Crouching Catcher, Hidden Value: The Unprecedented Cal Raleigh

There’s something happening at T-Mobile Park in Seattle and, no, I’m not talking about the now-viral Hot Dogs From Heaven or the surprise salmon-by-eagle air drop, although maybe I should be (and really want to).

I’m talking about Cal Raleigh leading the MLB in home runs, already with 36 and counting at time of writing, outpacing sluggers like Judge and Ohtani as a platinum glove catcher. That’s the headline as we steam towards the All-Star Game, where Cal will start behind the plate for the American League. It’s a historic season already.

I posit that, while Shohei Ohtani’s $700 million contract was the result of baseball finally pricing multi-hyphenate value, the real market inefficiency might be hiding behind the plate.

Cal’s $105 million deal now looks like a steal for a player both beating out Shohei in WAR and adding value to each and every pitcher that steps on the mound for the Mariners. Quite simply, Cal Raleigh insists we reassess the value of Catcher-Hitters much like we did Pitcher-Hitters for Shohei.

To that end, we’re going to unpack Mr. Raleigh first as the Teammate he is, then as the Outlier he’s become.  

The Teammate 

Cal’s performance thus far has been so unprecedented that it has transfixed the eyeballs of fans at T-Mobile and across the league, pulling attention from the Mariners’ underperforming record and fellow All-Star selections. Cal himself has seemed somewhat uncomfortable with all this attention. He’s a true catcher at heart, focused on team success. This makes him an ideal candidate for the novel, oft-contradictory role of reluctant, offensive superstar catcher.  

Best guess as to how Cal reacted to officially being named an all-star?  

Cal found the local TV ads, jumbotron prompts, and ‘Big Dumper’-themed walk-out song nights (he has a famously impressive posterior, sparking the moniker) to be a bit much. Already naturally soft-spoken, his reaction is even more understandable when one considers how meteoric – and unexpected – his rise to prominence has been.  

See, until this year, Cal wasn’t the main attraction in Seattle. That honor belonged to the much-ballyhooed center fielder Julio ‘JRod’ Rodriguez. Julio had come to the Mariners at the ripe young age of 21 in 2022, joining a 25-year-old Cal who was going into his first year starting at catcher. Julio’s instant proclivity for eye-catchingly athletic home run theft in the outfield and a streaky bat at the plate quickly earned him (what looked like) a permanent spot as the Mariners’ franchise cornerstone. Heck, at his peak in 2023, Julio was popular with baseball fans, period (as evidenced by his place amongst the top 20 best-selling jerseys league-wide). 

Off to the side, Cal was a dependable hand behind the plate with an explosive, accurate arm for picking runners off at second. This defensive prowess has since earned him gold and platinum glove honors and a firm place in Mariners fans’ hearts. Meanwhile, Rodriguez was a ubiquitous presence in local and national ads, with his popularity earning him a special ‘No Fly Zone’ section of seats in center field marketed after him at T-Mobile. 

No harm, no foul – these things peaceably coexisted. Cal mowed ‘em down at second base, and Julio had the fans abuzz with every at-bat, M-V-P chants cascading down in the Cascades. They were two necessary cogs of a team that was once again winning games, with Cal occupying the historically typical, less-shiny role of a does-the-dirty-work, never complains catcher.  

Heading into 2025, expectations were for more of the same, with many fans hoping a fully reinvigorated Julio would be able to perform at his previous levels again (his 2024 had been marred by injury). In some ways, this has happened. The Mariners are not having a bad year. To the contrary, four are headed to the All-Star Game, Julio and Cal included: 

But that’s not what you’ll be hearing about as the All-Star Game approaches. Narrative, as it so often does, followed a new, more surprising path cut by Fate.  

Cal had been hitting a decent number of homers ever since he took on full duties behind the plate in 2022, adding 3 to 4 homers to his tally each year and generally improving along an expected curve.  Then 2025 happened.  

Crushing dingers at an astonishing, record-breaking pace, Cal has already passed his previous totals before the All-Star break this season (teams have about 40% of their season or ~66 games post-break this year). That’s not just growth, that’s an explosion.  

Even more interestingly, this eruption has spurred a seismic change in the hearts of fans. While Julio is still beloved, 2025 has been the year of Cal Raleigh, and the Mariners have become Cal’s team. What enabled this drastic change to take effect so quickly, you ask?   

Well, Cal particularly resonates with fans due to both his historic numbers and his established history as a team-first defensive player. His humble beginnings make his staggering multiplicity all the more admirable.   

Furthermore, the strength of Cal Raleigh’s personal offensive narrative this year is proving that Catcher/Hitters may be a woefully undervalued combination. In the supposedly already ‘solved’ game of baseball, he’s an outlier demonstrating an inefficiency.  

I can verify this from personal experience. I was fortunate enough to be at the aforementioned badonka-donk-themed walkout song game on June 30^th. That day at T-Mobile, the bullpen was lined a couple rows deep well before first pitch. Not, per usual, to watch the pitchers throw – but to watch Cal catch. Everyone just wanted to be in physical proximity to baseball history. I certainly did. 

During the game itself, the cheers for Julio and the other Mariners were loud, but when Cal stepped to the plate for his at-bats…  

The place went berserk. It was Cal’s turn to hear loud, organic chants of M-V-P boom down from the Mariners faithful. 

Cal obliged the crowd by hitting a home run to deep right center in the 7^th, shaking the place to its foundations. That’s the story of Cal’s journey from key cog to cornerstone due to an unignorable jump with the bat. The logical next narrative, that of Cal as an Outlier and league-wide figure, looks to be only beginning.  

The Outlier 

History can be shocking, boring, or challenging. It’s often enlightening. In this case, the diversity of Raleigh’s achievements this season is simply bewildering. Just to get the ball rolling, here’s a comparison Brian Nemhauser ( @hawkblogger ) picked out. 

I’ll give encapsulating Cal’s totality in a sentence a try – he is a switch-hitting, base-stealing, home run race-leading, basestealer-stopping catcher. He’s well ahead of the pace to break the catcher and switch-hitter home run records for a single season. If he can keep his health, he can set his sights even higher and by chasing all-time hitting records from here on out. That’s both among Mariners’ franchise leaders and league-wide, where he could land among the most famous of famous names. As of writing, Cal’s HR pace (his projected to hit rate if he remains healthy) would slot him one above Roger Maris and one below Bonds. Yeah, that’s a ways above Judge’s best-in-the-modern-era 62 in 2022. Might be, might be trouble…  

Fun fact about all that. There is a decent argument to be made that Raleigh’s adoption of the ‘torpedo bat’ (the thicker, mid-barreled bat of opening day Yankees infamy) a couple of weeks into the season influenced his surge. He adopted it, ripped a couple over the fence batting lefty, his confidence soared, and he never looked back.  

Again, this performance as an offensive savant is only deepened by his deadly abilities on the defensive end. Cal’s platinum glove stems from a strong arm liable to throw out runners (he leads the league in steal pick-offs two years running) and his capacity for some of the league’s best pitch framing.  

We’ll dial in on the pitch framing as I think it’s undervalued as a catalyst. Here’s the data compiled by Jacob Parr (@jakebparr) demonstrating how Raleigh ‘stole’ the most strikeouts last year by employing pitch framing (shifting the pitch as he catches it to convince umpires): 

Point being, said framing lends a net benefit to each and every pitcher that Raleigh catches for, a huge positive spread across the whole pitching staff. This is worth remembering because I am about to make what might seem like an outlandish claim.  

Cal Raleigh is the Shohei Ohtani of catchers – and might still be undervalued beyond that. 

That might seem outrageous at first but let me explain. For the scarce few uninitiated, Shohei Ohtani, baseball’s biggest global star, does double duty as both a Designated Hitter and a starting pitcher. He’s a unicorn, a multi-hyphenate outlier that hasn’t been seen in baseball in nigh a century (Babe Ruth being the obvious example from bygone eras). Shohei inked a $700 million/10 year contract for these unique talents, that eye-flooding number having been calculated by combining the highest hitter and pitcher salaries to approximate Ohtani’s true value (also accounting for global popularity).  
 
I cover all that ground to say that, similarly, Cal has transcended just having an excellent season for a catcher and is now having a singular, record-setting season as a multi-hyphenate superstar. Much like Ohtani, just behind the plate.  

I contend that Cal’s multi-hyphenicity (whew), while at first glance less striking than Ohtani’s, is categorically undervalued for a few key reasons. While it’s startling and affecting to watch Ohtani trot out every fifth or sixth game and mow down batters then bash homers, Cal catches for every pitcher, all game, every game. Consequentially, the net benefits of his framing, his throwing, and his leadership are constant.  

So, yes, if we posit that Cal is the best hitting catcher we’ve ever seen, that might be less striking than Ohtani because we see catchers hit all the time (as opposed to Pitcher/Hitters like Ohtani had disappeared from the game). BUT, when the offensive numbers are this staggering, and the defensive benefits are this pervasive across the team and pitching staff, there’s an argument for the overall net value of the more workmanly, more present Catcher/Hitter over the overwhelming but infrequent Pitcher/Hitter. WAR (Wins Above Replacement) backs this up with Cal ranked at 3^rd and Shohei at 11^th so far this season. WAR is an imperfect measurement, and Shohei has only been pitching a couple of innings a week while working to full health, but still. Regardless, another hidden benefit Cal being a catcher is that, as opposed to with Shohei pitching, the DH slot remains freed up to slot in another bat.  
 
It’s like having a dad actually there to raise you versus one who pops up when you’re eighteen and gifts you his old Mustang. I mean, yeah, the Mustang is siiick, but it might be better to know how to change the oil or ask a date out in the long run. Constant benefit versus occasional brilliance.  
 
Ok, slight reach there, but nevertheless, the $105 million/6 years contract that Raleigh inked is looking like an absolute steal for the Mariners compared to Ohtani’s $700/10. It might be worth that price for this year alone if Raleigh can keep the pace up, set the records, and lead his team through a deep playoff push.  

I think you’d be hard pressed to find a baseball fan who is legitimately against Cal doing so. With national media now highlighting his unreal streak, and with Cal confirming he will also participate in the Home Run Derby as part of break (buried that lede), some haters may emerge. I doubt it will stop him. Fate may be on his side already, as evidenced by this recently resurfaced apocryphal video of young Cal articulating a then-pie-in-the-sky goal: 

Well, spoiler alert, he is now. Cal won the 2025 Home Run Derby on July 14th, just before publication. His dad threw the pitches for him and his 15-year-old brother caught, cheering him along.

Baseball loves a narrative and Cal has his by the horns right now. Maybe it will be enough to change how modern catchers are thought about and the fate of the so-far-cursed Mariners.