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Cal is the son of Todd Raleigh, who coached at the Univ. of Tennessee and Western Carolina Univ. in NC.
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Raleigh committed to Clemson before his senior year at Smoky Mountain High School in Sylva, North Carolina.
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In November 2014, Cal asked to be released from the scholarship he signed with the Clemson Tigers. (Pearson - Citizen-Times - 6/10/15)
“My loyalty and allegiance was with [recently fired Clemson coach Jack] Leggett,” Raleigh said
. “He is a great man and a Hall of Fame coach and I’m disappointed I will never get a chance to play for him. Clemson is a great university. I wish coach Lee nothing but the best. I’m also happy that coach (Bradley) LeCroy was kept on staff.“I’ve known him since I was 8 years old, when he lived in our basement, when he was coaching with my dad. LeCroy is the real deal.” (McGranahan - The Clemson Insider - 7/19/15)
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Raleigh committed to Florida State over the Univ. of Virginia and Western Carolina. The high-level catcher prospect had committed to Clemson but asked for his release after coach Jack Leggett was fired.
"I had a great visit to Tallahassee, Fla. and loved everything about the campus," Raleigh told the Citizen-Times. He also thought there was a chance for him to play early for the Seminoles. (Crumpton - tigernet.com - 7/12/15)
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In 2016 at Florida State, Cal was named: Freshman All-America (Louisville Slugger), Freshman All-America (Baseball America), Freshman First Team All-America (NCBWA), Freshman First Team All-America (Perfect Game), and All-Atlantic Coast Conference Freshman Team.
The switch-hitting Raleigh was a three-year starter at Florida State. He hit much better as a junior, compiling a team-leading 1.030 OPS with 13 home runs to make up for a lackluster sophomore season.
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June 2018: The Mariners chose Raleigh in the third round, out of Florida State. He signed with scout Rob Mummau.
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July 6, 2018: Cal passed a physical and signed with Seattle just prior to the July 6 deadline for college players with remaining eligibility.
The Mariners were pleased to lock him up as the 21-year-old agreed to an $854,000 signing bonus. That was above the slot value of $632,700 for a 90th overall selection and as high as the club could go without exceeding its allowable bonus pool. Raleigh also had an offer to join the family business and become a professional baseball player, or if he would try to restore his image by returning to FSU for his senior year.
“It was tough—it’s a much tougher decision than people think,” Raleigh said. “I had three great years at Florida State. It became my second home and a place I obviously fell in love with. I tried to look at what I really want to be doing, and it’s been my dream ever since I was little to be playing pro baseball, to be in the bigs.”
He was raised in baseball. His father Todd Raleigh signed with the Red Sox. And his uncle Matt Raleigh was a 14th-round pick by the Montreal Expos in 1992. Matt Raleigh was Double-A teammates with Scott Hunter, the Mariners’ scouting director and man in charge of drafting Cal Raleigh. Cal said they are still good friends to this day.
“He’s going to play for a long time,” Hunter said. “Whether he becomes an everyday guy, I can’t guarantee, but I got a lot of scouts saying, ‘Wow, that guy is going to play a long time.'"
The problem for Raleigh was that many scouts soured on him after he hit .227 his sophomore year, though he said he labored through the season with a bone bruise in his thumb. Raleigh was a Freshman All-American the year before, when the thick-bodied, 6-foot-3 catcher hit 10 home runs. More fell off him because of a slow start to his junior season.
But Mariners' GM Jerry Dipoto raved.
“We felt like he was one of the best catchers in the country in what was a pretty good year to be a college catcher,” Dipoto said. “First with (second overall pick) Joey Bart and then guys like Cal.
“We feel the leadership, the switch-hitting—he’s a good offensive player with defensive skill—and we felt like he was one of the better pitch-framers in the country . . . He comes from a big school in a big conference, and it’s an opportunity for us to put a polished catcher in the system.” (TJ Cotterill - Baseball America - 9/07/2018)
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In 2019, the Baseball America Prospect Handbook rated Raleigh as the 7th-best prospect in the Mariners' organization.
In 2020, the Baseball America Prospect Handbook rated Raleigh as the 12th-best prospect in the Mariners organization. In the off-season before 2021 spring training, Cal was at #8.
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Cal gets high marks for his work ethic. He has been around the game all of his life, and it shows. Raleigh has an impressive baseball IQ and overall feel for the game.
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2019 Season: Splitting time between the High-A Modesto Nuts and Double-A Arkansas Travelers, he posted a .251/.323/.497 slash line, good for a .820 OPS. He hit more home runs, 29, than any other Mariners prospect—and any catching prospect in minor league baseball.
“To be honest, I didn’t really know what to expect,” Raleigh said of that first complete season in the Mariners organization. “I don’t know if I really had any goals—it was just going out there and wanting to play and play well. I had a good time and learned a lot from a lot of people.”
And play well, he did. The home run barrage he launched in his final few weeks in the Cal League had fans joking the circuit was now named for him—and not the state in which it resides.
From July 3rd through the 14th, he hit nine home runs in 11 games. It was 15 bombs in his final 24 games in Modesto, before earning the call up to Double-A Arkansas, where he caught a group that was comprised of some of the best pitching prospects in the organization.
And as good as his offense was in 2019, he knows where his priorities as a lie. “You have to remember, the pitchers come first. Catching comes first,” he said. “That’s my number-one job is taking care of those guys, having good relationships with them.” That relationship-building should pay dividends going forward.
Raleigh caught, according to MLB Pipeline’s rankings, nine of the organization’s top 16 pitching prospects.
“Cal’s best tool might be his head,” Dipoto said. “His ability to game plan, connect with pitchers and lead a pitching staff is maybe his greatest trait.”
“Cal studies the game. He’s taking notes as it’s going along, and then he’s visiting with the pitcher in that game, constantly going over the lineup, who’s coming up, how they’re going to attack him, how they’re going to use that stuff. His ability to communicate is excellent.” (Colin O'Keefe- Nov. 12, 2019)
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Spring 2020: Cal spent the 2019 offseason making progress toward earning a business entrepreneurship degree from Florida State, completing coursework in business law, marketing, new product development, family business and business plan design, a total of 5 classes and 15 credit hours.
While most ballplayers use the winter to rest up and then ready themselves for the next eight-month grind, Raleigh hit the books in Tallahassee, Fla., and is now just 12 credits shy of graduating after being drafted in the third round by the Mariners following his junior season at FSU in 2018.
“One more semester," said Raleigh. “Depending what happens this year with baseball, I’m going to go back in the fall and finish it up. It’s so close, but I have to wait a little bit longer.”
While Raleigh appears to have a bright future in baseball, he isn’t taking anything for granted. And rather than wait for his athletic career to end before finishing his education, he’s pursuing his degree with the same gusto he’s shown for working with pitchers in Mariners camp.
Why is getting his diploma so important? “I finished last season and needed a little time away from the game,” Raleigh said. “It’s really important for me and my family to go back and get my degree. It’s something we take pride in. My parents especially want me to be able to do that.
“You never know what’s going to happen with baseball. Something unfortunate can happen to anybody in this room. That’s just the reality. If I can get my degree, I think that would be a very good thing to have. Nobody can ever take it away from me. I started it and I feel like I should finish it.”
But his educational and business interests also are rooted from at home in Cullowhee, N.C., where his dad and mom, Todd and Stephanie Raleigh, run a printing business. “I like the idea of running my own business,” said Cal. “I wouldn’t want to sit at a desk. I like being my own boss and kind of running the show. It’s just how I am. My dad does the same kind of thing and I like that. He was a coach his whole life, then recently he started his own business.
"They print T-shirts, banners, signs, decals, whatever people want. He’s crushing it back home. There’s a need for a place like that where we’re from and people are in there all the time. And Mom works with him, so it’s pretty cool how they’ve built it up. It’s neat to see.” (Johns - mlb.com - 2/24/2020)
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“Cal has a really good demeanor about him,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “It starts with his preparation. The data and information that we now have at the Minor League level is crazy and we’re trying to get those guys ready for what it’s going to be like in the big leagues. Cal does a really good job with that.
“And earning trust with the Logan Gilberts of the world and a lot of the young pitchers in that room, he’s really good at it. I’m looking forward to seeing him play more regularly. We got him in there a few times last year, but he’ll get more of a chance this spring.”
And after a winter of homework in 2019-2020, Cal is now more than ready to spend his time behind home plate as much as possible in spring training 2020.
“Last year’s camp was harder just because I didn’t know what to expect and I was a little nervous,” he said. “I just wanted to stay in the background. This year I want to come out here and show them what I can do. I’m really excited. I feel like I can compete and play with these guys. I just want to come out and do the best I can do. I’m really excited to get the games going. It’s the fun time of year.” (Johns - mlb.com - 2/24/2020)
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Cal spent 2020 at the alternate training site and stood out in instructional league, where his eight home runs led all Mariners prospects.
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March 2021: Raleigh graduated from Florida State with a degree in business entrepreneurship.
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2021 Season: After tearing it up at Triple-A Tacoma in ’21, slashing .324/.377/.608 with a .985 OPS in 44 games, he was called up by the Mariners right before the All-Star break. But in 47 games as a rookie, those numbers fell to .180/.223/.309 and a .532 OPS.
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2022 Season: Though Raleigh made the Opening Day roster last year, he continued to struggle out of the gate, leading to a demotion to Tacoma on April 28. Little more than a week later, he returned to Seattle and went on to enjoy a breakout year, adding 63 RBIs and a .773 OPS to those aforementioned homers. Not only did he connect on 27 homers and 20 doubles, but he also threw out an AL-leading 25 baserunners.
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To get to the origin of “Big Dumper”, Cal's nickname, you’ve got to go back to the summer of 2020 when there was no minor-league baseball and several of Seattle’s top prospects were working out at the team’s alternate site at Cheney Stadium in Tacoma. This was, by all accounts, the first time that Mariners outfielder, Jarred Kelenic, broke out “Big Dumper” to describe his teammate’s backside.
Or was it?
“Big Dumper began when he was born. That’s pretty obvious,” Kelenic said.
“Jarred isn’t one to beat around the bush,” said pitcher Logan Gilbert.
Raleigh, who is listed at 6-foot-3, 235 pounds and wears size 37 waist/45 hip pants, did not appreciate the nickname at first. But when Kelenic tweeted about it, well, life became a little more interesting — on and off the field. “And that’s kind of where it took off,” Raleigh said. “It fizzled a little but then picked up last year and gained traction. I guess people thought it was hilarious.”
“He hated it at first … hated it,” Kelenic continued. “I said just wait … it will come around.”
And now?
“And now they’re making T-shirts about it,” Kelenic said.
Yes, T-shirts that directly refer to the size of Raleigh’s backside — a nickname that Raleigh, understandably, detested and was dismissive of from the first time Kelenic ever uttered those two words. The truth is, though, Raleigh had been teased about his backside before he came to the Mariners’ organization.
“So if we go back to the very beginning, everyone has always joked around that I have a big butt,” Raleigh said. “It’s not anything that I thought about. And then they said the same thing in college and in the minors.”
Hank Truluck, a teammate of Raleigh’s at Florida State, said he “loved it” when he first heard mention of Big Dumper, though he wasn’t surprised at all. It seems this was a topic among teammates in Tallahassee.
“He has some business back there,” Truluck said. “We would joke with him, ‘Hey, how did you get those jeans on this morning?'”
Gilbert, a good friend of Raleigh’s who came up through the system with him, loves the way his teammate, essentially, rolled with the nickname.
“He seemed a little unsure, especially at the very beginning. But it’s kind of endearing in a way,” Gilbert said. “The fans bought into it, and they like him and care about him.
“I think when (Raleigh) saw the jerseys with the (Big Dumper) name on the back, he really bought into it and accepted it.”
An hour or so after the Mariners had dispatched the Blue Jays to win their American League Wild Card series in October, Raleigh was on the field, celebrating with his teammates and family.
A chorus of “Big Dumper” rang out from a gathering of Mariners’ fans who stuck around to revel in the excitement. Raleigh, with beer in hand, smiled as he acknowledged the fans.
He is the Big Dumper, he knows that now.
“I love it. I think it’s great,” Raleigh said. “My mom had other opinions about it. But it’s good. It gets the fans involved and they have fun with it. And that is what it’s all about. It’s a good time. You got to own it, embrace it. As long as you’re having fun with it, that’s what baseball is all about. As long as it brings good energy and vibes, it’s all good.” (Brock - Mar 13, 2023 - The Athletic)
CAL'S DAD
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Todd Raleigh is a former baseball player and later, a collegiate baseball coach. Todd was born on March 27, 1969, in Swanton, Vermont. He attended Western Carolina University in NC. He earned a Bachelor of Science - Sports Management degree from Western Carolina in 1991 and a Master of Science - College Administration from Western Carolina University in 1994.
He played collegiate baseball at Western Carolina University from 1988-91 and then joined the Boston Red Sox as a catcher in 1991.
He eventually decided to become a baseball coach and has coached at several universities. These included assistant coaching positions at the University of Vermont (1992), Western Carolina University (1993-94), Belmont Abbey College (Division II) (1994), James Madison University (1995-98), East Carolina University (1999), Western Carolina University again (2000-2007), and the University of Tennessee (2008-2011).
The Tennessee Volunteers improved under his direction, rising up in the postseason rankings from 91 in 2008 to 58 in 2009 and 45 in 2010.He also received the SoCon Coach of the Year Awards in 2002 and 2007. It is because of his wide experience in playing and coaching baseball that Cal Raleigh considers him his role model. (Arka Mukherjee - Modified May 16, 2023)
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June 17, 2023: Aside from the birth of each of his four children, Todd Raleigh experienced what he called “one of the greatest moments of my life” last fall when watching his son, Cal Raleigh, crush a walk-off homer that propelled the Mariners to the postseason and lifted the weight of a 21-year playoff drought off the shoulders of an entire region of fans.
“I've had a lot of good sports moments — state championships, conference championships, NCAA regionals and all that stuff as a player and coach,” Todd said. “But that was by far and away the coolest thing I've ever been a part of.”
Cal’s big moment has been well-chronicled -- a pinch-hit blast in the bottom of the ninth to break a scoreless tie in front of a sellout crowd, the situation countless kids rehearse in the backyard. And maybe that’s what was most surreal for Todd, because he recalls such scenarios throughout Cal’s childhood.
“What I didn't anticipate was the reaction from the crowd and just being a part of it,” Todd said
. “It was really cool being in the stands. The appreciation of the fans, and the passion of the fans, that was just an unbelievable feeling. For everyone on the East Coast who thinks the West Coast fans aren't quite as passionate, I'm going to tell you, the Seattle fans are.” -
For Cal, the 26-year-old catcher who’s emerged as one of MLB’s best power hitters at the position, it could be the first major highlight in a career that has the potential to be full of them. For the Raleighs, it was a culminating moment going all the way back to his diaper days. A native of Swanton, VT, Todd put a bat in Cal’s hands before he could walk. Baseball was an avenue to instill life lessons, discipline and work ethic.
“The sport of failure,” as Todd calls it, was used to teach perspective and process, attributes that can be found in all walks of life. It’s obviously reverberated to Cal’s siblings, too — Emma Grace, Carley and Todd Jr., a 12-year-old catcher who’s rising in the amateur ranks and who Todd Sr. coaches.
“As I've gotten older, I've seen a lot of how he has taught me, how I think about things,” Cal said. “Even how I try to help my little brother out sometimes, I feel like I'm turning into my dad in a way, and it's kind of funny because I'll try to have patience with my brother. I'll try and teach him to help him, and I find myself saying the same exact things that he was telling me.”
Cal is only in his third season but his voice in Seattle’s clubhouse already carries weight
. It’s the position he plays and the production he’s delivered, but even more so, the maturity he’s shown that has given him credibility. For a young team, it’s clear that Cal will probably be one of their longer-term leaders, if he isn’t already.Those traits go back to his adolescence. Cal was a bat boy for Todd when he coached at Western Carolina University from 2000-07. He called Todd’s players “my heroes” and still regularly reaches out to many of them, some who are now themselves fathers. More than 100 of Todd’s student-athletes went on to play pro ball, including “dozens of big leaguers,” he said.“
I’ll see their kids wearing my jersey,” Cal said
. “It's kind of funny how it all comes back around. I'll see pictures of them when I was little right next to them and now it's like vice versa.”The one constant text thread Cal has every day is with Todd. Sometimes it’s not even about baseball. After all, despite Cal’s immense passion for the game, it was never pressed on him.
“I didn't ever feel like I was coddled or like I was forced to do anything,” Cal said. “I grew up and it was, 'If you're going to do something, you're going to do it the right way,' whether it was grade school, baseball, basketball, riding a bike . . . whatever it is.
“I think some of the most important things he’s taught me is doing things the right way, playing hard. Just kind of simple things, but the reiteration of, ‘If you're going to do something, do it the right way.’” (D Kramer - MLB.com - June 17, 2023)
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2023 Season: After an impressive 2022 season. Cal did not disappoint in 2023.He was dependable, playing in 145 games, as well as elite both offensively and defensively.
Cal slashed .232/.306/.456 with 30 home runs (breaking his own Mariners record for a catcher), 75 RBIs, and a 111 wRC+. Cal was also able to reduce his strikeout percentage from 29.4% in 2022 to 27.8% in 2023, as well as increase his walk percentage from 9.2% to 9.5%. The Mariners catcher led all MLB catchers in home runs with 30 and was a consistent power threat. He also ranked 3rd in fWAR, playing himself into consideration for top 3 catchers in all of baseball and a huge part of that is due to his offense.
Cal has an elite bat, but the most surprising steps that he has taken forward as a pro has been his defense. Raleigh is a pretty big dude at 6'3 and 235, and to see him move behind the plate, block pitches, and receive pitches at an elite level, has been a pleasant surprise.
According to his Baseball Savant page, he grades in the 85h percentile for Fielding Run Value, the 87th percentile in Caught Stealing Above Average and the 85th percentile in the Framing category
. Cal is a leader of this team and has really stepped up and seems almost like that veteran presence you come to see out of guys like Jason Varitek and Jorge Posada.I would give Cal an A- grade for 2023. I was going to give him a B+ but his comments about ownership and going out and getting the "big names, the people that have done it, the people who have been there" made me bump it up to an A-, finally a player publicly said it! You don't have to spend money necessarily but go acquire some talent and don't be shy about it.
I think the Cal Raleigh that we have seen is about 85% of Cal's full potential. I think there is another gear there where Cal hits 240-250 and runs into 35 home runs, that's how good of a player we are talking about here. Cal is someone that, if he gets that next gear, could play himself into getting some MVP votes. That is to not discredit how good he was in 2022 and 2023, as he has been truly elite. I think coming into Cal's third season with the heartache of not making the playoffs, we will see an even hungrier Cal Raleigh that will command his pitching staff and demand excellence and hard work from everyone on the team. (Tanner Vogt - Oct. 15, 2023)
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That Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh was among the finalists announced Tuesday morning for an American League Gold Glove Award should be no surprise for those who follow the defensive numbers.
Raleigh in season and out has gone to great lengths to improve his defense, and the results show in both the eye and Statcast tests
. How he got to the top was the result of multiple things – from the initiative he took in working this past offseason with Cleveland Guardians catcher Austin Hedges, who posted the best pitch framing numbers in the American League in 2023, to using (and ultimately taking) his resources in the Mariners clubhouse in 2024 when a problem arose. The latter comes via a story shared with Aaron Goldsmith and Gary Hill in a favorite Mariners Radio Network pregame show interview from this past season.The problem? Raleigh’s glove-hand middle finger was taking a beating
.“Pitches, foul tips, blocking balls where I turned over and my finger would be exposed, I kept getting hit and hit in the same spot
. And I’m like, ‘I gotta do something different cause the padding’s not working. The glove’s not working,'” Raleigh remembered.Raleigh, who was also a Gold Glove finalist in 2022, sought out the advice of other catchers in and around the team and was told there was a simple fix
. He needed to get a bigger glove to give himself more space to catch the ball.“With the glove I was using, I couldn’t shift my hand to the left to give myself more room to catch when it’s not hitting the fingers,” he explained
. “Normally when you put your hand in a glove, it goes in straight in and there’s like a slot for each finger. Now I shifted my hand over to where I’ve got three fingers where the pinky goes.”While his glove wouldn’t allow him to get the fingers out of harm’s way, there was one glove found in the Mariners clubhouse that did
. That glove belonged to Seby Zavala.“It gave me more room to get hit in more places like the palm, where it doesn’t really hurt as much or just not hitting anything,” he said
.Raleigh was sold on the glove, but acquiring a broken-in, game-ready duplicate was just not possible in season
. It was Zavala’s original, or nothing at all.“I unfortunately took his glove
. I ended up keeping it,” Raleigh said with a sheepish chuckle. “It was working so well. I’m like, ‘Hey, my hand feels so much better. My finger’s doing a lot better.”The glove switch did not go unnoticed
. The black and silver of Zavala’s previous team, the Chicago White Sox, was not a natural fit with Mariners’ teal. The No. 44 embroidered on the outside of the glove prompted questions.“‘You have 44 on your glove. Is it for it for Julio?'” I’m like. No, It’s Seby’s old glove,” Raleigh said. “I got him a nice gift for it. I was like, ‘I feel bad for taking your glove, but I need it. I really need it and I don’t have time to break into another one.'”
A No. 1 catcher has got to do what a No. 1 catcher has got to do. As a result, if Raleigh wins the Gold Glove, he will have done it with Zavala’s glove.
“That’s going to be kind of a funny story if that happens,” he said
.If Raleigh wins the Gold Glove, his glove forevermore will be adorned not by the red Rawlings nameplate on all but a precious few, but rather the gold version reserved for the award winners
. What his gloves of the future will not have on them, though, is Zavala’s old No. 44.“The Rawlings guy came the other day and I told him, ‘Hey, this is the glove I want
. We’re switching it up.’ This is the glove and it’ll be mine. I’ll have my number and it’ll be mine so I won’t have to steal it from anybody hopefully.”Not wanting to jinx himself, Raleigh was hesitant to talk about possibly taking the award, but he stressed that what is covered by the award is just one piece of what he feels it takes to be at the top of one’s game at catcher
.“It’s hard to win that award and I think it’d be really amazing,” he said
. “Obviously you want to be the best of your position at what you do, but to me, more importantly is making sure that you got to do the things that aren’t kind of seen on the field. You’ve got to do the things away from it. Take care of your pitchers, game planning, calling games, running the show. That’s kind of the thing that people don’t really see sometimes when they do the Gold Glove because you’re looking at certain things like throwing out runners.“You know the actual stats and metrics and all that stuff, which is great because you want to be the best at that as well, but you also want to be known around the league as the guy who knows how to run a staff and win games and do stuff like that
. So that’s probably the No. 1 priority.” (SHANNON DRAYER - Oct. 15, 2024)
Nickname: | The Big Dumper | Position: | C |
Home: | N/A | Team: | MARINERS |
Height: | 6' 3" | Bats: | S |
Weight: | 215 | Throws: | R |
DOB: | 10/26/1996 | Agent: | N/A |
Uniform #: | 29 | ||
Birth City: | Sylva, NC | ||
Draft: | Mariners #3 - 2018 - Out of Florida State Univ. |
YR | LEA | TEAM | SAL(K) | G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | CS | BB | SO | OBP | SLG | AVG |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2018 | NWL | EVERETT | 38 | 146 | 25 | 42 | 10 | 1 | 8 | 29 | 1 | 1 | 18 | 29 | .367 | .534 | .288 | |
2019 | TL | ARKANSAS | 39 | 145 | 16 | 33 | 6 | 0 | 7 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 47 | .296 | .414 | .228 | |
2019 | CAL | MODESTO | 82 | 310 | 48 | 81 | 19 | 0 | 22 | 66 | 4 | 0 | 33 | 69 | .336 | .535 | .261 | |
2021 | TAW | TACOMA | 44 | 176 | 34 | 57 | 21 | 1 | 9 | 36 | 3 | 2 | 14 | 25 | .377 | .608 | .324 | |
2021 | AL | MARINERS | 47 | 139 | 6 | 25 | 12 | 0 | 2 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 52 | .223 | .309 | .180 | |
2022 | PCL | TACOMA | 7 | 28 | 4 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 | .333 | .464 | .286 | |
2022 | AL | MARINERS | 5 | 22 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 8 | .292 | .409 | .227 | |
2023 | AL | MARINERS | $758.00 | 145 | 513 | 78 | 119 | 23 | 1 | 30 | 75 | 0 | 0 | 54 | 158 | .306 | .456 | .232 |
2024 | AL | MARINERS | 153 | 546 | 73 | 120 | 16 | 0 | 34 | 100 | 6 | 1 | 70 | 176 | .312 | .436 | .220 |
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Raleigh, a switch-hitter, who has big power from either side of the plate. And he is a catcher. He is a better hitter from the left than the right side. And he manages the strike zone well with a swing that is similar from both sides.
Cal has few holes in his swing from either side of the plate, and stayed in the strike zone well. He is an offensive switch-hitting catcher. Raleigh is an early-count swinger whose ambush approach was exploited in the majors. Improving that is his next step toward becoming the Mariners’ regular catcher. (Spring, 2022)
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Cal as impressive 60 grade power, but only a 40 for hit tool. He has slightly below-average bat speed, but he worked to shorten his swing at instructs and still barrels balls hard in the air. His home run power is almost exclusively from the left side, but he has enough strength to drive balls from the right side, too. Some scouts are concerned he’ll struggle with better velocity, but his power should compensate for low batting averages.
Raleigh could be the rare catcher who hits enough to DH on occasion. (Bill Mitchell - Baseball America Prospect Handbook - Spring, 2021)
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Raleigh has always had the reputation of being an offensive-minded catcher and the power he showed at Florida State has carried over to the pro game. He’s definitely power over hit, but he controls the strike zone well enough so that his tremendous raw power shows up from both sides of the plate. He can drive the ball to all fields, with more success in finding the seats from the left side.
Cal gets to his raw power thanks to good bat direction, which makes up for his below-average bat speed and a lack of mobility at the plate. Scouts have seen Raleigh having to cheats in order to hit premium velocity. (Spring, 2020)
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Cal's thick lower half limits his mobility in the box and behind the plate. How well he manages that will determine his future. “He has above-average to well-above-average raw power, and he has very good strike zone awareness,” GM Jerry Dipoto said. "Oh, and he‘s a switch-hitter." (Nov 2019)
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This dude is the god of barrels. I mean, he was ‘only’ in the Top 10 in barrels per batted ball last year, but here’s the fun part: None of the other guys on that list were younger than him, and none of them were catchers either. Of course, second among catchers in this stat was Gary Sanchez, and there’s always the chance that Raleigh has the same sort of career batting average (.225 for Sanchez), even if it comes with the ability to produce 20-30 homers a year behind the plate. (Sarris-Feb 2, 2023-TheAthletic)
- May 15, 2023: Raleigh became the first catcher to homer from both sides of the plate at Fenway Park. (Ken Powtak)
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Cal can play several positions, but may be most valuable as a catcher. He blocks the ball well.
Whether Raleigh stays at catcher will depend on how he maintains his body and mobility. He has a thick lower half and keeps getting bigger. Because of his size, he catches on one knee but has a quick transfer and makes accurate throws. He is a solid receiver and communicates well with pitchers. (Spring, 2021)
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Raleigh has made strides with his defense. While his Arm is above average (55 grade) he needs to work on his footwork and gets a 45 for his Fielding.
Cal's throws are accurate. He threw out nearly 30 percent of potential base-stealers in 2019.
After attending a program the Mariners instituted called Game Calling University, Raleigh showed the ability to take that information and apply it to his game, evolving into an above-average receiver with excellent framing skills. A natural leader who works very well with his pitching staff, Raleigh is looking more and more like a big league starting backstop. (Spring 2020)
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He’s an above-average receiver and pitch framer who calls his own game. Because Raleigh is 6-feet-3 and 215 pounds, he has to go to one knee to catch, but he transfers the ball well and his makes accurate throws.
"Another frontline catcher,” Stockton manager Webster Garrison said in 2019. "The kid’s got pop from both sides . . . and he’s a big target back there. Good receiver, block and throw guy. He didn’t hit for a high average, but he’s a threat every time he steps in the box.”
Raleigh works well with his pitching staff. He is an excellent communicator.
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Cal scores well in framing metrics.
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The Mariners coveted Raleigh as a third-round pick out of Florida State for his bat, but they have also been surprised by his leadership.
Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto was impressed with how Raleigh would chart a game from the end of the bench when he was in the lineup at DH, getting a day off from catching. He would then go over the chart with the starting pitcher the next day to develop a game plan.
"That’s pretty extraordinary for a 22-year-old in A ball,” Dipoto said in 2019.
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Nov 2019: GM Jerry Dipoto said, “He has soft hands behind the plate. He grades out as an above-average receiver with an above-average ability to call a game.”
- 2024 Season: Cal won his first Gold Glove at catcher. . Cal’s Fielding Run Value of 14 is eighth-best in all of baseball, and first among AL catchers—unless you count Alejandro Kirk, who only logged 766 innings at catcher in 89 starts. If we’re being picky about that, though, nominee Fermin, in a timeshare with Salvador Pérez behind the dish in Kansas City, logged about the same amount of time. In contrast, Cal’s 1,122 innings at catcher lead all of MLB by a significant margin, and he’s the only catcher in MLB who surpassed the 1K innings mark with a positive FRV. Raleigh leads AL catchers in framing, with +13 runs added, comfortably ahead of Rogers (+9) and Fermin (-1). He’s also ahead of Rogers in Caught Stealing Above Average (+3 to +1), although Fermin leads that category in the AL with +8. Raleigh also guided his pitching staff to a 3.30 ERA when he was behind the plate, best in the majors, although the humble Raleigh would give his pitching staff credit for that. The one area where Cal is weak is in blocking, where defensive metrics don’t like him as much while loving Rogers.
He also won the 2024 Platinum Glove award for the AL
. Raleigh was a rock behind the plate for Seattle, leading all AL catchers with 17 defensive runs saved, 13 catcher framing runs, and a 49.1% strike rate. He also caught an MLB-high 32 runners stealing and led Junior Circuit backstops in putouts (1,138), assists (51), and double plays (eight).
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Aug 23, 2020: Raleigh needed several stitches to close a laceration inside his right ear after getting hit in the side of the head by a bat while working behind the plate during a Mariners intrasquad game at the team's alternate training site in Tacoma, Wash.
Andy McKay, the club's director of player development, said that Raleigh didn't suffer a concussion and should be OK to return to action soon. Raleigh, 23, was hit by the back-swing of teammate Donovan Walton and went down to the ground before being helped off the field under his own power.
"He's not expected to miss a lot of time," McKay said. "However long it takes to get the stitches to heal the cut. Obviously being a catcher, it's a tough spot as he'll need to be able to put a helmet and mask over it."
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Nov 9, 2022: Raleigh underwent a procedure to repair a torn ligament in his left thumb, shortly after their loss in the American League Division Series. Raleigh revealed after ALDS Game 3 that he'd been dealing with the torn UCL and had bone fragments chip off.
"It's going to require a rehab, but we don't think it's going to set him back, and hopefully he'll be ready to go," Dipoto told reporters at the GM Meetings in Las Vegas. Raleigh initially suffered the injury when sliding head-first into first base against the Padres on Sept. 14, then he played through the pain for a full month during Seattle's postseason push.