Luke Raley Expected To Miss Remainder Of 2026 Season

Mariners slugger Luke Raley‘s season might be over. Adam Jude of the Seattle Times writes that Raley is expected to miss the remainder of the 2026 campaign due to the forearm strain that sent him to the injured list late last month.

Raley got out to a blistering start but will finish with a sub-.300 OBP and relatively pedestrian production overall. The 31-year-old slashed .280/.345/.587 through the season’s first two months, but that output never looked particularly sustainable. Raley struck out at a huge 31.4% clip, benefited from a big .345 average on balls in play and posted a bottom-of-the-scale 59.2% contact rate in that time.

Some regression was inevitable, but the extent to which Raley’s offense wilted was impacted by his health. The Mariners indicated at the time of Raley’s IL placement Saturday that he’d been playing through elbow/forearm discomfort for some time. The numbers bear that out. From June 1 onward, Raley stepped to the plate 121 times and batted just .152/.200/.241. His strikeout rate only climbed by about a percentage point, but his BABIP cratered, sitting at .211 in that nearly two-month span. Raley has just two multi-hit games since the calendar flipped to June, and he’s connected on only six extra-base hits.

Raley is always going to strike out a lot and has clear platoon limitations, but he’s a lifetime .240/.325/.455 hitter against right-handed pitching. If his season is indeed over, he’ll present an interesting call for Seattle in November. Raley will be owed a raise on this year’s $2.05MM salary. It’s not going to be substantial, but this is his second straight underwhelming season after a big 2024 showing, and momentum isn’t on his side. He’ll at the very least be a change-of-scenery or non-tender consideration.

With Raley likely shelved through season’s end, it’ll be deadline acquisition Taylor Ward taking over for him in right field, president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto told Jude and other reporters. Ward has primarily played left field in recent years but has nearly 1600 major league innings in right field under his belt. Dominic Canzone will operate as Seattle’s primary designated hitter down the stretch.

Ward will bring some continuity to the Seattle lineup and make the Mariners less reliant on platoons than they were with Raley (career .176/.240/.271 versus lefties). He’s a free agent at season’s end, as are fellow outfielders Randy Arozarena and Victor Robles (whose $9MM club option will be declined). That trio of departures will give the Mariners some work to do in the offseason. Twenty-one-year-old top prospect Lazaro Montes could get a crack at one of those corner spots in 2027, but between three free agents leaving and Raley’s season ending with such uncertainty, the outfield should still be a point of focus for Dipoto, GM Justin Hollander and the rest of the Seattle front office this winter.