Cal Raleigh finally looked like Cal Raleigh again on Monday night, and the timing couldn’t have been more urgent for the Seattle Mariners.
Raleigh blasted three home runs against the Philadelphia Phillies to carry Seattle to a 9-2 win. For anyone who had only a hazy memory of the 2025 season and then dropped into this game cold, it would have looked like more of the same from a catcher who has spent the year punishing baseballs.
That was the story last season, when Raleigh hit .247 but still led the majors with 60 home runs and 125 RBI while posting a .948 OPS. His Baseball-Reference WAR came in at 7.2, while Fangraphs had him at 9.1, with the difference tied to catcher framing.
Raleigh’s 2025 campaign became one of the central arguments in the American League MVP race, with fans and analysts weighing his season against Aaron Judge’s monster year for the New York Yankees. Judge won the award, but only narrowly.
He hit .331/.457/.688, led the league in all three slash-line categories, and finished with 53 home runs, 114 RBI, and 137 runs scored. Judge led the majors in bWAR at 9.7 and posted a 10 fWAR.
In the final vote, Judge got 17 first-place votes and 355 total points, while Raleigh received 13 first-place votes and 335 total points. In a race obsessed with home runs, the deciding edge may well have been batting average.
That makes Raleigh’s 2026 season even harder to process. Before the Phillies game, he was hitting .160 with 15 home runs and 48 RBI. The Mariners, who came within nine outs of reaching the World Series the year before, were under .500, sitting third in the AL West and staring at a possible missed postseason.
Then came the burst that had been waiting to happen, and maybe had started to feel impossible.
Over his last seven games beginning with Game 1 of the Phillies series, Raleigh is hitting .347 with 6 home runs and 7 RBI. He caught only two of the three games in Boston, resting for the series finale after the physical toll of playing behind the plate.
That kind of wear has mattered all season. Raleigh has appeared in 97 of Seattle’s 140 games, with some absences coming for rest and others to give him a break from his brutal stretch at the plate.
And brutal is putting it lightly. His .172 batting average is the worst in major league history for a player who qualifies for the batting title.
Since the modern game is generally dated to 1903, that means Raleigh’s average stands as the lowest in the full 123 years of MLB. It’s a staggering drop-off after last year’s historic production and his second-place MVP finish, though it also says plenty about the trust the Mariners have placed in him as a leader and as the handler of their pitching staff.
Whether the surge is enough to change Seattle’s season is another question entirely.
The Mariners opened this stretch needing the Phillies, Toronto Blue Jays, and Boston Red Sox series to go well, since those were the only opponents on the schedule with winning records at the time. The trip through Toronto and Boston may end up being the blow that finally sinks the season. Seattle was swept by the Blue Jays and took two of three from the Red Sox, finishing the road swing 2-5.
Now the Mariners are 66-74 entering a home series against the Athletics, five games behind the 71-69 Astros. Fangraphs gives Seattle a 17.4% chance to reach the playoffs. Still, the schedule ahead is the softest in baseball, with remaining opponents carrying a combined .444 winning percentage.
The Mariners are still hanging on, and Raleigh’s bat has suddenly come alive. The question is whether it woke up in time.
In Other News...
Mariners Farm System Just Took A Brutal Hit Before The Offseason
The Mariners farm system took another hit late in the season, with shortstop prospect Felnin Celesten likely done for the year after a minor groin injury, according to general manager Justin Hollander. Celesten had been placed on the 7-day injured list at Double-A Arkansas and is now expected to miss the rest of the season, a frustrating setback for one of the organizations more watched infield prospects as the minor league schedule winds down.
Outfielder Brennen Davis is also out for the remainder of the year after an oblique injury landed him on the 60-day injured list, leaving Seattle with one more development loss to absorb before the offseason. There was at least some good news in the system, though, as Brandon Eike and Jack Bowery picked up monthly awards for their August performances, a reminder that the pipeline still has some momentum even with the latest injuries. [Read more 🡒]
Mariners May Be Losing The AL West Rival They Loved Facing
The AL West may be about to get a lot more interesting, and not just because of what happens on the field. Arte Moreno is selling the Los Angeles Angels to billionaire Stan Kroenke, a sports owner whose portfolio already includes several championship-winning franchises, and that kind of change carries real implications for a division that has long been shaped by the Angels uneven results and missed chances.
For Seattle, the timing matters because the Mariners have spent years measuring themselves against a Los Angeles club that has too often looked like a vulnerable target. A new owner with Kroenkes track record could mean a different level of ambition, resources and organizational pressure in Anaheim, and that is the part worth watching now. The Mariners may be seeing one of their most familiar rivals turn into something harder to count on. [Read more 🡒]
Mariners Suddenly Face A September Roster Squeeze They Cant Escape
The Mariners had already been juggling late-season roster decisions, and the latest round of moves only tightened the squeeze. Julio Rodrguez was placed on the family medical emergency list, which opened the door for Seattle to select Stuart Fairchild from Triple-A Tacoma and plug another hole in the outfield mix.
Cal Raleigh is still on the 7-day concussion injured list because symptoms have lingered, and Matt Brash was shut down from throwing after lat tightness led to an MRI. Between the outfield, the lineup and a bullpen that has already felt the strain, Seattle is running out of easy answers as September winds down. [Read more 🡒]