Big Day For Big Dumper

It has been a monster year for Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh in 2025. As of this writing, Cal is putting up MVP type numbers. He's hitting .247, with 107 RBis and a league leading 50 Home Runs, which he hit #50 on Monday night. Those 50 homers are the most ever by a catcher in a single season

That 50th homer set a couple of new benchmarks, for both the Mariners and Major League Baseball. From the Mariners point of view, Raleigh joins Ken Griffey Jr as the only Seattle players to slug 50 or more home runs in a season. Cal's total is still climbing after this writing. Griffey hit 56 home runs in a season, in back to back years in 1997 and 1998. That's the only time its been done. Raleigh also joins Mickey Mantle as the only switch hitters to ever swat 50 or more in a season (he's also the 8th man in history to hit the 50 mark before the end of August0. The last note is that Raleigh is the first switch hitter in history to hit 20 home runs from each side of the plate.

The record for a catcher had been 48, set by Salvador Perez back in 2021, when he finished the year with 48 long balls.

What does this mean for the Big Dumper and the M's? Well, as of this writing, Seattle is a game and a half back of the Astros for the AL West lead, and they also hold a four game lead on the final wild card spot in the AL with about five weeks to go in the season. So they are sitting in a good spot right now and can only expand on it from here.

As for the personal marks, Cal is leading the AL and second in all of baseball in RBI's and he leads all of baseball in home runs. Sure, his batting average is below what it should be, but that's the trend that baseball seems to be going in. Is he in the discussion for AL MVP? Of course he is. Is he the frontrunner? Not quite sure of that yet. The only guy who might have a say in that is some guy named Aaron Judge. He's the AL and MLB leading hitter.

All in all, its still a fantastic season for Cal Raleigh, and it's not even close to being done yet.