Cal Raleigh

Raleigh underwent a left shoulder acromioclavicular (AC) debridement procedure at the University of Washington Medical Center on October 3rd. There was no real indication of when the shoulder injury happened or how/if it hampered his production. We knew Raleigh dealt with an oblique injury during the season, but perhaps he was struggling through more than that. The 29-year-old slashed 182/.296/.368 slash line with 49 runs scored, 23 homers, 69 RBI and two steals in 126 games in 2026. He could be a decent bounce-back candidate at a depressed cost in fantasy leagues in 2027, given his injuries this season and previous power production.

There’s no way to sugarcoat Raleigh’s persistent struggles after breaking nearly every single-season offensive record for a catcher during last year’s 60-homer effort. The 29-year-old slugger finishes with a calamitous .182/.296/.368 slash line with 49 runs scored, 23 homers, 69 RBI and two steals in 126 games. It feels inevitable that there will be some sort of explanation provided by Raleigh or the club at some point in the offseason because he never seemed right from the World Baseball Classic through the end of the year.

It looks to be just a routine breather for Raleigh as we head into the final weekend of the regular season. Jhonny Pereda will start in his place behind the dish and will bat seventh against Angels’ southpaw Reid Detmers. Expect to see Raleigh back behind the dish on Saturday.

Raleigh’s home run was his 23rd of the season. He hit a two-run shot off Jose Quintana in the first inning. Raleigh’s home run, which was reminiscent of his 2025 season, traveled 459 feet and had an exit velocity of 111.7 mph. One year after challenging Aaron Judge for the AL MVP award, he’s hitting .184 with a .673 OPS and 68 RBI this year.

Raleigh drove in runs with a sac fly in the first, a double in the fifth and a single in the sixth. He has 22 RBI in his last 23 games.

Raleigh’s homer off Reid Detmers and J.P. Crawford’s solo hot versus Blake Weiman accounted for all of the Mariners’ runs tonight. Raleigh now has 22 homers, 10 of which have come in his last 26 games.

Raleigh missed out on a two-run homer in the first today because the wind pushed the ball foul. He went on to strike out, but he did come through later. He’s hit in eight straight games, raising his average from .165 to .183.

Raleigh drew a walk as well, and scored three runs. He torched a homer off Kade Morris to tie the game at 5-5 in the third inning, and it’s the 21st roundtripper of the season for the backstop. There’s nothing that he can do to call this a quality season over the final three weeks, but this is still nice to see for those who are considering using a draft pick on Raleigh in 2027.

Raleigh is certainly making things up in the power department. He took Jose Soriano deep for a solo homer in the second inning to put the Mariners on the board. The home run was his sixth in his last eight games. The 29-year-old slugger is up to 19 homers and 53 RBI while slashing .169/.288/.350 across 424 plate appearances.

After crushing three homers in Monday’s game against the Phillies, Raleigh kept it going on Tuesday, taking Aaron Nola deep for a solo blast to lead off the second inning. He’d get pitched around through the game, drawing a pair of walks. The 29-year-old slugger is up to 18 homers and 52 RBI while slashing .169/.286/.346 across 412 plate appearances.

Raleigh homered in the first and fifth innings off Zack Wheeler and in the seventh off Chase Shugart, driving in four runs in the process. He walked in other plate appearance in the third. Raleigh had 21 career multihomer games coming into the night, including 11 last year, but this is his first in a miserable 2026. It lifted his OPS from .579 to .618, his highest mark since May 5. He now has 17 homers and 51 RBI through 98 games. It’ll be interesting to see if this gets him pushed back up some in the order after he hit sixth tonight.

Raleigh has three hits in his last 34 at bats in what has been one of the most disappointing follow-up seasons in baseball history. He’s still walking, but that won’t help most fantasy managers. Jhonny Pereda will grab the start against LHP Robert Gasser today.

The homer, which unfortunately followed a caught stealing from Josh Naylor, was far from a bomb, but it made it into the Crawford Boxes at Daikin Park. Statcast had it at .327 feet and said it would have been a homer in one ballpark. Maybe it’ll give Raleigh some momentum anyway. It was his second hit in seven games and his 13th homer of the year. He still hasn’t had two hits in a game since July 7.

Raleigh’s 2026 might wind up as a bigger outlier than his 2025; his 165 OPS+ from last season is closer to his 117 OPS+ from 2022-24 than is his current 64 OPS+. Raleigh is 1-for-14 in his last five games, leaving him at .159/.264/.299 for the year.

Raleigh has been remarkably consistent this year, keeping his batting average between .160 and .170 since the start of May. Fantasy managers may welcome this off day, and definitely shouldn’t feel married to starting Raleigh down the stretch even if he is still giving the occasional dinger.

Raleigh’s slam came on Caleb Ferguson’s first pitch after intentionally walking Dominic Canzone to lead the bases in the seventh, so that had to feel especially good. Raleigh followed it up with a double-play ball in the eighth, but he wound up with an RBI anyway after Edwin Arroyo had the ball dribble out of his glove while trying to toss it to the shortstop. Raleigh also struck out twice and had another groundout, so it was really just the one good swing tonight. Still, maybe it will help. It’s his sixth career slam and his 10th homer in 297 plate appearances this season.

A groundout, a popout and two strikeouts. Raleigh is hitting .154 with one homer in 16 games since coming off the injured list, and his current .560 OPS is the same mark he had when he got hurt in May. In his 60-homer season, Raleigh had 200 hard-hit balls and 188 strikeouts in 159 games. Right now, he has 42 hard-hit balls and 79 strikeouts in 57 games.

Raleigh hit a ball 394 feet to right off Mitch Keller in the fourth. Raleigh, who missed a month with a strained oblique, seemed to catch fire in the minors before being activated a week ago, but he’d gone just 3-for-18 with no extra-base hits since returning. The homer tonight was his eighth in 48 games overall this year.

Raleigh came up big on his first day back with the Mariners. With the bases loaded in the seventh inning in a tie game, he delivered a base hit to drive in two runners to give Seattle the lead. The two runs would prove to be the difference in the win. The 29-year-old slugger is now hitting .165/.249/.317 with seven homers and 20 RBI across 185 plate appearances.

Raleigh returns to Seattle’s lineup for Tuesday’s series opener against the Orioles following a one-month absence recovering from a right oblique strain. The 29-year-old slugging backstop seemed to unlock something with his swing during his minor league rehab stint where he went 6-for-14 with five homers across four games at Triple-A Tacoma. He broke nearly every single-season offensive record for a catcher last year and could be in line for a monster second half if he’s rediscovered his previously elite form at the dish.