Inside Shea Langeliers record pace: Why Cal Raleigh could lose his treasured record

Regardless of how the Athletics’ 2026 season ends, catcher Shea Langeliers should be near the top of the modern-day miracle workers list. After all, if you can convince fans to voluntarily watch a rebuilding team playing its home games at a minor-league stadium, then there’s likely nothing that you can’t do. 

Langeliers is off to a torrid start, mashing five home runs with a 1.289 OPS through seven games. He’s already totaled a league-leading 0.8 bWAR and, at his current pace, should easily surpass last year’s 3.9. Of course, if Langeliers keeps things up, he’ll set another high: the single-season American League home runs record and the single-season home run record by a catcher. 

Could Shea Langeliers really break Cal Raleigh’s home run record?

It’s obviously quite early to predict that Langeliers will find himself in the history books. I once watched Alex Rodriguez hit 14 home runs in April and “only” finish the year with 54 homers. So much for an 80-homer season. 

Let’s put it this way: Langeliers still needs to hit another 55 home runs just to tie the 60 that Raleigh smashed last year. However; there is one thing that Langeliers has working in his favor that Rodriguez, Raleigh, and Aaron Judge never did: his home stadium. 

When you’re a power hitter playing 81 games at a minor-league ballpark with extremely hitter-friendly dimensions, you should feel like a dog with new toys. For (hopefully) less than three hours a night, the world is your oyster if you can connect on a slider that doesn’t slide the way it should. 

Here’s where things get interesting. Of Langeliers 31 home runs last year, only 12 came at Sutter Health Park, and his .278 home average was right in line with his hitting .274 on the road. 

All five of his homers so far came on the A’s season-opening road trip. He went 0-for-3 with two walks in an 11-4 home victory over the Astros on Friday night. Just imagine what could happen if Langeliers cracks the code to homering in Sacramento.

Shea Langeliers breaking Cal Raleigh’s home run record wouldn’t be tainted

I can just imagine it now: Langeliers will pass 40 home runs in August, and our favorite talking heads and pundits will start claiming that his final numbers should carry an asterisk because of Sutter Health Park. 

I would also imagine that anyone who makes such an argument has never even played college sports. 

What people never understand is that even the worst professional teams still have some of the greatest players in the world. Even in college, you typically don’t get a chance to compete by accident. Coaches see something in your talent that they feel is worth giving you an opportunity. 

Who cares if Raleigh will play 13 games against a perennially rebuilding Angels team? Or that, barring an injury, he’s guaranteed to face the Rockies and Nationals at some point?

Now, it someone wants to argue that his numbers could be inflated, that’s a much different conversation because you can cite home and away splits. That’s a major reason why I was down on Rays third baseman Junior Caminero entering this year. He’s not playing his home games at a minor-league stadium anymore. 

Instead, he’s playing at Tropicana Field, which is arguably worse than a minor-league stadium. 

Thankfully, it feels like we’ve finally moved on from talk about records being “tainted” or the idea that certain achievements don’t mean as much anymore. 

I personally need a bit more time before I can truly decide whether I think Langeliers will even pass 40 homers. But he’s already got us overreacting and thinking about history, and that alone should be a massive victory for both the A’s and Major League Baseball.

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