The Lake Merced Goutfish and Alamo Short Stacks were focused on upgrades for the 2021 Playoffs, but a catching prospect for the Seattle Mariners added some extra urgency to each of their deals this week. The Mariners officially promoted well-regarding catcher Cal Raleigh on Sunda, setting the scene for a potentially important claim week. The Goutfish struck first, swapping claim positions with the Mission Viejo Maulers who select fourth but the Stacks moved to the top of the list in their Monday deal with the Meinert Hops who owned the top claim.
At least one other club had already put in their top claim for Raleigh according to a league source.
A third-round pick out of Florida State in 2018, the switch-hitting backstop has developed into one of the game’s more promising young catchers. After a pair of quality seasons in the low minors, Raleigh entered 2021 as one of the Mariners top prospects. Each of Baseball America, Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs and Keith Law of the Athletic slotted him among the top ten farmhands in a strong system this year.
All three outlets laud Raleigh’s combination of power potential and solid receiving skills, with Longenhagen noting that he’s rated as a strong pitch framer throughout his amateur and minor league career. The general expectation among evaluators is that he’ll develop into an average or better regular behind the plate.
The M’s would have had to add Raleigh to the 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 draft at the end of the season, but he forced his way to the big leagues a bit early by performing well at Triple-A. Assigned to Tacoma for the first time this year, he’s hit .324/.377/.608 with nine home runs across 199 trips to the plate. Raleigh has slashed his strikeout rate to a personal-best 12.6% this year, swinging and missing at a lower-than-average 10.9% clip.
With the 48-42 Mariners hanging in the postseason picture, Raleigh will get an immediate opportunity to contribute to a playoff race. The Mariners catching trio of Luis Torrens, Tom Murphy and José Godoy has offered slightly below-average production on the season, although Torrens, already on the Stacks, has been better lately after a bad start. It’s not a given that Raleigh will stick on the active roster from here on out, but his selection clears the way for him to contribute at the big league level down the stretch and potentially position himself for an Opening Day job and a spot on the Stacks Keeper Roster.
It's no lock that Raleigh will stick but the value fellow mid-season claim Will Smith has provided the Goutfish this season as a 2FA/$5 has certainly paved the way for the high demand.
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