Cal Raleigh hit 60 home runs in 2025, the most ever by a primary catcher in Major League Baseball history, a season that put him second in AL MVP voting behind Aaron Judge and turned him into one of the most celebrated players in the game.
He is hitting .169 in 2026 with a negative WAR. The drop-off is the largest among any hitter with 200-plus plate appearances in both seasons.
Sitting in the visiting dugout at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg ahead of the second half, Raleigh held a torpedo bat, the same model he used during his historic 2025 campaign — and opened up about what happened.
The culprit, according to both Raleigh and Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto, is a chain of events that started in spring training. An illness disrupted his preparation and forced him to rush his conditioning.
Then came an oblique strain, the kind of injury Dipoto said "makes sense when you're working double time trying to catch up." The oblique kept him out of significant time. His mechanics fell out of sync. The numbers followed.
"We had high expectations to be one of the best teams in the league, if not the best by the end of the year," Raleigh said. "And when you're not living up to those expectations, it's hard."
His plan for the second half is to simplify. "I know the swing is good," he said. ESPN's Jeff Passan was characteristically direct about his belief in the correction: "Cal Raleigh will fix himself. I absolutely, firmly believe that because I believe in the person."
The Mariners are in the thick of the AL West race. They need him to.