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The Seattle Mariners are being led by a superstar player not named Julio Rodriguez. Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh is off to a phenomenal start to the 2025 season and he is already getting compared to an all-time great of the game.
Raleigh, aka "Big Dumper," has often flown under the radar despite back-to-back 30-home run seasons. But 2025 has been a different story. Raleigh is among the top sluggers in the majors in many statistical categories. He is hitting .254 along with 17 home runs (fourth) and 35 RBIs.
On Monday's episode of "Underdog MLB," Boston Red Sox analyst Jared Carrabis gave a surprising revelation about Raleigh's standing in fWAR.
"After Aaron Judge in the American League, who leads the American League in fWAR? And he would throw out a name—probably a superstar player," Carrabis said (31:37 onwards). "I guarantee you he wouldn't give me the correct answer, because I wouldn't have guessed this. It's Cal Raleigh. Cal Raleigh being number two."
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Carrabis highlighted Raleigh’s 171 wRC+ (weighted runs created plus), a metric that adjusts for ballpark and era, meaning he’s producing offense 71% better than the average hitter.
"Like, from an offensive standpoint, he's in the Shohei Ohtani tier for offense. He plays primarily catcher," Carrabis added.
Cal Raleigh the reason behind Mariners' strong start
The Seattle Mariners are off to a hot start in the American League West division, possessing a record of 29-23. The Houston Astros are right behind them with a 28-25 record.
One of the reasons behind the Mariners' improved offense can be attributed to Cal Raleigh who can be attributed as a legitimate MVP candidate after 52 games.
In the latest weekly power rankings, the Mariners raised their position up two places and now sits eighth. Will Leitch of MLB.com thinks Raleigh is the reason.
"Is Cal Raleigh going to make himself an MVP contender?" Leitch said. "He has never finished higher than 12th in the voting (last year), but he’s fourth in the Majors in homers, putting up career-high numbers in batting average and on-base percentage and playing Gold Glove-caliber defense behind the plate.
"And he’s doing it for a team still in first place, though that gap is closing with the Astros now right behind them."
In the month of May, Raleigh is among the OPS leaders. His 1.048 OPS only trails league's best hitters, including Aaron Judge, Rafael Devers, Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman.
With the Astros closing in for division lead, the Mariners will like Raleigh to continue to turn up for the team and keep getting it wins.
