PEORIA, Ariz. — Cal Raleigh has already gone deep at spring training in a Cactus League matchup this month, but the switch-hitting Seattle Mariners catcher isn’t focused on trying to hit 60 home runs again this season.
Raleigh, who hit 60 home runs last year to lead Major League Baseball, hit a 427-foot homer against the Chicago White Sox in an exhibition game Tuesday. His first homer of the spring came in his third game.
“I think the elephant in the room is 60 home runs. That’s not something I’m setting out to do,” Raleigh told Seattle Sports this week. “To me, I’m just trying to be as consistent as possible, trying to do what I did last year.”
His 60 homers last season were the most in MLB history in a single year for a player who was primarily a catcher, with Raleigh having started 119 games behind the plate and another 38 at designated hitter. The 29-year-old Raleigh, nicknamed “Big Dumper,” also had a career-high 125 RBIs and finished second in the American League MVP voting behind New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge, who won the honor for a third time.
Judge — who set the AL record with 62 home runs in 2022 — and Raleigh are both set to play for the United States in the 2026 World Baseball Classic, which begins pool play next week. Judge and Raleigh are among only seven players in MLB history with a 60-homer season.
Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa are the only ones to do so in consecutive seasons, doing so in 1998 and 1999, years in which McGwire was with the St. Louis Cardinals and Sosa was with the Chicago Cubs, a pair of old National League rivals. McGwire and Sosa are the only players in MLB history with multiple 60-homer seasons, and Sosa had a third in 2001.