History: Cal Raleigh stands alone in MLB record books with 50th home run
The MVP chants are growing for the best catcher in baseball as Cal Raleigh continues to rewrite baseball’s history books.
Before the night of Aug. 25, 2025, no catcher in MLB history had ever delivered a 50 home-run season — but “Big Dumper” has etched his name onto a one-man list.
In Monday night’s opener with the San Diego Padres, Raleigh launched a low fastball 419 feet well into the upper deck above Edgar’s Cantina at T-Mobile Park, becoming the first backstop to ever reach the half-century mark.
Each of Raleigh’s last three home runs each have created history. No. 48 tied Kansas City’s Salvador Perez (2021) for the most home runs by a catcher in a single season, the first of Raleigh’s two-homer game against the Athletics on Sunday afternoon. No. 49 landed an inning later, when he set a new mark in an 11-4 win.
And now, 50. Raleigh quickly fell behind San Diego Padres lefty J.P. Sears but worked the count full, fouled off the seventh pitch of the at-bat and demolished the eighth, an all-time milestone for one of baseball’s most-feared at-bats.
“I’d say the hardest part is just trying to stay focused on the main goal, and that’s winning baseball games and helping this team get to where we need to get to,” Raleigh said Sunday. “Doing this has been awesome and amazing, but at the same time, it’s more focusing on the other guys in that room, focusing on the pitchers, focusing on the team goals rather than myself.
“Usually, when I’m focused on that, good things happen.”
Raleigh becomes the second player in Mariners history to hit 50 home runs in a season, joining Hall of Fame outfielder Ken Griffey Jr., who reached the mark in back-to-back seasons (1997-98). He’s just four home runs shy of all-time great Mickey Mantle’s record of 54 home runs by a switch-hitter (1961) and six homers away from tying Griffey Jr.’s single-season Mariners record of 56.
Is the American League MVP award next? New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge (-175) paces the field, but Raleigh has the best chance to unseat the reigning Most Valuable Player (+100) with even odds, per FanDuel. In 128 games for the Mariners this season, the Platinum Glove-winning catcher leads the American League with 50 home runs and 107 RBI.
“It doesn’t seem real,” Raleigh said Monday. “Fifty home runs is kind of a crazy number to think of. Kind of a big number just in general.
“I remember, thinking back… I thought I was cool when I hit five (home runs) when I was young in high school. … It’s crazy. It’s a cool number, for sure.”
This story was originally published August 25, 2025 at 9:15 PM with the headline "History: Cal Raleigh stands alone in MLB record books with 50th home run."
