playoff push? I assume that's the reason that they are ramping him up as a reliever. Yeah, with the intention of calling him up here. I don't know, a week or so. The VLO will help, certainly, but it's the lack of, you know, secondary stuff that is going to prevent Hancock from being a high leverage arm,

unless, you know, the slider magically jumps and is consistent because we've seen the slider jump, like, you know, for an inning here and there. Well, that's all you need it for in the sense. Right, but it's one inning and then it goes away for the next three starts. And then, like, you need that one inning. every single time you go out there. Yeah.

So, you know, we'll have to see. I'm not expecting any miracles. The Velo up is not something that surprises me, but did the slider get better? You know, is the change up going to play up more? I don't know the answer to those questions, but unless both of those things or one of those things,

at least is significantly improved, I don't think Hancock is going to be anything super special out of the bullpen. I don't know if he's going to make a playoff roster coming out of your bullpen. But he could help the middle innings and kind of stable. things and kind of be the the J.T. Sharkwaugh of you know just the guy who starter goes five and two thirds. We could really use a ground ball here. I'm going to go to him and he'll get us to the back end guys when we're up three to one or whatever. So yeah, I do think there's potential role here. But obviously, yeah, they're planning on putting him on the major league roster. Yeah, absolutely. And if he can

tap into that Velo consistently, and I'm talking about outing to outing unless, you know, pitch to pitch. and be able to get to the top rail with some regularity, then he'll actually be able to get to his best pitch, which is the change up. And hopefully that leads to some ground balls and kind of like becomes in a way the right-handed Caleb Ferguson. And Steam can really use that. So I'd say that I'm intrigued by it.

And I think there's a legitimate chance to actually get value out of Remerson Hancock this way. So we'll see. It is noteworthy and something to keep an eye on. All right. next question here from anonymous which of the following records will cal raleigh break making mantel's switch hitting record which is 54 home runs king riffy juniors mariners single season home run record which is 56 home runs done twice by the kid and erin judge's a l l l rickrackard which is 62 said a couple of years ago we all remember the frankie lasagna home run uh so where does he ultimately land where which are these records is he going to break. I think he's going to break

Mickey Mantle's record. I kind of feel like he winds up at 55. Or maybe Ty's Griffey. I don't think he's catching Griffey. Okay. Eight home runs and 30 games is a lot. I've seen him do it before multiple times. I mean, yeah, he's had, I don't know what,

four months of 10 plus home runs, so you can certainly do it. I'm just saying we're into September now, or we're going to be, we're getting to the dog days. Cowell's caught a ton of baseball games. games. And, you know, the home runs kind of come and go. So, like, if you don't hit a home run for a week, you're pretty much toast on that front. So, like, Cal has to be hitting a couple homers a week every week until the end of the season to

catch Griffey. Now, obviously, he hit two yesterday. So if you hit two in a game every week, you're in good shape. But, you know, and Cal is starting to dialed in a little bit as well. He had that dip right when Judge went out. and then for the last, I don't know, what, week or so, he's been really good and not just with the home runs, just overall he looks much better at the plate.

So I'm not saying it's impossible that he gets to Griffey. I just think he probably breaks Mantle's record. And then I don't think he beats Griffey. Maybe he can tie it, but that that's a lot of home runs to hit in a month. So you think 55 or 56? Yeah, probably. Somewhere that range. Yeah, that's about where I'm at.

I think saying that he gets six or seven, the rest of the way is pretty reasonable. Could it get more? Absolutely. We've seen him do that multiple times this season. I've learned at this point with Cal not to rule anything out. So honestly, even if he were pushing 60 by the end of this,

and we're talking about, you know, with a week and a half to go, like, hey, there's this outside shot that he might actually, you know, challenge judges record.

I wouldn't be surprised if we're talking about that for sure. I mean, he had three home runs in the last three games last year to break the, you know, whatever that record was. Most home runs by a catcher in their, first four seasons or whatever. So, yeah.

You know, Cal's got a flare for the dramatics, but I feel very comfortable in saying he's not breaking judge's record. Yeah, it would be a lot. It would be a lot. So I think the reasonable, 30 games. Yeah, I think the reasonable place to land would be, you know, 55 in between the mantle and the Griffey record. And, yeah, there's obviously a very real possibility, though, that he's going to walk away

from this season as the Mariners leader in single season. and home runs. All right. We will answer more of your questions here in just a moment. But first a reminder of this episode of the lockdown era's podcast is once again brought to you by five hour energy. All right, folks, it's time to fuel up and turn it up with five hour energy transfusion. This grape ginger and lime flavored shot brings the iconic taste of a golf course favorite to a non-alcoholic boost. Perfect for sinking birdies or making great memories with friends. It's a hole in one for your energy game. Whether you're out on the course or just need a little extra push to power you through your day.

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No purchase necessary. Excludes the Masters tournament ends October 31st, 2025. And you're listening to the Lockdown Mariners podcast for instant reactions following every Mariners game. Be sure to tune into the Mariner's postcast with Anderson Hearst and Christopher Crawford available on both the Lockdown Marries YouTube and podcast feeds. Lockdown has also put together a. survey to learn more about our listeners and make your favorite podcasts even better.

Go to Lockdown Podcast.com slash survey to get started. Everyone who completes a survey will be entered for a chance to win one of $10, $100 Amazon gift cards. Link in the description. All right. Let's get back into your questions here on Mailbag Monday. Nick wants to know, can Harry Ford be that much worse of a catcher to still justify Mitch Garber on the roster?

Yeah, he could be. Yeah. I think this is less of a talent thing, though. and more about do I trust this guy to learn this pitching staff and call critical innings and critical games as a rookie? Yeah, it's possible. Ford could be that much worse than Garver to not justify the spot. But ultimately, there's really no reason because right now the only way you can move Garber off

this roster is to DFA him. And let's say you do that. Right. And on September 15th, Cal breaks his thumb. Now he'll probably try to play through it. But let's say he can't. Now all of a sudden, your catching situation heading into the playoffs, hopefully, is Harry Ford and Blake Hunt?

Like, no. So there's no reason the DFA Garber this late into the year. Could you make the argument for calling up Ford and having him be the primary backup? And then Garber kind of more of a bench pure DH role against lefties. Sure, I guess. But yeah, overall, I went forward on the roster. it really doesn't have all that much to do with Mitch Garber, to be honest with it. Because I still think Garber would be the primary backup catcher. I just want that option to have the third catcher so that, I don't know, maybe Dan will ask Mitch Garber to get a hit against Brian Abraeu instead of using Domcan's own or Luke Rayleigh because, oh, no, what if what if Cal takes a foul ball off the mask in the bottom of the eighth inning and I don't have a catcher for an inning? Yeah.

whatever but yeah so answer the question yeah he could actually be worse than garber we don't know i suspect he wouldn't be but he might be we don't know two but once now who do you think picks up dillam more somehow i think it will be texas i mean texas has picked up a lot of mergers guys i don't think it'll be texas in this situation though this screams dodgers to me we say there's one of two teams that this is this is one of two types of teams Yeah. This is either the team that picks somebody up and immediately turns them into the best version of themselves, i.e. the Dodgers, maybe the Rays, somebody like that.

Just like, yeah, that guy's a nobody. And then you look up and you're like, oh, cool. Yeah, no, that guy's going to hit 300 for the rest of the year with a 400 on base. Cool, yeah, no. So the Dodgers, raise maybe. Or it's the stupidest teams you can think of who are going to think this is my everyday shortstop for the rest of the year. and we're going to play it, which screams angels, Rockies,

you know, those morons. So I don't know. For some reason, I've always pictured Dillmore as a Dodger. Yeah, yeah, I can just easily see it. I can see him going 10 for his first 15 with like four bombs. We're getting questions on a mailbag Monday in a couple weeks here about like, why couldn't they figure it out with Dillamore?

How is it that the Dodgers could figure it out without, you know, all that? The Dodgers are going to sign him, and then they're going to DFA Michael Conforto and just eat the rest of that money because the Dodgers are, you know, care about winning the World Series. So yeah. But I would watch like the White Sox and the Angels seriously. Yeah. Yeah, I can see it being a team that's like, you know, let's just get them in here.

Let's see if we can make a fix. And then if we like what we see, then we'll re-sign them. Yeah, you sign them to like a one year, $2 million deal. Yeah. It screams White Sox. who just dfayed uh or just released actually josh rojas josh going home i'm coming home i'm coming home that's right no no thank you first and foremost on that sorry i'm sorry

so and more just played an entire season for you sorry to the romies out there but uh no all right josh wants to know have the seasons that calum randy are currently having in a about way made Julio's season actually kind of feel underrated? It's an interesting question. Because I think you could probably say, like, just in general, Julio Rodriguez is underrated. Yep. You might also argue, depending on who you're talking to,

you're overrating Julio Rodriguez. Like, we talked about Julio a lot, and we know how polarizing he is amongst this fan base. But, yeah, in general, I do think Julio is underrated, you know, for the most part. by his own fan base. Obviously, there's the handful who think he can do no wrong ever. But yeah, he's having a really nice year, you know,

and he's probably going to be five and a half, six one player again. He's on a nice heater right now. He has been for the last, you know, month or so. Surprise, surprise. So, yeah, I mean, like, I think because Julio isn't taking like super obvious leaps every year, he's kind of stagnated, quote, unquote. And so people are just kind of expecting. this and they're not marveling at the idea that like,

yay, you know, this guy's, what, 24 years old? And he might be on his way to a second 30-30 season already. And he's a gold glove caliber center fielder. And he's a, you know, plus speed with the lead arm. And like, yeah, I mean, we're going to look up at the end of the year. And Julio's going to hit 30 home runs. And we're going to be like, oh, that's, wow, okay. Like I.

So, yeah, I think in a way, Julio just in general is overrated. and then obviously because Cal has kind of become the superstar in Seattle. You mean underrated? Overnighted. What's that? Julio's underrated, not overrated. Yeah, yeah, yeah, underrated. And I think, you know, this year because Cal kind of became the superstar of the team kind of overnight, just out of nowhere, it's kind of made us even kind of lose or appreciate Julio even less.

So, yeah. And it's not to say that Cal doesn't deserve all the superstars. and all that talk whatsoever. Of course he does. But yeah, I do kind of feel like Cal's a little under, I don't know if, or Julio's a little underrated. I don't know if Randy really factors into that, all that much, but.

Well, what I would say is Randy having what might be a career year, Cal having what is at this point, I think we can say the greatest catcher season of all time. The additions of Josh Naylor and A. Johenio Swarez, you know, the arrival of Cole Young, All these things have contributed to just taking a lot of weight off of Julio's shoulders and taking a lot of the attention off of Julio. And Julio doesn't have to be the guy. That's great because we've talked about how much that weighs on Julio and how much at times he feels the need to do too much.

And it's also nice to not have a billion questions every mailback Monday about what's going on with Julio. And yeah. And so now it's just like with all the attention on Call and Randy, it's like, oh, if Julio also does something to kind of feels like a bonus in a way. All right. We are going to answer more of your questions in just a moment. But first, a reminder of this episode of the Locktime Marys podcast is brought to you by Fanduel. August 26th is officially FanDuel Futures Day, a brand new holiday for football fans who live for bold

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FanDuel, play your game. And you're listening to the Locked-Omarers podcast. It's Mailbag Monday. Let's answer a couple more of your questions and get out of. here. Langston wants to know, what do you do about right field when Victor Robles gets back from his suspension? Does he only hit against left-handed pitching? It seems a little redundant to have three right-fielders on the roster at the same time. No, I don't think that having three right field only is really a thing because you saw the DH, you saw at first base. You saw have center

field where you're probably going to want to give Julio a day off here and there. And we don't really know right now. We haven't seen Domcan's own in quite a while. So we don't know how he's doing health-wise. Probably not all that well. He might be headed for the I.O. Rayleigh hasn't played pretty much at all. One starts since he's been recalled. And it's probably not playing tonight with Sears on the on the bumps.

So yeah, great job by the Mariners, you know, calling up a guy and then having him sit for a week straight, genius stuff. So, yeah, and then we still don't know how long or when Victor Robles' suspension is going to take place. Yeah. So there's a lot of question marks there. So there's a decent chance you don't have three right fielders on your roster at the same time for another week or so because we don't know when can zone is coming back. Clearly they're never going to use Rayleigh against the lefty. And Robles still has a suspension to serve. And we don't know how long that's going to be or win.

So it might be a couple weeks away before we get to the spot. But this is where you need roles, right, more than positions. and Robles against lefties makes sense. Canzone against Ritey's makes sense. But there's also the DH where you can give Rayleigh at bats against Ritees instead of Palanco. Or you can give Canzone at bats against Ritees instead of Polanco. And you can upgrade your defense in right field instead of going to Canzone out there. Now it's Robles or it's Rayleigh.

You know, like you can mix a match. You can have some interesting lineups here. And again, because you have guys who can legitimately play center field now, which you basically haven't had for the last month, you have the opportunity to give Julio DH days or give him a day off, God forbid. You know, it's one of those things where it's not like you have three Dom-can zones defensively, like who probably shouldn't even be playing right field, but they have to play somewhere. And so you put them in right field.

Like Rayleigh is at least an average defender in the outfield. And Robles is a plus defender in the outfield at all three spots. Yeah. So there's really not a logjam of right-fielders, as you put it, because, again, Rayleigh can play all three spots, and Robles can play all three, and is actually plus and center, which is a big help there.

And again, you saw up DH at bats to give. You might even have some first base at bats to give. So there's really not a, there's really not a log jam in right field. So like you said, you can mix and match. What you can't do, though,

is allow guys to go, you know, five, six days or so without playing. So you got to make sure that, well, and also you want to make sure that you're not randomizing it every single day where guys don't know, you know, on a day to day basis, where they're going to play, if they're going to play, where in the lineup, they're heading, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like you want to try and create some sort of consistency as well. So it's a balance.

But, yeah, there are a bunch of ways that you can get Rayleigh into the lineup or can zone into the lineup, whoever you think is kind of like the, the guy on the outside looking in. Right now it seems like very clearly that's Rayleigh once Canzon is healthy. There's still ways that you can get Rayleigh into the lineup. You can give Jorge Polanco a day off and get him in a D.H spot. You can give Cole Young a day off and get him in the D.H spot.

You can give Randy a day off. You can give Julio a day off. You can, you know, give Canzone or Robles a day off, etc. If you give JP a day off and have Cole Young play shortstop and have Polanco play second. and then there's the DH open for you. Like there's plenty of opportunities. Yeah.

So, you know, you just, again, you have to strike that balance of creating consistency for guys, but also, you know, making sure that you give all these guys ample playing time.

Because again, like someone like Luke Rayleigh, we know how good Rayleigh can be. That's someone that should be in the lineup with some sort of regularity. Yes. We also know how difficult it is for Rayleigh to, reduce when he's not getting consistent at bats. Remember last April?

And then once he finally started to play every day, things started to click and he was one of your best hitters by the end of the year. So there's really no reason you can't give all three of those guys at least four starts a week. Yeah. Just between DH, first base, right field, left field, center field. Like, yeah, you can get all those guys probably four starts a week and do it in favorable matchups even for the most part.

and really only take away maybe one start a week from somebody who's currently in the starting nine. Yeah. So yeah, it's not really a thing. All right. Last question of the day comes from Nightrunner.

What do you think is the next roster move? I see that Cole Young was tried at shortstop today or yesterday. Canzone didn't play. So can they still IL can zone with you? They call up Rivas or some odd Taylor. Rivas can place a short stop. Taylor can play second base slash outfield. They actually played

Samad at shortstop the other day too, down in Tacoma. Would I, I L. Canzone, I don't think there's a need for it. I mean, I don't know how his wrist is doing, so I would defer that decision to the Mariners, obviously, because we're not behind closed doors.

We don't know how his healing is going. I think, though, Canzone not playing a robust playing in the last couple days is more just a matter of, let's just squeeze whatever juice we can get out of Robles right now until the suspension happens. You know, let's get them in a row. Yeah, plus three lefties. Like, let's just get them in the swing of things.

Let's get him up here for a couple of games before he has to go on in a suspension. All that. Canzone as much rest as we can while the wrist heals. Like, yeah. Exactly. I think it was more a matter of that rather than, oh, just Canzone can't go. So I don't think they'll IL can zone. And I think if he needed an IL scent, that would have happened already because they, they've passed the

point of being able to make it retroactive to the first day of his injury, right? Yeah, that's already past. Yeah, so I don't think it would make sense now, in hindsight, to do that. They should have done it

a couple days ago if they were going to do that. So I assume that Robles' suspension is going to come down here the next day or two, and then Canzon will go back into the role that he was serving in before Robles showed up or before the injury happened. So what is the next roster move or what is the roster move once roster has expanded?

Probably Rivas. Yeah, I mean, Miles Mastroboni is also a possibility. He played shortstop yesterday in Tacoma, I believe. So, you know, obviously the mayor is like him. They know him. Yeah, I think, you know, there is kind of this battle happening behind the scenes right now between Rivas and Taylor and maybe Master Boney. for that call-up. I think it probably should be Harry Ford.

I don't think there's much more you can ask from the guy. But because of just kind of, again, Donovan Solano being a backup anywhere but first base, Donovan Salon's spot on the team, we debate whether or not he should have it, but it seems like they're going to carry that through to the end of the year now. So, yeah, I mean, once Robles' suspension is over,

because remember, they have to play a man down. during that stretch. So, I mean, they can still call somebody up once rosters expand, but whatever. Yeah, I think it's between Taylor, Rivas and Master Boney more than likely. I would give it to Rivas because I trust him more defensively in the infield. I think he's going to get on base at a higher clip than the other two. He's a switch hitter. So that's a value that I don't get with the other two guys.

Taylor might be, you know, the most upside. and obviously Master Boney has the most floor because he's, you know, been in the majors and he's been fine and he's giving you some good at bats and all that. Like that's probably a more of a comfort level there with Master Boney than the other two guys. But I think when you look at the switch hitting element, you look at the ability to get on base to play some good defense in multiple spots and all that. I think Rivas is the answer there to get called up for that extra spot. If somebody gets hurt, it's different, you know, like I don't know,

maybe Canzone does need the I.O. at that point, do they call up Harry Ford? Do they call up, you know, one of the outfielders that's down there? Do they try to get with Leo DiVarra? Probably not. But, yeah, I think the call-up move should probably be Leo Rebus, based on the way the roster looks right now. Yeah.

I think that's the, he's the best player that you have right now outside of Harry Ford, obviously, down in Tacoma. But Revas can play. three spots for you. And three spots where you don't really have a backup. Well, and if we're talking about just optimizing your roster, putting the best 26 guys you have in your organization

on the roster at the same time, I think Leo Rivas is one of those guys. All right. That is going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the lockdown Mariners podcast for Colby Patnode. I'm Tiding Gazzalas. Be sure you give us a follow on Twitter at L.O.

underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Tiding, Gazzalison Colby at C-Pad 11. That's C-PAT-1-1. We're also on Blue Sky. You can follow me at TDG, Colby at MLB Colby, and the show at Lockdown Mariners. You can also find us on Instagram at Locked-on Mariners.

Have yourself a beautiful baseball day, and we'll see you next time. Peace.