ATLANTA -- The video went viral last week, featuring an 8-year-old Cal Raleigh forecasting what would eventually take place on Monday night. Recorded 20 years ago, on a handheld camera because smart phones did not yet exist, Raleigh offered a premonition that now carries a sense of surreal.
“I’m the Home Run Derby champ!” the Mariners catcher said in that 20-second clip from way back when, which spread like wildfire within the Mariners’ clubhouse, across social media, to national broadcasts and more leading up to the sport’s premier power-hitting event.
And indeed, 20 years later, the Mariners catcher is the champ. And making the night that much sweeter was that his dad, Todd Sr. -- who captured the viral video -- was on the mound, while his 15-year-old younger brother, Todd Jr., was behind the plate.
“The video is crazy,” Raleigh said from Truist Park, where he became the first catcher and switch-hitting winner in Derby history, and joined Ken Griffey Jr. (1994, 1998, 1999) as the only winners in Mariners history.
“I mean, I don't know where they found that thing in the archives. Yeah, just kind of surreal. You don't think you're going to win it. You don't think you'll ever get invited. Then you get invited. The fact that you win it with your family, super special. Just what a night.”
Edging through the first round by -- quite literally -- less than one inch, Raleigh comfortably cruised past the early star of the night in Oneil Cruz through the second round, then put a bow on his big night by outlasting Junior Caminero, who made a late run but ran out of the allotted 27 pitches before the bonus period, where he fell short.
Monday’s win for Raleigh also marked a fitting culmination for the MLB’s top power hitter in 2025, who reached the All-Star break with more homers (38) than all but one hitter in the sport’s history (39 from Barry Bonds in 2001).
Raleigh finished the night with 17 homers in the pool round (which set him up as the No. 4 seed of the four remaining), 19 in the second round (over Cruz’s 13) and 18 in the finals (over Caminero’s 15).
The switch-hitting slugger also peppered swings from both sides of the plate but only in his opening act, joining Baltimore’s Adley Rutschman (2023) as the only switch-hitters to bat both righty and lefty in a Derby. And switching over actually nearly cost Raleigh mightily, as he didn’t quite carry over the momentum while batting right-handed and finished in a tie with A’s slugger Brent Rooker in that first round.
And the tiebreaker was arguably the most dramatic moment of the night, because at that point, the player’s longest homer of the round was the separator.
Raleigh’s was 470.62 feet, while Rooker’s was 470.54 feet -- a decimal-point separation of only 0.96 inches that allowed “Big Dumper” to breathe a big sigh of relief. Had the tie taken place in the semifinals (second round) or finals (third), the two would have taken part in a “swing-off” featuring three successive swings until a winner was determined, but swing-offs are not part of the first round.
“My goodness gracious, that's close,” Raleigh said. “It’s just crazy. An inch off, and I'm not even in the final four, which is amazing. So I guess I got lucky there. One extra biscuit.”
It was after Raleigh moved the chains with a metaphorical first down where he truly found a groove. He wasn’t top-spinning balls as much and tapped exclusively into his left-handed swing, with his custom “torpedo” bat from Rawlings -- the balanced one compared to the top-heavy model he uses right-handed.
“I thought the first round was the hardest, honestly,” Raleigh said. “Three minutes is a long time. Regardless, I talked to my dad, obviously, and my brother. I was like, ‘I want to switch-hit.’ I thought it would be cool, regardless if I win or not. Obviously, I was lucky enough to make it to the next round, grooving a little bit more lefty. Since we had a chance to win, I might as well stick to the side that's working a little better.”
Yet for Raleigh, while winning was great, taking part in his first career Derby was more about relishing the moment with his dad and brother. Todd Jr. (who goes by “T”) is already taller than Cal, at 6-foot-3, and following a similar path on the travel-ball circuit in -- coincidentally -- the Atlanta area. And Todd Sr. is coaching his team, just as he did with Cal over a decade ago.
“When you're a parent, you look at it differently because you want your kids to be happy,” Todd Sr. said. “I can't say how lucky and blessed I am. Everybody that plays baseball, every dad knows, I could have been that guy. Cal could have been that player. To do it as a family has been really special.”
Todd Jr. joked that he had the best seat in the house -- and that he gets to keep all the swagged-out merchandise provided by MLB. And in a more serious response, Todd Jr. spoke of how much he looks up to his big brother.
“Everything,” T said. “His swag, the way he plays, the way he hustles.”
Monday night featured the latest -- and most epic -- chapter in a storybook season that’s been full of them, with potentially even more to come in the second half of the season and beyond.