A year ago, the idea of intentionally walking the batter ahead of Cal Raleigh would’ve been completely unfathomable. The Seattle Mariners catcher had one of the greatest slugging performances in baseball history in 2025, becoming just the seventh player to bash 60 home runs in a single season.
A year ago, the idea of intentionally walking the batter ahead of Cal Raleigh would’ve been completely unfathomable. (AP Photo)
But in a routine midsummer game a few weeks ago, Cincinnati Reds manager Terry Francona did just that. He decided it was simply too risky to let lefty designated hitter Dominic Canzone bat with two runners aboard. The better strategy would be to put up four fingers, load the bases and bring Raleigh up to the plate.
It was a low point in what has become a nightmare summer for Raleigh. In fact, the man known as “Big Dumper” is having what might be the biggest year-over-year drop-off of all-time.
Raleigh entered Friday with just 12 home runs. No qualified hitter has seen a decrease of 40 homers from one season to the next since Hall of Famer Hack Wilson went from 56 in 1930 to 13 in 1931. At this rate, Raleigh would finish with 17, or 43 fewer than a season ago.
Meanwhile, Raleigh’s on-base-plus-slugging percentage has dropped from .948 to .574—worst in the major leagues among batters with at least 300 plate appearances. Again, nobody since Wilson almost a century ago has experienced a plunge that dramatic. And that was so shocking that the Chicago Cubs even hired a private investigator to see if late-night carousing was the source of Wilson’s woes.
The Mariners haven’t quite gone to those lengths with Raleigh, but relative to the league, his drop has been worse. In Wilson’s fall-off campaign, he was still an above average hitter. Raleigh meanwhile, has been among baseball’s worst.
“I just haven’t performed the way that I would like to,” Raleigh said recently.
Raleigh’s 2025 breakout established him as one of baseball’s biggest stars, as he carried the Mariners to within one win of the franchise’s first World Series appearance. He finished two homers shy of Aaron Judge’s American League record of 62 and shattered Mickey Mantle’s 1961 mark of 54 for the most ever for a switch hitter.
He did it all while playing catcher, the most physically and mentally demanding defensive position on the field and the spot where offensive production is typically viewed as an afterthought.
Given all that, Raleigh understandably came into this season as an MVP favorite. But then his season got off to a weird start.
Raleigh was one of many star players who left spring training in the middle to participate in the World Baseball Classic. He was expected to be one of Team USA’s most prominent power hitters alongside Aaron Judge and Bryce Harper.
That’s not what happened. Raleigh went 0 for 9 in the tournament, ultimately losing his job to Will Smith of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He didn’t play in the semifinals or finals, which ended with a U.S. loss to Venezuela. Along the way he was involved in an incident with Mexico outfielder Randy Arozarena, his teammate on the Mariners, that created a minor stir.
All told, swapping out a normal ramp-up spring training period for high-pressure baseball kept him away from the Mariners for three weeks during the tournament.
“I don’t think the Baseball Classic helped Cal Raleigh at all,” Mariners bench coach Manny Acta said on MLB Network in July.
Raleigh isn’t the only player who has struggled this season after participating in the WBC, including Jarren Duran and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. But the tournament certainly didn’t throw off stars like Kyle Schwarber, Pete Crow-Armstrong and even Arozarena, who are all having big seasons.
He started slow, hitting .161 into the middle of May. At one point, while dealing with a side injury, he endured an 0-for-38 slump before eventually missing about a month to recover. The Mariners hoped that when he returned, he’d resemble the 2025 version of Raleigh—or at the very least, the 2024 version.
Instead, he has hit .163 with five homers since coming back, leaving the Mariners running out of time to get him on track. Without Raleigh’s contributions, the team has underperformed, currently sitting under .500 and chasing a playoff spot. It has been a disappointing result for a group that began the season with World Series aspirations.
If the Mariners are going to close the gap, they’ll need Raleigh to be a big part of it. And if they do, managers won’t be so eager to see “Big Dumper” come to the plate in October.
After all, in that July game he did make Francona pay for his disrespect—by hitting a grand slam.
