After narrowly missing out last season on taking down for the American League’s Most Valuable Player Award, Cal Raleigh is in the running this year for the polar opposite.
The catcher became just the seventh player in MLB history to mash 60 home runs in a season in 2025, and while reaching that point would have been a challenge this year, every plate appearance is a struggle at the moment.
Raleigh went 0-for-4 on Monday night in the Mariners’ 3-1 loss to the Houston Astros, continuing a skid in which he is now hitless in his last 36 at-bats.
Before this skid, Raleigh was already struggling at the plate, hitting .205 with a .707 OPS in his first 30 games. But now, his average has dipped to .157, the second-worst in baseball, and his OPS is down to .559, the 10th-worst.
As a lefty, he’s slashing .167/.256/.370, and on the right side, those are down to .133/.196/.200.
The last time he got a hit was way back on April 27.
There isn’t much under the hood that says Raleigh is going to turn things around, either. Sure, a stretch this poor cannot come without some bad luck, but after ranking in the 85th percentile in hard-hit percentage (at least 95 mph exit velo), he is now in the 10th percentile of that category this season. His barrel percentage and average exit velocity are also both overwhelmingly worse than last year.
A big issue for Raleigh has been the fastball — after hitting .230 against it with a .594 slugging percentage last year, those are now down to .093 and .222 this year. He has swung and missed on 36.0% of fastballs, as opposed to 26.3% last year. He hit more than half of four-seamers at 95 mph or harder last year, but just 23.3% this year.
Entering the season, the Mariners were right in the conversation to compete for the American League pennant. They’re currently 20-22 and will likely turn things around whenever Raleigh does. They’re two games out of the AL West title, behind only the Athletics, with plenty of season left.
But the season may be getting late early for the a year ago was chasing Judge for an MVP.
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