KANSAS CITY, MO — Cal Raleigh of the Seattle Mariners was taught by his father Todd about the art of switch-hitting. They went to Yankee Stadium and Todd would tell his son about the legend of Mickey Mantle when Cal was a child.
Now fast forward many years later and Raleigh stands in the history books alone in 2025—passing Mickey Mantle, by hitting his 55th and 56th home runs of the season Tuesday night against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium.
He wasted no time launching one that could be heard throughout Kauffman Stadium in the third as it was hit from the left side of the plate and pulled down the right field line at 419 ft and 109.5-MPH
“It’s crazy, just not a lot of words to describe it and I’m pretty grateful for that,” Raleigh told Latino Sports postgame in Kansas City.
Another cool footnote is that his father pitched to him at the 2025 Home Run Derby in Atlanta at Truist Park, which he also won.
The second home run was the next the pitch he saw in the fourth where he squared one up from the right side of the plate and sent it 425 feet to center field at 106.1-MPH.
Additionally, Raleigh not only passed Mantle’s single season record for a switch-hitter, but also tied Ken Griffey Jr. ‘s Mariners’ mark at 56. It has been an historic season for “The Big Dumper.”
It feels natural that this took place in Kansas City because Raleigh also passed Royals’ Salvador Pérez for the single season home run mark by a catcher with the Venezuelan great recording 48 in 2021.
“That’s somebody I look up to and to see a catcher hit 300 home runs, that’s incredible,” Raleigh said of Pérez post game. “You definitely want to honor those people that do it the right way and he has always done that.”
Cal Raleigh is a huge fan of Salvador Pérez, who recently recorded his 300th career home run and 1,000th career RBI – Image Credit: Bill Menzel/Latino Sports
Raleigh is not stat padding and hitting meaningless home runs because the Mariners have won 10 games in a row and are currently leading the American League West division over the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers.
He leads MLB with 56 home runs and his 118 RBIs lead the AL while his slashline is .247/.361/.590 in 554 at-bats this season. Raleigh also has an fWAR of 8.4, trailing just Shohei Ohtani (8.5) and Aaron Judge (8.8).
He isn’t done chasing history yet and the AL MVP could also be in his sights.
If the 2025 regular season ended today, who would be the American League MVP? Aaron Judge or Cal Raleigh? – Image Credit: Bill Menzel/Latino Sports
Judge has had a better season in every category besides home runs and RBI, but Raleigh is having an historic season. That needs to be taken into account.
Furthermore, Raleigh is seven home runs away from breaking Judge’s 2022 American League single season home run record of 62 HRs.
“I feel like I don’t belong on the list with all of those great players hitting these home runs and I never expected any of this to happen,” Raleigh noted.
With 11 games left to play, seven more long-shots might seem like a stretch, but it’s hard to count out Raleigh at this point.
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