By the numbers: Mariners couldn't have planned Cal Raleigh's record-setting turnaround

The Seattle Mariners are 38-36, 4.5 games behind Houston in the AL West and firmly in the Wild Card hunt. For a team with fairly low expectations going into the season, it's hard not to feel good about where things stand. The majority of the credit belongs to 28-year-old catcher and AL MVP candidate Cal Raleigh.

We will probably hand the AL MVP trophy to Aaron Judge again when all is said and done, but don't ignore Raleigh. The former Gold Glove winner has come alive at the plate this season, emerging as one of MLB's most dangerous power threats in the heart of Seattle's lineup.

The narrative around this M's team for years has been that it can defend and pitch with the very best, but the lineup just isn't good enough to compete with the AL heavyweights. There may still be truth to that statement in terms of overall depth, but Raleigh has at least changed the perception around Seattle's lineup. He is producing at a historic level for his position.

Let's dive into the math.

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Cal Raleigh's statistical dominance makes the Mariners dangerous

Raleigh's surging right now. He went 3-for-4 with a walk in Friday's win over the Chicago Cubs, mashing two home runs and notching three RBI. That puts him at 29 home runs on the season, one shy of his career high. It's June. He leads the AL in homers, RBI (63) and only trails Aaron Judge in slugging percentage (.622).

With a .266 average and .994 OPS, Raleigh's numbers stack up with the very best in baseball. He's in the 98th percentile for barrel rate (19.7%), per Baseball Savant, which means Raleigh consistently generates quality contact. He's in the 86th percentile for hard-hit rate (50.0%) and the 88th percentile for bat speed (74.8 MPH), which is top-30 in MLB. The swing cuts through the zone with a purpose, quick and direct, and Raleigh does not miss the meaty part of the barrel.

Central to Raleigh's improvement has been his rapid growth from the right side of the plate. The switch-hitting catcher has always been effective against righties, but now he is raking off of lefties just as often. Raleigh's career batting average as a right-handed hitter before this season was .202 with .681 OPS. In 2025, Raleigh is batting .306 as a right-handed hitter with a 1.070 OPS. Just an absurd amount of growth in a short timespan.

Is it all a little noisy? Will Raliegh come back down to earth? Maybe a little bit, but we are almost halfway through this season and his performance has been more or less consistent from the jump. Still 28, Raleigh is at the front end of his career's prime. This feels like a very real trend — one fans (and the Mariners brass) can bank.

Raleigh's 29 home runs, by the way, put him in exclusive company.

Most home runs by a catcher before the All-Star Break

Raleigh's 29 home runs before the All-Star break is a new positional record, eclipsing Johnny Bench at 28. There are also four weeks until the All-Star break, which means Raleigh can build on this historic accomplishment and put his stamp on this record for a long, long time. Bench needed 87 games (14 more than Raleigh has played) to reach 28. Pudge Rodríguez, in third place at 26, needed 80 games.

The M's have won five of their last seven and are moving back in the right direction after a brief slump. Raleigh is an elite game manager and framing artist behind home plate, in addition to wrecking pitching staffs at the plate. He deserves a ton of credit and, again, perhaps a little more MVP buzz.