An extension for Cal Raleigh and in-market streaming for us—who are these Mariners?
The vibes are good.
Regardless of what line of business you are in, it is important that people like you. It may not be everything but it does matter despite often being intangible and though not immeasurable, often left unmeasured.
It also helps, on top or even before that, to have it so your product is widely and seamlessly accessible. At least in most media or media-adjacent industries it is.
Crazy concepts, I know.
For a long time, though, it’s felt as though neither were much of a priority for your Seattle Mariners. If liking them came incidental to being an outrageously profitable business operation, that’d be nice. It wasn’t a prerequisite, however.
And that seemed a pretty out of whack? Maybe things are going back…in whack?
I don’t know but you should be able to watch your favorite baseball team on television without it much of a hassle. And now the Mariners do, too.
On ROOT SPORTS Stream
It took so long to get here. It definitely didn’t seem like it was going to happen this year. I had half a post in the hopper for half the offseason just hoping for a compromise where the M’s would be on Hulu Live or YouTube TV, the two big bundled streaming platforms.
I’ve been writing blog posts about sports and streaming going back to like, maybe, 2009? My first post on the concept and its overlap with the Mariners was also my first on LL—and that was 2013.
I bet someone younger than that blog post is reading this one and the Mariners just got from there to over-the-top streaming. I had a mortgage at the same time I was using the once-glorious MLB66. Ludicrous stuff.
It’s here now though, in the big two oh two five. And while spring already lends itself to optimism, the news has me heading into Opening Day with a more positive outlook on the organization as a whole than I’ve had in a long time.
Quick anecdote here.
One of the best movies I’ve watched in 2025 was 1982’s The Verdict starring Paul Newman as somewhat downtrodden plaintiff’s trial lawyer.
There’s a lot to like but any film that opens with one of my favorite actors in a dive bar is going to have my attention. Still, tons of good stuff—especially Newman’s closing statement and how that’s shot.
Anyway, there’s this line in the middle of the movie where a highly-paid defense lawyer is talking to a younger colleague.
I'm going to tell you something that I learned when I was your age. I'd prepared a case and old man White said to me, "How did you do?" And, uh, I said, "Did my best." And he said, "You're not paid to do your best. You're paid to win."
The Mariners don’t exist to do their best. They exist to win. Or they should.
We know there are extenuating circumstances to everything. Everyone deals with them. That’s why there’s a level of sympathy toward but not much patience for an entity that’s supposed to serve as an escape for all of our extenuating circumstances.
So, a bunch of random contracts with various cable providers? Alright. Possible new tech issues with MLB producing the games? Got it. Potentially gigantically upending a pretty significant revenue stream? Uh, sure.
We don’t care if you're doing your best—we want to watch the ballgame. And now we can.
It’s an enormous credit to new Mariners President of Business Ops Kevin Martinez.
I’ll be honest—you will get a biased perspective from me on Martinez. He is one of my favorite people to work with ever, someone I did work closely with at the M’s and someone I’d still call a good friend.
While you’ll get some home-cooking here on Kev, I’ll also give you some inside perspective: Kevin Martinez is, through and through, a baseball dude. He loves the game. He understands the game. He knows what makes it so special.
Coming from the marketing and game presentation world, and obviously successful therein, some folks surely have a level of skepticism about what kind of operation this is going to be. Which is fair. Especially with this organization.
Let me assure you though, as big of a “Just play ball, win games and the rest will take care of itself” guy as anyone, the organization is in good hands with him leading business ops. His blend of loving baseball, loving the Seattle Mariners and a constant passion for bringing fans closer to the game will serve the M’s and us fans well.
Does he get credit for Cal, too? Heh, we’ll hold off on that level of praise—for now.
On Cal
Holy hell did that Passan tweet hit like a freezing cold Miller Lite on an 80 degree day spent swimming off the north end of Seward Park. While there was no swimming yesterday (just a bike ride to Discovery for us), it was kind of fitting that it came on the nicest day of the year in Seattle to date.
Cal Raleigh as a concept seems too good to be true. A purely homegrown switch-hitting catcher with serious pop, good defense and tone-setting leadership? Unequivocally one of the best in the game at one of the sports most important positions? The Mariners don’t get guys like that.
But they did, and he’s here for a good while longer. His entire prime, actually.
What you’re not going to find on this blog—and definitely not in this post—is a deep analysis on whether something is a good contract or a bad contract or how it fits into the broader market for MLB production. I’m sure other folks have it covered.
This is bigger than that.
This is proof—perhaps continued proof with Julio Rodríguez’s contract being the first such example—that if you buy in, you work hard and produce at the Major League level, you will be rewarded by the Mariners.
It’s proof as well, though I’ve always been a bit higher on the likelihood of an extension than most, that guys will sign extensions if you put a good offer in front of them.
It’s obviously different for a big-bodied catcher than it is, say, for an ace-level pitcher in line to make $200 or $300 million, but there’s a lot of risk in this game and this stuff can be done.
Signing/drafting, developing and extending good players is what great organizations do. So it’s reassuring to see the Mariners do it. It bodes well for the future.
I like the softer side of all this just as much. A lot of times, in this era of sports especially, you’re rooting for laundry.
Yesterday when I saw Rowdy Tellez would don #23 when he’s in the Opening Day lineup tomorrow, I was momentarily annoyed they’d so quickly give away Nelson Cruz’s number.
Obviously, I forgot that was Ty France’s number. And even the guy he was acquired for—Austin Nola—wore it the year immediately following Nellie’s departure.
That’s how fast this all goes.
So it’s nice when it doesn’t.
Cal’s our guy. He feels how we feel. He leads the group that is the most important and best part of this team. He has the most iconic home run in franchise history.
And nobody else is going to be wearing #29 for a long time. Maybe ever. That’d be fun.
I wonder if they’ll do a fun ceremony to unretire the number when he takes over as manager.
Guess we can worry about that later.
Cue up Field of Dreams tonight. There’s a ballgame to win tomorrow. Looking forward to the standing ovation for Cal.
See you there.
Go M’s.
Editor’s note: I flipped the paid subscriptions back on—not because I need the money but because I find material support for the work here to be motivating.
So if you’re still down to buy what amounts to a few of those $5 High Lifes at the ballpark, I do appreciate it. If not, that’s fine, too.
This year, I will work hard to bring you premium content exclusive to paid subscribers. More to come.