Matt Calkins: On Mariners' big night, Cal Raleigh manages to make it even bigger

Matt Calkins, The Seattle Times on Sep 25, 2025

Published in Baseball

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SEATTLE — The list of Cal Raleigh's achievements this year are as long as a moonshot to straightaway center. He set the single-season home run record for catchers, switch hitters and Mariners, won the Home Run Derby in July and may have just taken over as the front-runner for American League MVP.

But Wednesday, he did something that would have seemed impossible before the season began. He took the Mariners 24-year divisional drought … and turned it into a side note.

OK, maybe that's a slight exaggeration. The M's clinching the American League West for the first time since 2001 sent 43,883 fans at T-Mobile Park — and hundreds of thousands of fans outside of it — into a frenzy.

Ending a playoff drought is one thing. Hanging a banner is another. But MLB history is replete with teams that have won their division. It happens six times every season. A player hitting 60 home runs, though? That's the kind of feat that is never forgotten — and that's just what Raleigh did Wednesday in Seattle's 9-2 win over the Rockies.

I'm gonna be honest with you — it's crazy. Sixty — I don't know what to say," said the Mariners catcher, who minutes earlier held a cigar in his mouth while dousing his teammates with Champagne. "I didn't know if I was going to hit 60 in my life."

Raleigh doesn't like talking about himself much. He is always more interested in discussing his teammates and the organization's accomplishments. Wednesday was no different.

In the brief time he spent with the media, most of his focus was on finally bumping the Astros from the top of the division and gearing up for a World Series run.

Still, despite all of his teammates celebrating in an alcohol-soaked clubhouse — despite coaches hugging and execs high-fiving — this was Raleigh's night.

Entering the game with an MLB-leading 58 home runs, Cal blasted a 438-foot bomb into the third deck in right field on the third pitch he saw in the first inning. The "M-V-P!" chants were blaring while he was in the batter's box and swelled as he rounded the bases. What followed was a collective victory lap for a Mariners team that — having won 17 of their past 18 games — has become the most dominant team in baseball.

Julio Rodríguez and Jorge Polanco added homers in the first. Eugenio Suárez went yard in the seventh. Every Mariner who started either scored a run or logged an RBI, while Luis Castillo allowed just one run and one hit in 7 1/3 innings of work.

Everyone in the stadium knew the bubbly was going to flow, but when Raleigh socked No. 60 — again to deep right field — on the first pitch he saw in the eighth inning, the spotlight shifted from 26 men to one.

And those other 25 couldn't happier about it.

"Cal is the best. I try to be like him!" Suárez said after the game. "Tell him, Geno want to be like you! He's the best and he deserves everything right now."

Added shortstop J.P. Crawford: "It's historic. We're witnessing history every day. He deserves the world. The guy is so humble. Never talks about himself, always puts his teammates first. Couldn't ask for a better teammate."

Technically, seven players have hit 60 home runs in a single season. But three of them — Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa — are assumed PED users. So as far as clean players go, Cal joins only Babe Ruth (60), Roger Maris (61) and Aaron Judge (62) in the 60-club. That could be the case for the next 50 years.

Speaking of Judge, it's a virtual dead heat between him and Raleigh for AL MVP. The Yankee right fielder also hit two homers Wednesday, bringing him to 51 on the season. But given that Raleigh also plays the most demanding defensive position in the game, should the award be his to claim?

Mariners manager Dan Wilson sure thinks so.

"He deserves the MVP. No question," Wilson said. "I was telling somebody earlier today that, as a catcher, you come off the field at the end of the day, you're mentally and physically exhausted, and for him to do what he's done offensively and to do what he does behind the plate, it's just — I honestly don't think we've seen this before. It's been incredible.

Incredible, unbelievable, unprecedented — all fit the description.

Raleigh is one of the best catchers in the league. Good luck trying to steal on him. But on one of the biggest nights in Mariners history, he went ahead and stole the show.