Mariners' Cal Raleigh just broke a Roy Campanella MLB catcher home run record

Billy Heyen

Mariners' Cal Raleigh just broke a Roy Campanella MLB catcher home run record image

Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh is on fire.

The big bopper slugged two more home runs on Tuesday night to push him to 19 on the season after just 53 games played, counting this one.

As it turns out, that set a new MLB record.

No catcher had ever reached 19 homers through 53 team games until Raleigh. The previous 53-game mark to start a season was 18 by Dodgers legend Roy Campanella.

Campy did that in 1955, and 70 years later, here's Raleigh finally surpassing it.

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Raleigh, thanks to the occasional start at DH, has actually started every game this season. No catcher has ever played all 162 in a campaign.

One of the most remarkable things about Raleigh is that he's also a dynamo defender. He won the Platinum Glove in 2024 as the best defensive player in baseball. 

Raleigh already hit long home runs before this year, but the overall hitting package has improved in a way that has allowed him to raise his batting average while also finding his best-ever home run pace.

In fact, Raleigh is on pace to crush Salvador Perez's single-season catcher HR record of 48.

Anyone waiting for Raleigh to slow down might have to wait awhile. He's in a groove and can't be broken.

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Billy Heyen

Billy Heyen is a freelance writer with The Sporting News. He is a 2019 graduate of Syracuse University who has written about many sports and fantasy sports for The Sporting News. Sports reporting work has also appeared in a number of newspapers, including the Sandusky Register and Rochester Democrat & Chronicle