Seattle, WA
Why Seattle Mariners' Andrés Muñoz takes his cat on the road
Not including spring training, the Seattle Mariners’ players and coaching staff spend nearly 90 days on the road each season.
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Many bring items from home to make life on the road more comfortable. For some, it’s a pillow. Others bring noise machines to help sleep. Many travel with video games, and there has been a guitar that has accumulated miles as well. But the most unique item comes with All-Star closer Andrés Muñoz.
“Oh, my cat,” he answered when asked about the little something extra he brings from home.
Yes, Andrés Muñoz travels with his cat.
“The name of my cat is Matilda,” he continued. “She has traveled with me almost all the time. Every time my wife is coming on the road trips, we bring our cat. We don’t like to leave her with somebody else.”
(Photo provided by the Muñoz family)
Wives of players often fly separately to meet the team in the cities they travel to. In the case of Muñoz’s wife Wendy, she has company with Matilda making the trips as well in her carry-on cat carrier.
With the ordeals Matilda has already faced, it is perhaps understandable that Andrés and Wendy would not want to leave her behind. Matilda is a rescue cat whose life, if not for the Muñoz family, would be grim. The cat lived near Andrés’ brother but had been left behind when her owners separated. A friend was supposed to take care of her but did little more than throw her food for the better part of two years.
“They didn’t take care of anything,” Muñoz said. “They were just throwing her food. She was dirty. She was in a really bad condition.”
The more Munoz heard about the cat, the more he knew he needed to do something. Having grown up surrounded by many animals in the farming community of Los Mochis, Mexico, he has strong feelings about how they should be treated. He made the decision they were going to rescue Matilda.
“We don’t like to see cats or dogs or whatever animal suffering. If you buy or if you rescue a cat, you have to take care of it,” he said. “And that was the most important thing for for me, just to take care of that cat.”
After being taken from the situation she was in, Matilda spent a month in veterinary care.
“One month later she was with us,” he said. “Now she’s here, travels to a lot of places, and now she have a lot of food. And now she has the most important thing that is love. I think that was good to see her happy. Sometimes I say she’s mad because she travels a lot but we know that it is about having a lot better life than she used to have.”
While saying he likes all animals, dogs included, it is clear Muñoz is a cat person.
“I know a lot of people think that they are on on their own, but most of the time they try to be with you all the time,” he said. “If she doesn’t see me for 10 days or whatever, I come back and she’s so friendly, so affectionate. So it’s really good to see of that kind of response from the cat that she’s living a good life.”
Thanks to Andrés and Wendy Muñoz, Matilda is living a big league life.
Listen to the Shannon Drayer’s conversation with Andrés Muñoz from the Mariners Radio Network pregame show in the podcast at this link or in the player near the top of this post.
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Thanks to Carrie Brown for the westward view of our Saturday night sunset. The high today hit 68 at the airport – eight degrees above normal – but nowhere near the record for this date, which was 89 degrees back in 2016. The forecast suggests two more days of partly sunny, almost-70-degree weather, before the chance of rain returns.
CHICAGO (AP) — The struggling New York Mets placed former Seattle Mariners second baseman/designated hitter Jorge Polanco on the 10-day injured list on Saturday with a right wrist contusion.
Mariners Injury Update: Latest on Robles, Vargas and more
The move was made retroactive to Wednesday, a day after Polanco went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts in a 2-1 loss at the Los Angeles Dodgers. The 32-year-old Polanco is batting .179 (10 for 56) with a homer and two RBIs in his first season with New York, which has lost nine straight.
“When doctors first took a look at him, it looked like he got hit by a pitch when he didn’t,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “In talking to him, it was just a couple of swings that he took that night. … He didn’t think much of it, but just got worse the following day.
“So you just got to let it calm down a little bit and then we’ll go from there. But we don’t have a timetable for how long this is going to last.”
Polanco, who signed a two-year, $40 million contract with the Mets in December, also has been dealing with an ankle issue.
“He was trending in the right direction,” Mendoza said of the ankle injury. “It’s definitely going to help, obviously now with him being shut down. But the biggest thing now is that we’ve got to take care of that wrist.”
Polanco spent the previous two seasons with the Mariners, who acquired him in a February 2024 trade with the Minnesota Twins.
Polanco struggled during his first season with Seattle in 2024, hitting just .213 with 16 homers in 118 games while playing through a knee injury that didn’t become public knowledge until after the season.
But after the Mariners somewhat surprisingly brought him back for a one-year contract in 2025, Polanco rebounded to hit .265 with 26 homers and an .821 OPS in 138 games last season. He then added three homers during Seattle’s playoff run, along with a 15th-inning walkoff single in Game 5 of the American League Division Series that sent the Mariners to their first ALCS in 24 years.
Seattle Sports staff made additions to this post.
Mariners RHP Bryce Miller to begin rehab assignment
Seattle, WA
Brandon Nimmo hits leadoff homer, Jacob deGrom works 4 scoreless as Rangers beat Seattle Mariners 5-0
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON – APRIL 17: Corey Seager #5 of the Texas Rangers tags out Dominic Canzone #8 of the Seattle Mariners during the fourth inning at T-Mobile Park on April 17, 2026 in Seattle, Washington. (Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
SEATTLE – Brandon Nimmo hit a leadoff home run, Jacob deGrom threw four shutout innings and Gavin Collyer earned his first career win as the Texas Rangers beat the Seattle Mariners 5-0 on Friday night.
Seattle lost its fourth straight game, and was shut out for the fourth time in 21 games, falling to 8-13. The Mariners were shut out six times during the 2025 season. Texas won its third straight game.
Nimmo led off the game with a 372-foot shot to right field off Mariners starter Logan Gilbert (1-3). It was Nimmo’s 16th career leadoff homer and second of the season. He also hit a leadoff home run on April 11 in a 6-3 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
DeGrom effectively maneuvered through Seattle’s lineup, and worked out of a one out, bases-loaded jam in the first inning. The two-time Cy Young Award winner recorded two of his three strikeouts after walking Josh Naylor to load the bases. Randy Arozarena fanned on a curveball, and Luke Raley swung through a fastball.
Texas added to its lead after Nimmo’s homer. Wyatt Langford’s single to left scored Corey Seager, who led off the third inning with a double. The Rangers stretched the lead to 3-0 on an RBI single from Jake Burger in the seventh.
The Mariners’ best scoring chance came in the sixth after Collyer (1-0), who worked 1 1/3 scoreless innings, left the game.
J.P. Crawford singled to left off Tyler Alexander with two out, and Mariners third base coach Carlos Cardoza sent Naylor from second base, but he was thrown out by Langford.
Texas added two more runs in the ninth on a sacrifice fly by Andrew McCutchen and an RBI double by Josh Jung.
Seattle third baseman Brendan Donovan left the game early due to a left hip issue.
Mariners right-hander Bryce Miller, who started the year on the injured list with a left oblique injury, was at T-Mobile Park for the first time this season. He will begin a rehab assignment with Triple-A Tacoma on Saturday.
Up next
Mariners RHP George Kirby (2-2, 3.25) will face Rangers righty Nathan Eovaldi (2-2, 5.40) on Saturday afternoon.
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