Even though he's in Houston with Team USA at the World Baseball Classic, Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh made sure to address the Mariners media still at spring training on Tuesday afternoon about the controversy involving him and Randy Arozarena from Monday night's game between Team USA and Mexico.

Per Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times on social media:

We talked with Cal Raleigh via facetime, he said "There's no beef with Randy. I love him. He's my brother. " He's already talked to Arozarena about the situation to clarify what transpired as well as manager Dan Wilson

In the top of the first inning, Arozarena, representing Mexico, tried to give a handshake to Raleigh, who was catching for the Americans. 

Raleigh declined to give the handshake, electing to say something to Arozarena instead. Of course, the two are teammates with the Mariners, so the perceived snub raised some eyebrows.

After the game, Arozarena complimented Raleigh's family before delivering some very harsh words to him in Spanish. The problem? No one really knows if Arozarena was serious or not. He gave the quotes in a deadpan fashion, and the language barrier (for some of us) restricts the ability to decipher tone or mood around the comments.

Manager Dan Wilson spoke about the incident, which has taken over the airwaves, on Tuesday morning. He said he wasn't worried about the incident having any affect on the M's season ahead. 

After Raleigh's comments, we can probably consider this "story" to be dead, but we'll have to officially wait until Arozarena speaks on it. As long as he doesn't double down on his comments, the story should blow over.

Both teams have one more game in pool play before the elimination round begins. It's possible for the two countries to play each once more, which will surely bring the story back to light, at least for a day.

Team USA is 3-0 heading into Monday's game against Italy, while 2-1 Mexico will play Italy on Wednesday.

The Mariners will begin their season on March 26 at home against the Cleveland Guardians. The M's, coming off their first American League West title since 2001, have the highest expectations they've ever had heading into a season.

As a result, it's imperative that stories like this don't come up and do anything to change the dynamics of the strong clubhouse.

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