By Ross Kelly
On Sunday, Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh made MLB history by setting the single-season home run record for catchers. He crushed his record-tying 48th homer, and then later in the game, hit his 49th long ball to set the new record.
However, Raleigh wasn’t content with just making history on Sunday, as he followed up on Monday with another home run that also etched his name into the record books.
Raleigh launched his 50th dinger of the 2025 MLB season in Seattle’s 9–6 victory over the San Diego Padres, making him and Mickey Mantle the only switch hitters in MLB history to notch 50 home runs in a season. Mantle did it twice with the New York Yankees, hitting 52 homers in 1956 and 54 home runs in 1961.
Raleigh’s Monday homer was also his 20th of the season as a right-handed batter, joining the 30 he’s already hit as a left-handed batter.
His record-setter was a solo shot in the bottom of the first inning to put the Mariners on the board first. He was facing pitcher JP Sears, who got to an early advantage with a 0–2 count. Raleigh battled back to make it a full count and then cracked a 419-foot, 92 mph four-seam fastball over the left field fence in Seattle’s T-Mobile Park. Per the MLB Home Run Tracker, of the 40 home runs hit on Monday, just five of them went longer than Raleigh’s moon ball.
If that wasn’t enough, Raleigh is just the eighth player, ever, to reach the 50-homer mark before the end of August. Each of the previous seven—Roger Maris, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds, Luis Gonzalez, Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge—finished with at least 57 homers on the year, with five of them reaching the 60-homer threshold.
The Mariners catcher and Ken Griffey Jr. are the only players in franchise history to reach 50 long balls in a single season, with Griffey doing it twice with 56 homers in both 1997 and 1998. Raleigh and Griffey have stayed in contact throughout the season, and after the game, the former was asked what his next phone call with Griffey would sound like.
“I don’t know, hopefully he’s not too mad,” joked Raleigh. “He’s awesome, and I’m just gonna try to keep going.”
Raleigh then talked about what this latest record home run means to him, and he deflected any attention from it and put the focus on the team.
“It’s a very cool thing. I’m sure at the end of the year I’ll be pretty happy with it,” said Raleigh. “I’m just gonna keep going, and I’m happy we got a win. The goal is to get to the playoffs and win a World Series.”
Picking up the victory helped Seattle make the postseason, especially since it had dropped eight of its previous 11 games. This was the second straight win for the Mariners after Raleigh’s two-homer game on Sunday helped propel the team to an 11–4 triumph over the Athletics.
Seattle is now 71–61 on the season and just 1.5 games back of the Houston Astros (72–59) for first place in the American League West. The Mariners currently occupy the third and final AL Wild Card spot, with a four-game cushion over the Boston Red Sox.
Seattle has made the postseason just once over the last 23 seasons, which came back in 2022. That season was Raleigh’s breakout year as he hit 27 homers after notching just two long balls as a rookie the previous season. The Mariners did win their Wild Card Series, 2–0, over the Toronto Blue Jays before falling in the ALDS to the Astros in a three-game sweep.
Raleigh’s 50 home runs lead all of baseball and are five clear of second place, which is a tie between Shohei Ohtani and Kyle Schwarber. The catcher also tops the American League with 107 RBI and ranks second in the league in runs scored, total bases, and slugging percentage. With his unprecedented season, and with New York’s Aaron Judge recently having a stint on the injured list, Raleigh is now the favorite to take home the AL MVP award.
If he does take home the award, then he will be the first catcher since Buster Posey (2012) to win MVP, and Raleigh would be just the third catcher this millennium to be named Most Valuable Player.
