Mariners' Cal Raleigh sends clear message on All-Star chase and World Series focus

Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh is enjoying a phenomenal 2025 season. Having gone yard 32 times already, the catcher leads the major leagues for home runs at this point.

Naturally, with the way he has been performing so far, many are expecting Cal Raleigh's first All-Star selection to be a guarantee at this point.

Making an appearance on MLB Network on Saturday, the catcher talked about how he was looking forward to potentially playing in the midseason classic for the first time in his career.

Despite all the hype surrounding individual accolades, however, Raleigh asserted that priority number one for him is always ensuring he can help his team towards their ultimate goal - making it to the postseason and winning the World Series.

"First things first, you want to win the World Series, you want to help your team get to the postseason, that's the number one goal. But, I think anybody who plays this game and wants to be successful, those individual accolades are high on the list of the whole game in general," Cal Raleigh said.

"Being in the big leagues, you want to reach that pinnacle of your position, of that stature of being an All-Star. Not many guys can say they've done that. It's one of those things, hopefully it can happen, you never know. Fingers are crossed, knocking on wood. That would be a cool experience."

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Reds legend claims Cal Raleigh has a good chance of beating Barry Bonds' home run record, analyzes reason for catcher's powerful hitting

On Monday's episode of "Mayor's Office With Sean Casey", Cincinnati Reds legend Sean Casey talked about the possibility of Mariners star Cal Raleigh beating Barry Bonds' single-season home run record, which he set in 2001 with 73 dingers.

"You look at the numbers. When Bonds hit 73, he had 39 at the break. I mean, Raleigh’s got 20 games to go till the break. He could actually get to 39. It’s just, you know, it’s really impressive. Not easy to do what he’s been doing," Casey said.

Further, the former first baseman talked about how Raleigh's core strength is a major reason he can generate so much power in his swing.

"I think a big reason is because of the strength of his core," Casey added

Chasing only their third postseason appearance since 2000, Mariners fans will be hoping Cal Raleigh will be able to maintain his fantastic levels of production in the second half of the season as well.

About the author

Raghav Mehta is a baseball journalist at Sportskeeda awaiting results for a Bachelor's in Journalism from Delhi University. He enjoys highlighting the key battles between players at different stages of the game and analyzing the decisive moments upon which they hinge.

One of Raghav's favorite moments, which underscores this, was the Shohei Ohtani vs. Mike Trout clash in the 2023 WBC, where two of baseball's best players faced off against each other in the 9th inning. With the score 3-2 to Japan, Shohei eventually got the strikeout, which was absolute cinema.

Raghav is a Baltimore Orioles fan and is enjoying watching such an exciting young team compete at the top in a very competitive division.

Raghav has loved watching sports for as long as he can remember and realized he was pretty decent at writing his thoughts down at around the age of 14. Combining the two meant he had something he would enjoy doing every day, and he had identified that well before going to college.

Aside from work, Raghav enjoys playing sports, working out and watching movies.

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Edited by Victor R. Lopez M.