Cal Raleigh and Randy Arozarena Spark Beef in Mariners Organization

In 2025, the Seattle Mariners had their best season in the last quarter-century, and look to be in a great position to contend again this year. They were able to give a nice contract to Josh Naylor and add former Cardinal, Brendan Donovan, to bolster their infield.

Vibes seemed pretty good heading into 2026, until the World Baseball Classic started. In a group play matchup between the United States and Mexico, an awkward altercation happened between teammates Cal Raleigh and Randy Arozarena.

Arozarena looked to give a handshake to his teammate and the MVP runner-up in Raleigh, but he denied him. One of the reasons Raleigh gave for not shaking his hand was that he was trying to avoid getting pine tar on his hand. I feel like a fist bump probably could’ve solved that issue.

Raleigh also claimed, while talking with Mariners media, that he was just being competitive in the moment, and there’s no hard feelings between the two. He might feel that way, but that doesn’t seem to be the case for Arozarena.

According to translations of Arozarena’s interview, he seems to be taking that diss a little personally, and he should. You can be as competitive as you want, but Raleigh’s diss came across as him big timing Randy. The WBC is obviously incredibly important to the players, but at the end of the day, what matters most is your actual MLB teams.

I feel like Cal was trying to get his “Kobe Bryant moment” by turning down the handshake. In the Redeem Team documentary on Netflix, the most memorable part was the 2008 players reminiscing on what Kobe had said to them before the gold medal game.

He knew what play Spain was going to start the game with, and he was going to run Pau Gasol over on the first play of the game to set the tone.

First off, Kobe and Pau dapped each other up before the gold medal game. They had also been seen together prior to the gold medal game at the Olympics. More importantly, that was Kobe Bryant. A lot of guys try to replicate the “Mamba Mentality”, and when that happens, it normally comes off as cringey and forced.

Hopefully, Randy was just annoyed after the close loss, and this isn’t a beef that rolls over into the regular season. 

Either way, it still feels like a lame move from Raleigh.