CAL RALEIGH BREAKOUT STAR of the YEAR

With his 60-home run explosion in 2025, the Mariners catcher joined one of the most exclusive clubs in sports.

- BY TOM VERDUCCI

The POWER SURGE may have been sudden and shocking. But this slugger is hardly an overnight sensation

THE PITCH was a low dart, zipping angrily toward the very bottom of the strike zone at 98.3 mph. It was 20 inches off the ground when it arrived. Cal Raleigh had never hit a home run off a fastball that low in his five major league seasons.

Raleigh swung. He knew just what to do, thanks to a man sitting 20 rows behind the plate at T-Mobile Park on this September evening. Todd Raleigh, his dad, was wearing a Mariners cap and, like everybody else in the ballpark, was on his feet on the chance baseball history was about to happen. Cal's mother, Stephanie, stood next to Todd. Their son was sitting on 59 home runs.

"Nose and barrel," Todd would tell Cal in the batting cages of Western Carolina University, where Todd was the coach and Cal was a bat boy from ages 8 through 10. "Nose and barrel. Keep your nose and barrel as far apart as possible."

"My dad," Cal says, "was always a proponent of extension. Power comes from extension. It comes from staying behind the ball and getting the barrel in front. That's how you drive the ball. That's how you get the ball in the air.

"That was just something he always taught. It's been the key for me and one of my pillars as far as what makes me successful as a hitter."

Batting left-handed against Rockies pitcher Angel Chivilli, Raleigh, a switch-hitter since he started to walk, connected with the low pitch. He extended so far through the baseball, maximizing the distance between his nose and barrel, that he could no longer keep his top hand on the bat. He held on with one hand as the barrel whipped around and above him. History was on its way to the right-field seats.