In the warm spring twilight of Seattle’s baseball season, Cal Raleigh isn’t just writing his name into the record books—he’s etching it in bold, permanent ink. On Tuesday night, beneath the glow of the T-Mobile Park lights and with the echoes of Roy Campanella’s legacy in the background, Raleigh clubbed two home runs, lifting his season total to 19. It’s a number with weight. It stands as the most home runs ever hit by a catcher in the first 53 games of a season. Campanella’s mark of 18, set some 70 years ago in a different baseball era, now takes a respectful step aside.

This wasn’t a one-night wonder or a lucky streak catching fire. Raleigh entered 2025 already riding the momentum of a Platinum Glove season and a career-best 34 home runs. The Mariners took notice, as did the league, locking him down with a six-year, $105 million extension—no small investment, but one that already looks like a bargain. Now, with 19 round-trippers in his first 53 games, Raleigh has moved beyond hot starts and into historic pace.

The names he’s chasing are not merely good—they are immortal. Salvador Perez’s 48-homer outburst in 2021 stands as the gold standard for catchers. Buster Posey’s 2012 MVP campaign, crowned with a 9.8 WAR, is often hailed as the high-water mark for well-rounded excellence behind the plate. But here comes Raleigh, matching power with presence, leadership with durability, and suddenly on pace for 50-plus home runs and nearly 10 WAR—a total no catcher has ever reached.

What makes this all the more compelling is Raleigh’s aura, not just his aptitude. Teammates speak of him as the steady pulse in the Mariners' dugout, a bridge between the analytics and the instincts. There’s a quiet charisma to him, a demeanor that feels less like he’s chasing ghosts and more like he’s inviting them into the room. He’s not trying to be Piazza, Bench, or Campanella. He’s trying to be Cal Raleigh. And that may be enough to elevate him into that sacred company.

Of course, the game is long and seasons are cruelly unpredictable. Four months remain, and the grind of summer has a way of revealing what spring only suggests. But there is poetry in this pursuit—a catcher, often bruised and overlooked, carrying the weight of his team, and in doing so, reaching for the stars above the grandstands.

​​If Raleigh finishes what he’s started, he won’t just join the conversation about the greatest seasons by a catcher. He’ll shape it. And perhaps one day, long after the echoes of this campaign fade, some young backstop will chase his record, and the broadcasters will speak his name with the reverence now reserved for the legends of the game.