GLUTE RORCE

Known affectionately as the Big Dumper, coupon-clipping catcher CAL RALEIGH has masterfully handled Seattle's staff while putting on an unprecedented home run-hitting display

- by STEPHANIE APSTEIN

AFTER EVERY Mariners win, the 26 victors gather for a brief ceremony. Baseball is a team sport, but everyone involved understands that on any given night, one person was probably more valuable than everyone else, and only one person can receive the footlong pair of gilded testicles, hanging from a chain, emblazoned with a trident, that accompany the poetic title Nuts of the Game.

This season, the most valuable player has usually been catcher Cal Raleigh, who entered the stretch run with the major league lead in dingers in the scorebooks, the Home Run Derby trophy on his mantle and history in sight: With his 42nd long ball, he surpassed Todd Hundley of the 1996 Mets for the single-season record by a switch-hitting catcher. Up next was the Royals' Salvador Pérez's 2021 mark of 48 by a catcher, which he eclipsed on Aug. 24. With six weeks remaining, Raleigh still held an outside chance at the American League single-season home run record, which the Yankees' Aaron Judge established at 62 three years ago. Raleigh sat a tenth of a point ahead of Judge for the AL lead in win probability added, a measure of how clutch he's been. Raleigh is a perfect fit for SPORTS ILLUSTRATED'S Power List issue. And he did it all while shepherding a pitching staff beset by injuries to a 3.95 ERA, seventh in the AL. Seemingly every night he does something that makes his teammates gape—something Nuts-worthy.

“We should call it the Cal Award, probably,” says righty Logan Evans.

But unfortunately it’s Raleigh, 28, who gives out the Nuts, which means he’s almost never the one receiving them. If he hits a game-winning home run, he honors the reliever who kept it close.