Cal Raleigh and Josh Naylor Had Surgery — Seattle's 2027 Bet Starts With Their Recovery
GOATIFYSeattle's offseason medical update does more than explain two surgeries. It adds context to why the middle of the Mariners' order never looked like the version that was supposed to carry a defending division champion. Cal Raleigh and Josh Naylor both underwent procedures on October 3, and the club expects both to be fully recovered before 2027 spring training.
That matters because both players entered 2026 with much higher offensive baselines. Raleigh was coming off a historic 60-homer season and a runner-up finish in American League MVP voting. Naylor had just completed a 20-homer, 30-steal season before his first full year in Seattle. Instead, Raleigh hit .182 with 23 home runs and Naylor slugged only .350 with 10 homers. The surgeries do not erase those numbers, but they make Seattle's evaluation of the downturn more complicated than simply calling it regression.
Raleigh's Shoulder Changes How Seattle Reads His 2026 Collapse
Raleigh's 2026 line was a major step back from his historic 2025 season. He played 126 games, hit .182 with 23 homers and 69 RBIs, but his finish was much stronger than the full-season numbers suggest.
Over his final 36 games, Raleigh posted a .946 OPS with 11 home runs and 26 RBIs. Seattle can enter 2027 asking whether a normal offseason restores more of the power that produced 60 homers in 2025 rather than assuming 2026 established a new baseline.
The comparison with 2025 is extreme because Raleigh set an unusually high standard. He led the majors in home runs, finished second in American League MVP voting and became the centerpiece of a division-winning offense. Seattle did not need another 60-homer season in 2026, but it did need the middle of its order to remain dangerous enough that opponents could not pitch around the rest of the lineup.
That is why the late rebound matters. Eleven homers in 36 games is a much more recognizable version of Raleigh than the hitter who struggled through much of the first half. A full healthy winter gives Seattle a chance to learn whether that finish was the beginning of a correction or simply a hot closing stretch.
Naylor's Wrist Repair Makes the Missing Power the 2027 Question
Naylor's 2026 season looked less like a total offensive collapse than a disappearance of impact. He still hit .261, played 152 games and stole 30 bases, but the power fell sharply: 10 home runs and a .350 slugging percentage after a 20-homer 2025.
That distinction matters because Seattle committed to Naylor for five years after 2025. His contact ability and baserunning remained useful even during a down power season. If he recovers more of his extra-base impact in 2027, the Mariners can regain middle-order production without adding another major bat.
Seattle finished 76-83 after winning the AL West in 2025. Two hitters expected to anchor the offense both underperformed. That does not guarantee bounce-backs, but it gives the front office a more informed way to separate roster holes from one-year variance.
Seattle cannot treat surgery as an automatic explanation for everything that went wrong in 2026. Raleigh still has to prove that his late-season rebound carries through a healthy winter, and Naylor still has to rediscover the power that made his long-term contract make sense.
But the timing is favorable. Both procedures happened immediately after the season, both players are expected to be ready for spring training, and neither recovery is currently projected to cost regular-season time. For a Mariners team trying to rebound without rebuilding its core, that is meaningful.
The 2027 version of Seattle's offense may depend less on finding two replacements than on getting the healthier versions of two players it already has. Raleigh's shoulder and Naylor's wrist are now part of the offseason story because their recoveries could determine whether 2026 was a warning about decline or simply a season in which two important bats were never fully themselves.
