On September 30, 2022, the Seattle Mariners Cal Raleigh hit his 26th home run on the season, hitting 13 home runs before the All Star break. Fast forward to last season and Raleigh hit 20 home runs before the All Star break, finishing with 34 on the season. Now in 2025, the Mariners catcher hit his 25th and 26th home runs of 2025 on June 7th, keeping him in front of Aaron Judge (23) and Shohei Ohtani (23) for the MLB lead.
Over his brief four year career, Raleigh has slowly increased his home run output each season, going from 27 in 2022, 30 in 2023 and 34 in 2024. So now with his 26 home runs, Raleigh is on track to hit at least 40 home runs and could even battle Ohtani and Judge for a possible 50 home runs.
The one thing that is going against Raleigh is that he is a catcher and normally catchers tend to tire faster down the stretch then most other position players. Raleigh has been the DH in 13 games so far this season and moving forward maybe less time behind the plate may put him in a position to keep hitting home runs. But with Ohtani as a primary DH, he would have the upper hand to lead both Judge and Raleigh in the home run category.
It was once looked at as a two-man home run race and now with Raleigh in the mix, this could go down as one of the greatest home run chases in over 20 years. That could be asking a lot, but who else other than Judge, could really give Ohtani a run for the money. There is Kyle Schwarber as he sits with 20 home runs and can easily get to 40 as he has done in three of his last four seasons.
But so far the story line is Cal Raleigh and at 26 home runs, with 31 games left before the All-Star break, maybe the Mariners catcher is the one that catches Barry Bonds‘ mid-season record of 39 home runs.
It will be an exciting chase to the break to see who is leading the sluggers and who knows, maybe the one less expected, will come out on top.
