Mariners Must Be Careful Not To Turn Cal Raleigh’s Injury Into A Mitch Garver Problem

Cal Raleigh spoiled the Mariners, and now they have to manage like they know it.

May 6, 2026; Seattle, Washington, USA; Seattle Mariners catcher Mitch Garver (18) looks on in the eighth inning against the Atlanta Braves at T-Mobile Park. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Ng-Imagn Images | Kevin Ng-Imagn Images

The Mariners are going to split the catching duties between Mitch Garver and Jhonny Pereda while Cal Raleigh is out, and honestly, that just has to be the plan.

Justin Hollander pretty much laid it out on Seattle Sports when he said the Mariners will take it “series by series” and that nobody should be expected to catch three days in a row. That sounds like the most realistic approach. Raleigh has spoiled this team. He has spoiled the pitching staff, the front office, the coaching staff, and all of us watching from the outside.

We have gotten used to seeing Cal behind the plate day after day like the physical toll of catching is an optional inconvenience. Raleigh is just the exception. Hollander called him “a freak.” That’s the truth. There are very few catchers in the sport who can carry that kind of workload, absorb that much punishment, and still keep dragging themselves back into the lineup.

Garver is not that guy. Despite his long career as a catcher, he has never caught more than 86 games in a season, and even that came back in 2018. His career has always required some level of management, especially as teams have tried to preserve the bat without asking the body to eat too many innings as a catcher.

And that’s exactly why the Mariners have to be careful. Cal’s trip to the injured list with a right oblique strain already creates one problem. The last thing Seattle needs is to create a second one by asking Garver to cover for Raleigh in a way his own recent usage says the Mariners have been trying to avoid.

Garver caught 24 games in 2024, 42 games in 2025, and entered this current stretch with 15 games caught so far in 2026. That’s the résumé of a bat-first veteran whose body has already told teams to be careful. The Mariners need Garver right now. And they cannot overuse him.

Cal Raleigh’s Injury Puts Mitch Garver In A Role The Mariners Cannot Overextend

We saw in Houston that Garver can still help, when he started with Raleigh on the injured list and hit a two-run homer in the Mariners’ 8-3 win over the Astros. That’s the dangerous right-handed bat they need.

But there is a difference between leaning on Garver and loading him up. Which is why Hollander’s “true timeshare” comment has to become more than a nice radio answer.

And luckily for Seattle, Pereda gives them a reason to follow through.

Pereda is not Raleigh. But he also isn’t an emergency catcher taking up space until the real roster returns. He came up from Tacoma after hitting .321 with an .831 OPS in 25 games for the Rainiers, and he already had two hits in five big-league at-bats during a brief earlier stint with Seattle. 

The Mariners don’t have to talk themselves into force-feeding Garver starts out of fear that Pereda cannot handle the moment. Pereda gives them a real catcher behind the plate, a contact-oriented bat, and someone who can help absorb the innings that Raleigh usually hoards.

Pereda has not exactly forced his way into the lineup with the bat during this series against the San Diego Padres. He’s 0-for-7 with four strikeouts, which looks rough on paper and has not helped a Mariners offense that has been grinding through mud. In his defense, he’s facing an elite pitching staff, and we have seen firsthand how difficult it has been for Seattle to generate much of anything in this matchup.

But the Pereda conversation cannot be only about those seven at-bats. If the Mariners are serious about a true timeshare while Cal Raleigh is out, they need to trust what Pereda can give them behind the plate. His Statcast catching metrics don’t scream future Gold Glover, but they do support the idea that he is playable there. His arm strength has stayed in the mid-80s, his exchange time has been steady, and his pop times to second were solid in 2024 and 2025 before a tiny 2026 sample pushed the average a little over two seconds.

Seattle doesn’t need him to be an offensive force. It needs him to give the Mariners real catching innings and make it easier to protect Garver from a workload he should not be asked to carry. Pereda’s bat may be cold right now, but the defensive baseline is enough to keep him from being treated like an emergency-only option.

That is the whole balance for the Mariners right now. Garver is important because his bat can still change a game. Pereda should matter because he gives them a real enough catching option to keep the timeshare honest.