{"id":24634,"date":"2026-03-22T03:51:53","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T03:51:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=24634"},"modified":"2026-03-22T03:51:56","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T03:51:56","slug":"randy-arozarena-issues-statement-on-world-baseball-classic-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=24634","title":{"rendered":"Randy Arozarena issues statement on World Baseball Classic controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"


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PEORIA, Ariz. — The story that the Mariners have been looking to move on from reached what they hope is its final chapter on Saturday, when Randy Arozarena<\/a> issued a second statement on his exchange with Cal Raleigh<\/a> at the World Baseball Classic nearly two weeks ago.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cI understand that with Opening Day a few days away, I don\u2019t want it to be a distraction,\u201d Arozarena said, via the team. \u201cCal and I have talked and I apologized for what I said after the game. Nothing in the WBC takes away from the fact that we are brothers and teammates. He\u2019s family, and we are both focused on helping the Mariners win the World Series.\u201d\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Saturday\u2019s statement was more detailed than the one he issued a week ago<\/a> upon returning from the Classic, which did not address Raleigh by name. At that time, he also preferred not to take questions.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Raleigh has been back with the Mariners in Arizona since Thursday, and the two were in the same Cactus League lineup that night against the A\u2019s at Hohokam Stadium. Postgame, they were seen going through the customary fist-pump line after a 6-4 win, with Arozarena also slapping Raleigh on the area that\u2019s earned him the most recognizable nickname<\/a> in the sport.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Both players were also in Saturday\u2019s Cactus League lineup vs. the Cubs, and because Arozarena\u2019s statement landed about 90 minutes before first pitch, Raleigh was going through his pregame catching routine and was not available for immediate comment.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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He first addressed the situation in its immediate aftermath on a FaceTime<\/a> with three Mariners beat reporters on March 9, in which he expressed remorse about the perception of disrespect that Arozarena took for Raleigh not shaking his hand in the batter\u2019s box during their WBC matchup in Houston the night prior. After that game, Arozarena issued choice words toward Raleigh in Spanish during an interview with Mexican journalist Luis Gilbert.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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That part of the story has been well chronicled.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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But it has lingered largely because, at least until Saturday, Arozarena hadn\u2019t actually addressed the exchange other than his initial statement, which read:\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cWe didn\u2019t get the results we wanted with Team Mexico, but I\u2019m glad to be back in camp with my teammates. The WBC is behind us now, and I don\u2019t want anything to take away from the Mariners. I\u2019m focused on the season and helping this team compete for a World Series.\u201d\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Raleigh, in that call with Mariners media, expressed remorse about the situation.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cI reached out to Randy and told him, essentially, ‘I’m sorry if you felt disrespected,’ or whatever it may be.\u201d Raleigh said at the time. \u201cBut we’re just playing the game. I think he would want the same if I was his teammate and we were playing somebody in a playoff game. Or he’d want that same kind of energy from me. So I think that’s kind of how I see it. And I reached out and put it to bed.\u201d\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Because both the exchange and Arozarena\u2019s first postgame interview went viral, speculation mounted on whether there was a rift between two key players for a team with legitimate World Series aspirations.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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But it\u2019s also evident that, with Opening Day looming, both are ready to move on.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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PEORIA, Ariz. — The story that the Mariners have been looking to move on from reached what they hope is its final chapter on Saturday, when Randy Arozarena issued a second statement on his exchange with Cal Raleigh at the World Baseball Classic nearly two weeks ago. \u201cI understand that with Opening Day a few … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24635,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Randy-Arozarena-issues-statement-on-World-Baseball-Classic-controversy.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24634"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24636,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24634\/revisions\/24636"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}