The Mariners announced today that they have moved OF Luke Raley to the 10-day IL with a left forearm strain. Raley was out of the game yesterday after feeling pain in the elbow pregame, and today the team opted to move him to the IL to try to calm the inflammation and hopefully get him back before the end of the season.
The elbow issue isn’t a new one for Raley, who has been managing nagging pain in the joint for “years” in what manager Dan Wilson described as a “wear and tear” situation, but the injury
cropped up in a more serious fashion back in late June after he aggravated it on a swing, forcing Raley to miss three games. Raley has been trying to manage the issue with treatment, but his production has dropped off sharply as the season has gone on. One of the team’s hottest hitters in May, with a 215 wRC+, Raley’s production in June dropped to a wRC+ of just 15 for June and 38 for July.
“It gets to a point where it’s difficult and it’s painful, and he felt like he wasn’t helping the team at that point,” said manager Dan Wilson, who also said there was no inciting incident causing the pain, rather just a threshold of daily pain that was crossed to the point where it’s not sustainable. “He’s going to take a break here and hopefully get some results.”
To replace Raley, the Mariners are selecting OF Stuart Fairchild, back for a second turn with his hometown organization. Born in Seattle, Fairchild attended Seattle Prep before attending Wake Forest for college; the Reds took him 38th overall in the 2017 Draft. Fairchild had a previous stint with the Mariners in 2022, when he was with the team just briefly from April to May before being DFA’d; he’d go on to bounce around several different organizations, eventually signing a minor-league free agent deal with Cleveland prior to the 2026 season. The Mariners signed him back into the organization as a minor league free agent in early July.
Fairchild’s main attribute is that he’s a right-handed hitting outfielder, something the Mariners need desperately; the local ties are a bonus. However, Fairchild might have a similarly brief stint with the Mariners this time around if the team decides to go bold at the trade deadline and bring in longer-term help, or if they do as John (and me and many others) wishes and call up hot-hitting (and right-handed) prospect Michael Arroyo.
Depending on how long Raley is out, it’s possible Mariners fans have seen the last of the beloved hard-nosed outfielder, who seems like a likely non-tender candidate this winter. Raley made just over $2M with the Mariners this season, avoiding arbitration, but still has two more years of arbitration eligibility before becoming a free agent. With similarly left-handed-hitting prospect outfielder Lazaro Montes approaching the majors, and a roster that’s heavily slanted towards left-handed bats to begin with, there might not be as natural a fit for Raley as there has been in years past. No matter what happens, no one can take away the joy that is watching Luke Raley play baseball – specifically running around the bases – but we’re crossing our fingers for a speedy recovery anyway.
