The list of MLB players who have never struck 60 circuits in a single season includes many biggest sluggers of all time in the game: Willie Mays, Albert Pujols, Ken Griffey Jr., Alex Rodriguez, Jim Thome and Jimmie Foxx. Heck, Henry Aaron has never reached 50 years. Frank Robinson or Reggie Jackson or Lou Gehrig either nor countless other people renowned in an inner circle.
But Cal Raleigh, the calm and humble recipient of Seattle Mariners, is now part of one of the most exclusive clubs in baseball: 60 home circuits in a season. It is an unfathomable, unlikely and amazing performance. It is the most fun baseball: the unexpected. He gave navy fans – all fans, really – something to look for at night.
He joined a club that includes Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Aaron Judge, Roger Maris and Babe Ruth – Three Yankees from New York and three players with contaminated inheritances. Raleigh most obviously looks like Maris, the calm and shy slugger of the North Dakota who fell to all the attention he received from the press when he hunted the Ruth record in 1961 and finished with 61 circuits.
Maris, however, was at least the MVP prevailing the AL entering the 1961 season. Raleigh, on the other hand, had never been an All-Star before 2025. When he recently reached his 55th and 56th circuits in the same match to break the record for a season of Mickey Mantle for the Home Runs by a switch and the Record of Driffey, he seemed almost embarrassed to discuss the realization.
“I have the impression that my name should not be in the same sentence as these guys, Mickey Mantle and Ken Griffey Jr.,” said Raleigh. “I don’t really have any words for that. I don’t really know what to say. I’m sure that one day it’s going to settle down, but for the moment it’s just” continue “.”
He continued to move forward – up to the brand of 60 houses (in another double Homer performance, of course). With his 60th explosion of the season now in books, let’s look at his remarkable campaign every month in 2025.
March / April
Number of circuits: 10
The longest home run: 422 Cincinnati feet off Emilio Pagan (April 17)
Most clutch home run: Chris Martin des Texas Rangers at the bottom of the eighth to give the Mariners a 5-3 victory (April 11) to give the Mariners a 5-3 victory (April 11)
Raleigh did not start the season by giving any indication that he was about to embark on a record campaign. During his first 13 games, he struck. 184 with two circuits and only three points produced. Indeed, the biggest news surrounding Raleigh at this stage were the announcement of the navies the day before the regular season that he had signed it to an extension of $ 105 million over six years which started with the 2025 season and ends until 2030, with an option acquired from the players for 2031. In an interesting way, Raleigh experienced agents changed during the season, going from Scott Boras Management. Boras, of course, has the reputation of pushing its customers to a free agency – and, certainly now, Raleigh’s agreement looks like a good deal for sailors.
But Martin’s Home Run on April 11 brought Raleigh to a hot sequence. He dominated six times in six games and eight times the rest of the month. The Home Run of Pagan was another big: it led the top of the ninth and Randy Arozarena followed with another Home Run to equalize the match, which the navies won in 10 rounds.
We did not know at the time, but the pursuit of 60 was on.
Can
Number of circuits: 12
The longest home run: 432 feet in Texas off Jack Leiter (May 2)
Most clutch home run: Bryan Abreu des Astros de Houston two points from Houston in seventh round to transform a 3-3 draw into a 5-3 victory (May 23) (May 23)
During the first match of the May Navy, Raleigh attracted Leiter twice: the first was his longest explosion of the month, on a cursor on the first field. The second was a big slam, on a 2-2 curve ball – the first of his three Grand Slam in 2025. Raleigh then struck a small lull, becoming without traffic for eight games, but then obtained a hot, hitting 0.313 with 10 circuits during his last 18 games in May, including two games of more than two homes, against the Twins at Washington, Twins pushed Twins Minnesota on May 30. And although it is still only a third of the path throughout the season, MVP Talk has started to percolate.
June
Number of circuits: 11
The longest home run: 440 feet at Wrigley Field off Colin Rea (June 22)
Most clutch home run: Two points shot the Caleb Thielbar of the Chicago Cubs with two withdrawals in seventh round to give the Mariners an advance of 6-4 (June 20)
Raleigh started in June with a Home Run, again at home on June 5, dominated twice on June 7, played seven games without Home Run, then exploded six on another six game section, including a match of two Hommer against Cubs on June 20. From May 16 to June 23, Raleigh had its hottest section of the season, struck .313 / .401 / .794 with 19 Home Runs and 40 Rbis in 34 games.
The key to his success:
-
It has improved considerably against left -handers this season: it has 22 circuits and a 1,030 ops on the right side of the plate against 13 and a .696 OPS in 2024.
-
He is really gifted to draw flies of flies.
This last competence allowed Raleigh to hit his ticket at 60, even if he does not hit his circuits as far as the other big sluggers of the season – Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Schwarber and judge. Here is a ventilation of the circuits of each player in 2025, with Raleigh lagging from others in the Home Runs of the 400 feet and more than 425 feet:
As you can see, however, Raleigh’s ability to pull the ball more often means that its circuits rate to control bullets remains extraordinarily high, just like the other three.
July
Number of circuits: 9
The longest home run: 440 feet at Seattle off Bailey Falter Pirates of Pittsburgh (July 4)
Most clutch home run: A solo circuit off the Brewers of Milwaukee Nick Mears in sixth round – the only race in a 1-0 victory (July 22)
The CAL season continued in July. He struck a second circuit of Failter on July 4 and added another match of two homming against the tigers just before the break of the stars, which he entered by hitting .259 / .377 / .634 with 38 circuits in 94 games. The navies had played 96 games at the break, which put Raleigh at a rate of 64 homming and made him talk to him about the baseball at the Home Run Derby.
Which, of course, won, becoming the first recipient to win the derby and do it with his father Todd Sr. Pitching and his 15 -year -old brother Todd Jr. capturing. In one of the most charming moments of the season, a video of an 8 year old CAL, “I am the champion of the Home Run derby! I am the man, I am the man, oh yeah, oh yeah” went viral before the competition.
“This video is crazy,” said Raleigh, still underestimated from Truist Park in Atlanta. “I mean, I don’t know where they found this thing in the archives. Yes, just a little surreal. You don’t think you will win it. You don’t think you will never be invited. So you are invited. The fact that you won with your family, super special.
August
Number of circuits: 8
The longest home run: 448 feet at Seattle off Jacob Lopez of athletics (August 24)
Most clutch home run: Griffin Jax of the Tampa Bay Rays of Tampa Bay Rays with two withdrawals at the end of the eighth, transforming a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 victory (August 8)
Raleigh continued a crisis on the plate this month. After hitting. 304 in May and 0.300 in June, he struck. 194 in July and .173 in August, although the circuits did not happen to the pace to be regular. His most embarrassing Home Run run intervened at home against the Rays. Faced with a difficult JAX right -handed lift with runners in the first and second, Raleigh took ahead of the count with two balls. JAX could have got around it with two withdrawals but launched a sweeper at the bottom of the striking area – not a terrible terrain but not quite in the outside corner where Jax wanted it – and Raleigh crushed him at 417 feet above the wall of the central field.
Along the way, he struck his 49th circuit to break the record of Salvador Perez in 2021 for most Home Runs by a main receiver. It was part of a match with two homes in which he struck the n ° 48 and 49, and the next day, he hit the n ° 50. He finished the month with a section without a circuit of five games, however, he entered in September with 50 circuits in the 137 games that the Mariners had played until this moment, which left him at a rate of 59 counterparts.
September
Number of circuits: 10
The longest home run: 426 feet in Atlanta off Rolddy Munoz (September 7)
Most clutch home run: Kyle Hendricks (September 14) shot two rounds from the first round of Los Angeles.
Raleigh struck only one house in the first four games in September, which meant that he had hit only one circuit stroke in a nine-game section-a period when the navies had gone 2-7 and were barely hung at the third point of Joker by half a match on the Texas Rangers with three other teams in 2 and a half years. Raleigh would reach two pools against the Braves of Atlanta on the road: a thigh of ninth round in a 10-2 victory, then the ninth round three-rounds from Munoz in an 18-2 victory.
Suddenly, the continuation of Raleigh for 60 and the continuation of the navy of a division title was back. From September 7, the navies won 14 of the 15 games before Tuesday’s series against the Colorado rockies, while Raleigh struck .286 / .437 / .714 with seven circuits. He had his 10th match at two hommer of the season against the Royals of Kansas City to spend the Mantle switching record and the Mantle Club club record (he broke the Griffey record with an explosion against the Astros on Saturday). With his 11th – who came Wednesday evening, sending Raleigh to the 60 brands, he equaled Hank Greenberg (1938), Sosa (1998) and Judge (2022) for the record for the matches of two homes in one season.
I don’t know if Cal Raleigh, 8, never imagined something like that happens, but here is the thing that pleased Raleigh in the fans of the navy and made him one of the most popular players in the history of the franchise: he will be much happier than the Mariners have won their first division title since 2001 on Wednesday than to strike his 60th Home Run.
