Cal Raleigh : The "strange" switch-hitter who set a great record

This year, in 2025, I was both amazed and deeply impressed by what Seattle Mariners catcher and switch-hitter Cal Raleigh accomplished.

In 1970, Johnny Bench set the record for most home runs by a catcher in a single season with 45. In 2021, Salvador Pérez, who surpassed Bench's record, had 48 home runs. Cal Raleigh has now achieved the incredible feat of breaking that record with 60 home runs. His 60 home runs also surpassed Ken Griffey Jr.'s previous record of 56 in 1997 and 1998, which was the most home runs by a Seattle Mariners player at any defensive position in history.

My sister wearing a T-shirt purchased through Amazon.

However, what surprised and impressed me the most was that Cal Raleigh broke Mickey Mantle's record for most home runs in a single year by a switch hitter, 54, set in 1961. I never thought a switch hitter would emerge who could break the record set by Mickey Mantle, the greatest switch hitter of all time.

A wonderful biography of Mickey Mantle by Jane Leavy (2011, Harper Perennial) 

What Cal Raleigh achieved this year, in 2025, is so amazing that it is hard to praise him highly enough!  I would like to give him a heartfelt round of applause. Having said that, I would like to add something about Cal Raleigh. I think he has a "strange" characteristic.

In the history of Major League Baseball, seven players have hit 60 or more home runs in a season, a total of 10 times, including Cal Raleigh in 2025.

Of those 10 times, five times had a respectable batting average of over .300. Of the remaining five times, the worst was Cal Raleigh’s .247 in 2025. This ranked 44th out of 65 qualified players in the American League (AL) in 2025. Qualified players are players who have reached the required number of plate appearances to compete for batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and other percentages.

Of the 10 times mentioned above, the next worst batting average after Cal Raleigh was .269 by Roger Maris, who hit 61 home runs in 1961, breaking Babe Ruth's single-season record of 60 for the first time. This .269 ranked 28th out of 49 qualified players in the AL in 1961.

Furthermore, of these 10 times, Cal Raleigh in 2025 had the lowest on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and OPS, and also had the most strikeouts. Some people may find this surprising, but there are other surprising things about Cal Raleigh. Before I write about that, there is something important I want to say about the seven players who hit 60 or more home runs in a year.

Of these seven, Roger Maris and Cal Raleigh are the only ones who never hit 40 or more home runs in a season before the year in which they hit 60 or more home runs. And Roger Maris is the only one who never hit 40 or more home runs in a season after hitting 60 or more home runs....Mark McGwire had not a year with 40 or more home runs since hitting 63 home runs in 1999, but he did hit 70 home runs in 1998, making him two consecutive years with more than 60 home runs, so that's not the case for Roger Maris.

This means that Cal Raleigh, whose batting average in 2025 was lower than Roger Maris' batting average in 1961, may be worried about whether he'll be able to hit 40 or more home runs next year and beyond.

And now, other surprising things about Cal Raleigh.

In the history of Major League Baseball, 34 players have hit 50 or more home runs in a season, a total of 53 times, including Cal Raleigh, Aaron Judge, Kyle Schwarber, and Shohei Ohtani in 2025. Of these 53 times, the lowest batting average is .240, owned by Kyle Schwarber, who hit 56 home runs in 2025, followed by Cal Raleigh's .247 in 2025. This means that even among players who have hit 50 or more home runs in a year, Cal Raleigh's batting average is not the lowest, but it is still exceptionally low.

Furthermore, of these 53 times, the lowest on-base percentage was Andruw Jones in 2005 (51 home runs, .347 on-base percentage), the next lowest was Pete Alonzo in 2019 (53 home runs, .358 on-base percentage), and the third lowest was Cal Raleigh in 2025 (60 home runs, .359 on-base percentage). Without going into details, out of these 53 times, Cal Raleigh’s slugging percentage and OPS in 2025 were both 50th, he had the third most strikeouts, and his SO/AB (strikeouts divided by at-bats, indicating how many at-bats a batter strikes out at once. The lower this value, the more likely a batter is to strike out) was third lowest.

As you can probably tell by now, among players who have hit 50 or more home runs, Cal Raleigh stands out as a player whose stats other than home runs are not good.

Furthermore, let's consider Cal Raleigh from the perspective of new stats that are currently popular among Major League Baseball aficionados in the United States.

It's safe to say that Cal Raleigh’s batting average has been gradually improving, albeit only slightly. To give you some specific numbers, in 2023, the year he became a qualified player for the first time, it was .232 (53rd out of 58 qualified players in the AL), and in 2024 it was .220 (53rd out of 57 qualified players in the AL). In 2025, it was .247 (44th out of 65 qualified players in the AL). However, things change completely when we look at BABIP.

Here, for those who are unfamiliar with the new Major League Baseball stats, let me briefly explain what BABIP is. If a batter hits a home run, his batting average naturally increases, and if he strikes out, his batting average naturally decreases. Simply put, BABIP is the batting average calculated excluding home runs and strikeouts. In other words, it shows the batting performance when not hitting home runs or striking out.

Even though Cal Raleigh’s batting average for all at-bats, including home runs and strikeouts, has gradually improved, his BABIP has gradually worsened. In 2023 it was .273 (52nd out of 58 qualified players in the AL), in 2024 it was .251 (52nd out of 57 qualified players in the AL), and in 2025 it was .248 (65th out of 65 qualified players in the AL, lowest ranking).

Next, let's look at Exit Velocity (EV). This is the speed of the batted ball. Cal Raleigh’s average EV in 2025 was 91.3 MPH, ranking 46th in the major leagues in 2025, and his EV50 (the average speed of the hardest 50% of his batted balls) was 103.0 MPH, ranking 35th in the major leagues. Both are strangely low for Cal Raleigh, who has hit the most home runs in the major leagues in 2025.

However, the picture changes dramatically when we look at Barrel/BBE% and Barrel/PA%. Barrel refers to the zone where the combination of batted ball’s speed and angle makes it more likely to result in a long hit, such as a home run. BBE (Batted Ball Event) represents any batted ball that produced some kind of result. This includes outs, hits including home runs, and errors. It does not include foul balls that did not result in out. PA is an abbreviation for plate appearance. Barrel/BBE% is the percentage of the batted balls that resulted in a barrel among BBE. Cal Raleigh‘s Barrel/BBE% in 2025 was 19.5, ranking 4th in the major leagues and second in the AL. Cal Raleigh’s Barrel/PA% in 2025 was 11.3, sixth in the major leagues and second in the AL. Both are pretty good.

Here are the new stats rankings for the three players other than Cal Raleigh who hit 50 or more home runs in 2025, so you can see the similarities and differences that are interesting between Cal Raleigh and them.

First, Aaron Judge. His BABIP was tops in the AL, his average EV and EV50 were both second in the major leagues. His Barrel/BBE% and Barrel/PA% were both tops in the major leagues.

A concise but well-written biography of Aaron Judge by Clayton Geoffreys (2020)

Kyle Schwarber's BABIP was 72nd out of 73 qualified players in the National League (NL), his average EV and EV50 were both fifth in the major leagues, his Barrel/BBE% was third in the major leagues and second in the NL, and his Barrel/PA% was fourth in the major leagues and third in the NL.

Shohei Ohtani's BABIP was 17th in the NL, his EV was third in the major leagues, his EV50 was fourth in the major leagues, and his Barrel/BBE% and Barrel/PA% were both second in the major leagues and first in the NL.

The cover of a unique and interesting book that teaches English through the achievements of Shohei Ohtani (2024, Author: Masaki Tachikawa, Publisher: Asukashinsha Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan)

From everything I've written so far, you can see Cal Raleigh’s “strange” characteristic as a batter. That characteristic is that his batting performance is not particularly impressive except when he hits home runs. You could even say that he is a rare batter who hits a lot of home runs despite having mediocre batting statistics. And even among batters who hit a lot of home runs, this characteristic of Cal Raleigh stands out.

Cal Raleigh is such a “strange” hitter, but he is also a great hitter who set an incredible home run record in 2025. I'm interested to see how many home runs Cal Raleigh will hit from 2026 onwards.

<Acknowledgment>

In writing this column, I used data from MLB.com and https://baseballsavant.mlb.com. I'd like to express my sincere gratitude to both.

( If I’ve made a mistake or left out something important, please let me know. I’ll try to make corrections or additions.)