Cal Raleigh, Dylan Moore provide beacon of hope for Mariners fans

SEATTLE — Mariners fans are among the most resilient not just in baseball, but in all of professional sports.

The fans have not yet witnessed a World Series title and have endured a couple of lengthy playoff droughts, from the team's 1977 inception until 1995 and of course, no bids from 2001 until 2022.

Yet every year, T-Mobile Park—or the Kingdome before it—always has an amazing atmosphere generated by those loyal fans.

The inability to get back to the postseason after that magical 2022 run has tested the patience of the fanbase, a feeling only exacerbated by missing out on the playoffs by a single game in each of the last two seasons.

Now that it's the offseason, those fans will be watching every move made in the hopes of the team adding firepower to help one of the best pitching staffs in baseball.

While you anticipate that, there's something else to feel proud about.

The Gold Glove Award wins for catcher Cal Raleigh and utilityman Dylan Moore are so fun. Now, I'm not saying that those awards alone are going to keep you warm this winter. Far from it.

But over Zoom calls with Moore and Raleigh, you could sense the emotion.

They want to win for you.

"It was tough to watch," said Moore about watching the Major League Baseball Playoffs. "But it's fuel to the fire to get better and I hope all of us are doing the same thing, working hard to come back better next year."

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Even though it's only November, Raleigh is already working towards 2025.

In 2023, Raleigh finished second in MLB for framing, or making a ball look more like a strike to the umpire. That second place wasn't good enough so he spent the entire last offseason working on it.

Then, he ranked atop all MLB catchers in 2024—all while turning in a career year hitting.

So, Cal is getting ready now? That's something that shows how badly they want to give Mariners fans a winner again.

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"Always continuing to get better and understanding what you do well is a huge factor," said Raleigh on Monday. "Individually, just continuing to build off last season and trying to continue to sharpen tools and being consistent as possible. Once the baseball kind of starts back up, you'll find the things that you kind of want to get back to."

"I think for me, finding a way to continue to become a leader on this team and trying to help these guys come along and trying to get us where we want to go," Raleigh added. "Because obviously, the last two seasons have been unsuccessful, unfortunately. So I think learning, learning that this season, maybe staying a little more on top of those aspects and staying in touch with the guys this off-season, trying to plan for spring training, that's going to be a big, a big emphasis for us this year."

Pitchers and catchers report to spring training in about three months on Feb. 12, 2025.

"Coming into spring training, ready to go and getting our bats and really forming that bond early on, so that we have it and we're ready to go from game one," Raleigh said.

Game one? March 27 at home against the Athletics. It's the beginning of a journey to end a mini playoff drought that no doubt to these players feels much longer.

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So take in this offseason, and feel how you will about whatever moves the franchise makes (or doesn't) in free agency and the trade market.

But understand that these players, especially the leaders like Raleigh, are doing everything they can to bring Seattle a winner once again because they appreciate their incredibly resilient fanbase.