Mariners Are Watching Healthy Luke Raley Become A Massive Problem For Opposing Pitching
We didn't need a huge speech to figure out what Luke Raley could mean to this lineup if he ever just got a clean runway again. We kind of already knew it. Last season just never really gave him that chance. So now that he is healthy and looking like himself again, the Mariners are starting to get the version of Raley that can make a lineup feel way more annoying to deal with.
Raley is slashing .339/.391/.644 through 17 games, with 20 hits, 4 doubles, 1 triple, 4 home runs, 12 RBI, and a 1.035 OPS. This is more than a nice early-season heater. He's swinging like a player that can change the shape of Seattle 's lineup, which is a big deal for a team that has spent too much time chasing offense.
When Raley is right, he changes the temperature. We saw that again in his four-hit game against San Diego , which included an absolute missile of a homer. But even beyond the loud moments, his early-season profile is pretty telling. Most of his damage has come against right-handed pitching , which is to be expected.
Mariners May Finally Be Seeing Luke Raley's Full Offensive Value
The strikeouts are not going away, and they don't need to for this to work. Raley's value has never been about making everything look clean and tidy. Its about damage. So when the ball is jumping off his bat like this and mistakes are getting hammered, the Mariners will take that trade every time.
What stands out even more is how sustainable this looks early on. He came into the year looking like a guy who actually built himself back up with a purpose. The changes to his offseason routine, the focus on flexibility and feeling better instead of just grinding through the same routine, all of that is showing up now in a very obvious way. The at-bats look more dangerous, and he looks like a guy whose body is finally letting his talent play again.
For all the attention this lineup gets around the bigger names, the Mariners have quietly needed one of these secondary bats like Raley and Dominic Canzone to really become a problem. Players who can keep an inning alive with one swing or flip a game on its head when needed.
The left-on-left stuff is still going to be handled carefully, because that is just how those matchups work. Seattle tends to go case by case there, and that is not exactly shocking. However, he still picked up his first hit this season off a lefty on Wednesday, singling off Wandy Peralta. It's one hit in a tiny sample, so nobody needs to start building a parade route for his left-on-left numbers. But early on, that is kind of the deal. Get the opportunities, cash in when they come, and move on.
If this keeps up, Seattle is not just getting a player back. They are getting the kind of bat that can make opposing pitching plans a lot more miserable.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/mlb/mariners/onsi as Mariners Are Watching Healthy Luke Raley Become A Massive Problem For Opposing Pitching .
