The Seattle Mariners have a superstar on their hands in Cal Raleigh. In Monday night's 9-6 victory over the San Diego Padres, the star catcher swatted his 50th home run of the 2025 season. That's the single-season record for a catcher, and he's approaching some other history as well. There is still just over a month left in the season, so there is plenty of time for him to make more history.
In fact, he is 12 home runs away from tying fellow American League MVP candidate Aaron Judge's record of 62 home runs in a single season. He even has a chance to break that record. Judge's 62 homer season came in 2022 when he helped guide the New York Yankees to the ALCS. He was later named the MVP for the first time in his career and won the award again in 2024 after hitting 58 home runs.
But it will be interesting to see if or when Raleigh can catch or pass Judge.
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Can Cal Raleigh catch Aaron Judge on all-time single season home run list?
Obviously, Raleigh needs to hit 12 home runs to tie Judge and 13 to unseat him as the single season home run king. But to determine if he can actually get there, his pace to do so must be studied. Raleigh's 50th home run came last night on August 25. Judge hit his 50th home run of 2022 on August 29.
The end date of the regular season matters here. The regular season did not end until October 5 in 2022, which left Judge plenty of time to break the record. This was of course because the lockout delayed the start of the 2022 season.
The final day of the regular season this year is September 28, so there's actually a little bit less time for Raleigh to get close to the record. It certainly is possible, and it will be interesting to watch to see if he can get there. But even at his torrid pace, it's going to take a lot more home runs to reach Judge's total.
But it's also not too much of a stretch. Based on the calculator in the link, we can determine how many home runs Raleigh is on pace for.
Mariners schedule could benefit Cal Raleigh
There are 30 games left in the season. Raleigh managed to get to 50 in 132 games. He'll have a good chance to pick up some ground in the September 8-10 series against the St. Louis Cardinals and the September 23-25 series against the Colorado Rockies. Those two teams are out of contention, and their pitching staffs are not good.
St. Louis is a pitch-to-contact staff, so there's a good chance he could hit some homers in that series. There's also a key series September 5-7 against the Atlanta Braves. Their pitching staff has also fallen apart, and Atlanta is a good ballpark to hit in, so that's another series he could gain some ground in the chase.
Raleigh is hitting .247/.353/.596 with a 5.9 WAR and 107 RBI this season. He also has a .949 OPS and 168 OPS+. The numbers in the calculator will show that Raleigh is on pace for about 61 home runs, so he could get close. That would mean he would have to hit a home run at least once every two games.
So, while it might be hard and may take a miracle, if Raleigh continues at this pace, he could potentially reach or pass Judge's mark. He's at a pace of one home run every two games, so with 30 to go, there's still a shot for him to get there.