ATLANTA -- Cal Raleigh’s historic home run pace this season has been one of the sport’s most discussed storylines in the first half. And though Monday night’s T-Mobile Home Run Derby victory obviously won’t count toward his overall total, the query of just how many the Mariners' All-Star catcher can hit in this storybook season was posed to countless players at All-Star media day.
“He's a special player,” said two-time American League MVP Aaron Judge, who by virtually all measures is in a two-man race with Raleigh for this year’s honor. “I said earlier, I've got to manage one swing. He's managing two swings being a switch-hitter. He's managing a pitching staff -- one of the best pitching staffs in the [American League] -- to do all that and continue to go out there and post every day, put up the numbers, hit the homers, it's fun to watch.”
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Yet, it’s not just Raleigh who's flashed a power proliferation in the first half, with an MLB-best 38 homers. Seattle’s backstop is one of five players who’ve cleared the fence at least 30 times, along with the Yankees’ Judge (35), the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani (32), the D-backs’ Eugenio Suárez (31) and the Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber (30).
That makes 2025 the first season with that many players with that many homers in the first half -- though there’s a caveat in that there are more regular-season games played before the All-Star break now.
For more context, all five players with at least 30 homers are on teams that have played at least 96 games in the first half, and 2025 still stands out. This is just the sixth season in history with five 30-homer hitters through that few games and the first since 2006, when there were six such players.
Overall pace among 30-HR players at break
- Raleigh: 64
- Judge: 59
- Ohtani: 53
- Suárez: 52
- Schwarber: 51
Only 50 times in AL/NL history has a player cleared 50-plus homers and the most combined players with at least that many in a season is four, done in 2001 (Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Luis Gonzalez and Alex Rodriguez) and 1998 (Mark McGwire, Sosa, Ken Griffey Jr. and Greg Vaughn).
Raleigh, Schwarber and Suárez were asked if they’ve reflected on that pace, and how hitting homers has affected their overall approach:
Raleigh: “I'm a strong guy, so it’s been really learning how to hone it in and and take your hits when maybe you're not getting those pitches in the heart of the plate, being able to take your hits when they're pitching to the edge.”
Schwarber: “Guys can throw 100 [mph] down the middle, and they can get a foul ball, they can get a swing and a miss. But if you keep seeing it, you might catch up to that, and that might be a bigger result than just the base hit. But I don't know. I just feel like the stuff in the game is very good right now.”
Suárez: “For me personally, I never try to hit homers, but it's in there. It's something that you’re working for, and you've got to feel proud of it. I don't want to say a number, but yeah, I hope for [50].”
From the other side, pitchers have taken notice and are doing their best to adjust.
You can't take any at-bats off,” said Giants left-hander Robbie Ray. “You can't think that, just because I'm facing a No. 8 or 9 hitter, it’s just going to be a cake walk. It seems like everybody's got pop. Everybody's here for a reason. It seemed like a few years ago, it was kind of the launch angle. You were seeing a lot more of that. Now, it seems like it's more like quality of contact. It seems like guys are making better quality of contact.”
Raleigh is on pace to shatter the record for a catcher (48, by the Royals’ Salvador Perez in 2021), switch-hitter (54, by the Yankees’ Mickey Mantle in 1954) and the overall AL record (62, by Judge in 2022).
Judge is one of only nine players to clear 60 in a season, but at this rate, it’s possible that he could eventually have company.
“I think Cal is well on his way to setting some serious records this year,” Rays second baseman Brandon Lowe said. “Save for about maybe four or five games, I'm pulling for him to do as well as he can. ... Whatever they did this offseason for Cal, this is the first time that he's really done it. And you flip it onto the other side of just how sustained Judge has been with it. I think we're truly in the presence of one of the greatest right-handed hitters in the history of baseball.”