What Happend To Cal Raleigh?

 In 2025, the Seattle Mariners catcher delivered a historic season. He hit .247/.359/.589 with a .948 OPS, led Major League Baseball with 60 home runs, and paced the American League with 125 RBIs. Those 60 homers set records for both a catcher and a switch-hitter in a single season. He finished second in AL MVP voting to Aaron Judge, collecting 13 first-place votes and 335 points to Judge’s 17 and 355 in one of the closest races in years.

One year later, the numbers look almost unrecognizable. Through roughly 85 games in 2026, Raleigh is batting .161 with a .267 on-base percentage and .303 slugging percentage (OPS around .570). He has 12 home runs, 43 RBIs, and 26 runs scored while striking out at a 32% clip. His WAR sits near zero or negative depending on the metric. Among qualified hitters, he ranks near the bottom in average, OPS, and overall production.

Raleigh’s 2026 issues began before the regular season. He left spring training to play for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic. Over three games, he went 0-for-9 with four walks. Limited at-bats and shared catching duties with Will Smith left him without the consistent work he needed. He did not appear in the semifinals or finals as the U.S. fell to Venezuela.

Multiple reports, including comments from ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian citing a Mariners source and remarks from bench coach Manny Acta, pointed to the tournament as a major disruption. The lack of regular swings threw off his timing. Upon returning to camp, Raleigh tried to make up for lost work and strained an oblique. He attempted to play through the injury early in the season before landing on the injured list for the first time in his career. The combination of disrupted preparation and the subsequent injury set the tone for a lost first half.

Even after returning, the power and hard contact that defined 2025 have largely vanished. Exit velocities, barrel rates, and hard-hit percentages dropped sharply. Raleigh has struggled especially against high-velocity fastballs, often appearing late. Strikeouts climbed while the ability to drive the ball in the air to the pull side, central to his 2025 success, diminished. Mechanics and timing issues have been cited repeatedly by analysts examining the year-over-year Statcast changes.

No one expected another 60-homer season. Regression after an outlier year is normal. What has happened instead is far more severe: a former MVP finalist and one of the game’s most productive catchers has spent much of 2026 as a liability at the plate. The Mariners, who entered the year with playoff expectations, have felt the absence of that production in the middle of the order.

Raleigh remains a strong defensive catcher and a durable presence when healthy. At 29, he is still young enough for a rebound. Yet the gap between the player who nearly won the 2025 AL MVP and the one hitting under .170 with diminished power is vast. The WBC experience, the resulting timing problems, and the oblique injury form a clear thread through the early struggles. Whether he can recapture even a version of his previous form will define the rest of Seattle’s season, and the next chapter of a career that went from historic peak to free fall in just one year.