Cal Raleigh: 1-on-1 With the Seattle Mariners Superstar

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It’s mid-afternoon on a mid-November day, mere hours before that evening’s cocktail-attire MLB Awards show. Cal Raleigh, literally lording over the Las Vegas Strip from his suite on the 51st floor of the Cosmopolitan, much like he figuratively did over all of baseball last summer, can finally exhale and appreciate everything he accomplished in compiling the greatest season by a catcher in big league history, while discussing it all in an exclusive interview with Athlon Sports.

Shooting an 84 in a three-and-a-half-hour round earlier that morning at the Wynn Golf Club — no Mariners trident necessary — cleared Raleigh’s mind, sure. But Seattle’s record-setting catcher could control how he performed on the links. What awaited him that evening — Raleigh was a finalist for American League MVP and, ironically enough, his yet-to-be-announced fate had already been determined by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America — was out of his hands.

So the low-key Raleigh did what the low-key Raleigh does — he took stock of the moment, controlled what he could control and soaked it all in. His station in the game truly hit him, he said, hours earlier as he sat in a golf cart between holes.

“Just how crazy it is that I even hit all these different milestones,” Raleigh reflected, lounging on a couch, a hint of his native North Carolina drawl dripping out. “Getting to 60 [home runs] was just like, you know, insane. The fact that there’s only been a couple, a handful of guys that have done it, is something that you never would have thought. You don’t really set out to hit that many homers or do those things. I was just kind of along for the ride. I was enjoying the moments. Now, taking a step back, it’s a pretty cool thing to look back on and, one day down the road, I’ll be even more appreciative of it.”

Milestones? Raleigh’s 2025 season was chock full of them. It was the stuff of seminal, and sentimental, tug-at-the-heartstrings movies about the national pastime.

“Big Dumper” (more on his iconic nickname later) joined the likes of Big Mac and Slammin’ Sammy and All Rise and the Great Bambino in authoring only the 10th 60-homer season in major league history, while becoming only the seventh member of the 60 Home Run Club. The other members: Barry Bonds (73 in 2001), Mark McGwire (70 in 1998; 65 in 1999), Sammy Sosa (66 in 1998; 64 in 2001; 63 in 1999), Aaron Judge (62 in 2022), Roger Maris (61 in 1961) and Babe Ruth (60 in 1927).

Not only did Raleigh smash Mickey Mantle’s 64-year-old record for most homers by a switch hitter — The Mick went deep 54 times in 1961 — but he also became the first player in MLB history to hit at least 20 homers from each side of the plate in one season. Plus, Raleigh set a new power mark for catchers, obliterating the 48 homers the Royals’ Salvador Perez hit in 2021.

Raleigh tied the MLB record with 11 multi-homer games, equaling Hank Greenberg (1938), Sosa (1998) and Judge (2022).

How locked in was Raleigh? On May 30 against the Twins, he homered off a former high school teammate — Zebby Matthews from Sylva (N.C.) Smoky Mountain High — and a former college teammate, Florida State’s Cole Sands.

And Raleigh did it all while leading Seattle to its first American League West title and first American League Championship Series appearance since 2001.

All from a guy whose single-season home run total had risen from 27 to 30 to 34 before last year’s signature campaign.

“As far as the power surge, nothing really changed in my swing this year,” Raleigh said. “I just think I got smarter as a hitter, and you start understanding situations better, you start understanding pitchers better and then at that point, it’s just about going out there and executing your plan. How good can you be between the ears, and how disciplined can you be? It’s all about putting together good at-bats each day, pitch after pitch, and letting those things stack up, and I think that’s where you see hits.”

From a mechanics standpoint, Hall of Famer Edgar Martinez, the Mariners’ senior director of hitting strategy, said Raleigh staying “behind the ball” was key.

“Cal knows the league better now,” Martinez told MLB.com during the ALCS. “He knows his swing so much better. He makes adjustments. His potential to hit homers has always been there, but now he’s a good hitter with power. If the pitcher makes a mistake, he takes advantage of it.”

Raleigh, borrowing from a famous Nuke LaLoosh quote from the iconic baseball movie “Bull Durham,” announced his presence “with authority” at the All-Star break, becoming the first catcher to win the Home Run Derby and the second member of the Mariners to do so, along with three-time winner and Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr.

Cal Raleigh 2025 stats

And in borrowing a theme from another renowned baseball flick, “Field of Dreams,” Raleigh was surrounded by family during the Derby. His father, Todd, was his pitcher, and his 15-year-old brother, Todd Jr., served as catcher.

“Yeah, it was really, really cool,” Raleigh said. “A lot of people come up to me to talk to me about how cool it was, and how they have brothers and dads and how much it meant to them and they get to share that moment with them. Getting to do it with them was, honestly, a win. Obviously, I won, and that was amazing, but just getting to do it with them and have them all out there with me and get to share the experience, they got to ride the bus with me in. My brother’s talking to [Royals shortstop] Bobby Witt Jr. and a bunch of the other guys, just kind of hanging out, and [Mariners righthander] Bryan Woo, talking shop, so that was a cool moment. But the whole thing was a blur and it was super fun.

“It was my first All-Star experience and getting to share that with them, and them getting to live out that, you get to let your guard down a little bit and you get to enjoy the ride. Rather than, every game is go, go, go. Win, win, win. Keep your head down. But that day, we got to look up a little bit and soak it in and enjoy and reap the benefits of everything that we’ve done and the hard work between me and my family.”

Entering the All-Star break, Raleigh had already set the American League record with 38 first-half home runs, besting the 37 homers Chris Davis and Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson hit in 2013 and 1969, respectively. Griffey, in attendance at Truist Park, told MLB Network he was having “fun” watching Raleigh, but not just in the Derby. Even as Raleigh, the first Mariners catcher to start an All-Star Game, was launching an assault on Griffey’s single-season franchise home run record.

“What he’s done the first half has been unbelievable,” said Griffey, who led the American League with 56 homers in 1997 and ’98. “It’s mind-boggling. But, to him, he would probably take 15 home runs away to have a 10-game lead at the end of the year. I mean, that’s just who he is. For him to juggle a pitching staff and go out and hit is pretty impressive.”

Junior was prescient. The Mariners were in second place at the All-Star break, five games behind the Astros, but as Raleigh got hot, so, too, did Seattle.

By Aug. 12, the Mariners had caught the Astros, and after falling behind by four games on Sept. 3, they were again tied on Sept. 18. A three-game sweep of the Astros in Houston ensued — Raleigh hit two homers in the series — followed by a three-game sweep of the Rockies. And after the opener of that series, a 4-3 victory that clinched a playoff berth for the Mariners, Raleigh took the mic at T-Mobile Park and quoted yet another classic baseball movie, “Major League,” telling the crowd, “Might as well go win the whole f—ing thing.” The fans erupted, and it became a rallying cry in the Pacific Northwest.

Raleigh’s a baseball romantic, after all. One night later, on Sept. 24, when the Mariners clinched the AL West, Raleigh put a bow on things with his 59th and 60th home runs, in the first and eighth innings, respectively. Cue the triumphant theme from “The Natural.”

“It was one of those situations where it’s in reach, but at the same time, we were still chasing bigger things with the playoffs and clinching a division,” Raleigh said. “Something we hadn’t done in [24] years. It just so happened to be the same day. But you know yourself as a baseball player — if I go out there and try to hit the home runs, then it’s not going to work. It’s about having that mental discipline that, going up to the plate, knowing this is what I need to achieve and then whatever happens, happens. I know I’m capable; I’ve hit so many home runs up to this point in my life. It’s more about, can I put everything else aside? Can I be able to have that kind of focus every at-bat?”

Raleigh hit a career-high .247, though he wants to move that number up, and his slash line of .247/.359/.589 was also a career best, as was his .948 OPS. He led the American League in runs batted in (125) and was second in slugging percentage (.589), walks (97), extra-base hits (84), total bases (351), runs scored (110) and fWAR (9.1) while collecting his first Silver Slugger.

The heroics continued for Raleigh in the postseason, where the Mariners beat the Tigers in five games of a division series before taking the Blue Jays the distance in an emotionally draining ALCS. The Mariners held a 3-1 lead entering the bottom of the seventh inning of Game 7 before falling, 4-3.

Raleigh, who batted .304 with five home runs and eight RBIs in the playoffs, took the loss especially hard. Standing at his locker in the bowels of Toronto’s Rogers Centre, tears in his eyes, Raleigh said the season was a “failure.”

Three-plus weeks later, Raleigh, who turned 29 on Nov. 26, was more introspective.

“Maybe I was a little harsh in that sense, and I said I was proud of the guys and I was proud of what we did. I am. It was a great season,” he said. “We played well. We’d been the furthest we’d ever gone in our organization’s history, and we had a lot of positives in the year. But at the end of the day, it is, technically, a failure. Maybe that’s the harsh way to put it. You could say it other ways and maybe sugarcoat it a little better. But I’ve never been one to sugarcoat things.

“But like I said in that interview as well, the expectations here are higher than they ever have been, and that’s what we want — to set the standard. We’ve got to that point now, especially after this year, that we want to be that team that’s there every year, competing for a World Series, and creating a team that can win a few World Series.”

That a cenacle of sportswriters had Raleigh finishing second to Judge for AL MVP in one of the closest votes in recent memory — Judge, who batted .331 with 53 homers, 114 RBIs and a 1.144 OPS, received 17 of 30 first-place votes and a total of 355 points, while Raleigh got the other 13 first-place votes and 335 points — did nothing to diminish Raleigh’s season.

Not with the likes of Griffey, as well as the last catcher to win a league MVP, stressing what made Raleigh’s at-the-plate exploits all the more impressive: the fact that he did his work while donning the tools of ignorance. A Gold Glove and Platinum Glove winner in 2024, Raleigh caught 121 games and 1,072 innings (third-most in the big leagues) last season and was not charged with a passed ball.

“To do what he’s done behind the plate, to lead the staff, the grind of being behind the plate [and] to hit 60 homers and to do it in meaningful games down the stretch, I think it’s immeasurable, his value to that team,” Buster Posey, the 2012 National League MVP, told KNBR radio. “Just truly a season for the ages.”

As Raleigh put it, the daily toll of catching in the midst of a playoff chase actually helped him “compartmentalize” as a hitter closing in on that magic number of 60 homers.

“Every day I’m fully, fully immersed in the game plans,” he said. “The meetings. The dealing with pitchers. Trying to figure out how we’re going to get through nine innings. It all distracted me from stuff that was going on. It wasn’t ‘all eyes on me,’ because of this situation. We were playing important games. We were in the hunt.”

Raleigh was far from overlooked. He was feted as the MLBPA Players’ Choice Player of the Year as well as its AL Outstanding Player, honors voted on uniquely by active players. The Sporting News also named him its Player of the Year.

Indeed, Raleigh has raised the bar not only for his team, but for himself.

“Going forward, it’s winning a World Series,” he said. “Continuing to play the best that I can, to my ability. And if that involves more awards, then great. But you don’t really play this game for awards; you play to win. You play to create a legacy. Not only through your team, but the fans and the community and the city and, obviously, through your teammates and coaches.

“If you look at it through that lens, it makes it a lot easier to go out every day and play and put on that uniform. That’s what drives me. As well as my family. It’s going out and getting a World Series for Seattle because we were so close [last] year. We took a good step forward, but ultimately…”

Raleigh’s voice began to trail off. It was time to swap out his golf gear and suit up for the MLB Awards show.

“Being here, getting to do this is fun,” he continued. “It’s awesome getting recognized. But at the same time, ultimately knowing what the end goal is and how fun that is down the stretch, that’s it.”

Q&A with Cal Raleigh

This particular interview with Raleigh was drawing to a close, but like a hanging curveball, there were a few more topics to crush …

Raleigh on former Red Sox captain Jason Varitek being a role model:

“I grew up in that era, the early 2000s, when they finally broke through and won the World Series, and that’s about the time where I was able to comprehend what guys do, what position they play, their stats. Jason Varitek was just somebody that was so relatable to me because I was learning to switch-hit at the time, I was learning to catch at the time, and he was on my favorite team and he was somebody that I would see myself being. And then getting older, towards the end of his career, getting the ‘C’ on his chest and understanding what that meant. Why would I not want to be somebody like this guy who has won multiple World Series, has had a great career?”

Raleigh on what goes into framing a pitch (Baseball Savant had him in the 93rd percentile of catchers in pitch framing):

“In the simplest terms, it’s just presenting the ball the best you can to the umpire to make him make a decision on whether it’s a ball or a strike. There’s deception, but there’s deception everywhere in the game, with tags and pitching. Everybody’s trying to get an edge … if that’s stealing a few strikes that might be balls and keeping strikes strikes, then that’s just helping out the guys.”

Raleigh on how he can raise his batting average, with another “Bull Durham” reference:

“It’s not as far off as people think. It’s one extra hit a week. That’s four a month. A season is seven months? That’s 28 extra hits, and that turns me from a .220 hitter to a .250 hitter, and turns a .250 hitter to a .275, .280 hitter. It’s not … going out there and changing your swing, doing a big massive overhaul of mechanics. It’s more, can I find a way to crush and have good at-bats and give myself a chance? Rather than go up there trying to chase numbers, it’s going up there and dominating the approach and your mindset, more so than the actual swing path itself [because] you can have four great at-bats, hit it hard and go 0-for-4. Or vice versa.”

And, as promised, Raleigh on his Big Dumper nickname, which his mom Stephanie said “stinks” on a Mariners broadcast:

“I’ve always been, I wouldn’t say teased, but joked about, because I’ve got a big butt, or whatever. It started when I first got called up. But it really wasn’t a thing because I wasn’t very good early on, and then once I started playing better, establishing myself, it kind of took off. It’s fun. It’s kind of what makes baseball appealing. Even this last Halloween, people being Big Dumper and they get the jersey and they stuff their pants with pillowcases. It’s great.”

Lest you think the 6-feet-2, 235-pound Big Dumper was a one-dimensional, heavy-legged, slow-twitch power hitter who caught lightning in a bottle in his fourth full big-league season, Raleigh also legged out 24 doubles and stole 14 bases.