Noted Baseball Insider Thinks Seattle Mariners Star Could Shine For Team USA Roster in WBC
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Seattle Mariners' catcher Cal Raleigh is out to an incredible start in 2025, entering play on Sunday with 17 homers, 35 RBIs and a very solid .258 batting average. He won the Platinum Glove Award last season as the best defender in the entire American League.
It looks like Raleigh will earn his first All-Star Game appearance this summer and he's even appeared in early-season MVP talk alongside Aaron Judge.
And could Raleigh's success lead him to being one of the catchers for Team USA at the 2026 World Baseball Classic? According to ESPN MLB Insider Buster, it absolutely could.
He made the following comments on the most recent edition of the Refuse to Lose podcast:
Oh without a doubt. And I say that without having talked to Mark DeRosa (team USA manager), maybe he's got a plan in place. But, I mean, you and I have been talking about how within the sport, Cal Raleigh is now, I think, viewed as the number one guy. For many years it was J.T. Realmuto, Adley Rutschman had a stint after his rookie year, after his second year where people thought of him as being that guy. I think now it's Cal Raleigh because the power, because of the ability to frame pitches, the work he does behind the plate, and he's the leader, and you can see it every day when the Mariners play ...
The World Baseball Classic will begin in March of 2026. Team USA finished second in the tournament in 2023, losing to Japan in the final.
You can listen to the full interview with Olney in the podcast player below:
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