SEATTLE — The Seattle Mariners were unable to get some good news in the two days between their 8-3 win against the Houston Astros on Thursday at Daikin Park in Houston and their series opener against the San Diego Padres on Friday at T-Mobile Park in Seattle.

The Mariners placed 2025 American League MVP finalist and All-Star and starting catcher Cal Raleigh on the 10-day injured list ahead of the series finale against the Astros on Thursday due to a right oblique strain.

The injury has been a nagging one over the last two weeks for Raleigh. He missed three combined games against the Kansas City Royals and Atlanta Braves from May 2-4.

Raleigh opted to play through injury but re-aggravated it in the third of the four-game set against Houston on Wednesday.

According to pregame comments made by Seattle general manager Justin Hollander, Raleigh will be shut down from baseball activities for a week and will receive an injection in his side. Hollander and Raleigh were unable to specify whether the injection would be a cortisone shot or a platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection.

However, both Raleigh and Hollander were confident the injury won't be long-term.

"(The scans) were similar or slightly improved from what we had on (May 4)," Hollander said in a pregame interview Friday at T-Mobile Park. "Which is encouraging. Obviously didn't make it worse. ... Hopefully we can get the lingering soreness out of there and he can resume baseball activities but we'll go week-to-week with it right now. We don't anticipate this being a long, long time or anything like that. But we want to make sure that when he's next in a game he's doing it with full confidence and pain free."

Raleigh will head to the team's spring training complex in Peoria, Ariz., to rehab his oblique.

Raleigh said in his own pregame comments that if it were late in the year, he would attempt to play through the injury. But given the fact it's currently May, he's accepting doing what's best for himself and the team by getting healthy.

"Obliques are tricky," Raleigh said in a pregame interview Friday. "There's may be some times where you don't feel it at all and there's some times where you really feel it. There was some discomfort, I tried to get through it. ... Tried to gut it out. But essentially, the conversation was 'we're in May. We have some time and we want to make sure this is right for the majority or the rest of the year.' ... I think if it's August or September this is a different story."

Before Raleigh landed on the IL, he snapped an 0-for-38 cold streak with a 2-for-4 day in game two of the four-game series against Houston on Tuesday.

The All-Star backstop currently has a slash line of .161/.243/.317 with a .560 OPS and has hit four doubles and seven home runs with 18 RBIs.

Raleigh was disappointed at the notion of being away from the team, but he's confident in his fellow catchers being able to keep the team afloat while he's rehabbing.

Mitch Garver, who's been the team's primary backup since 2024, and Jhonny Pereda will be the Mariners' two catchers on the roster while Raleigh is out.

"It's a collaborative effort," Raleigh said. "Each and every series. It's not just me, it's not just Mitch, it's not just our pitching staff. ... We have some people with good heads on their shoulders. Jhonny's played in the big leagues, he knows what he's doing back there. At the end of the day, it's baseball. It's not rocket science. We have faith in them that (they're) going to go out there, call a good game, put together some good at-bats.

Garver this season has slashed .176/.354/.355 with a .609 OPS in 21 games and has hit a double and a homer with three RBIs.

Pereda, in two games with Seattle, has gone 2-for-5. Both his hits were singles.

Pereda will get the nod for the Mariners in the first of a three-game series against the Padres at 6:40 p.m. PT on Friday.

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