Mariners’ Cal Raleigh – who else? – named co-AL Player of the Week

The Seattle Mariners have earned another weekly honor. And it should be no surprise who’s in the spotlight this time.

Switch-hitting catcher Cal Raleigh, the MLB home run leader entering Monday with 23 on the season, has been named co-American League Player of the Week, sharing the award with Junior Caminero of the Tampa Bay Rays.

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It’s the third AL Player of the Week award won by a Mariners hitter this year. Dylan Moore and Jorge Polanco won it back to back in April.

Raleigh went on a power-hitting barrage over the week of May 26 through June 1. In six games over that period, he had eight hits in 23 at-bats, six of which were home runs. Raleigh had a slash line of .348/.444/1.130 for a 1.575 OPS with 10 RBIs, six runs, a stolen base and three walks to eight strikeouts.

Seattle’s star backstop had a pair of two-homer games over the week: Tuesday, May 27 against the Washington Nationals, and Friday, May 30 against the Minnesota Twins. He hit both homers on Tuesday as a right-handed hitter against lefty pitchers, while both homers Friday came as a lefty swinger against righty pitchers.

Caminero had a .379/.400/.931 slash line for a 1.331 OPS with four homers, four doubles and 13 RBIs to share the weekly AL award.

During his surge, Raleigh overtook Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge (21 homers) for the AL home run lead, and then Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani (22 homers) for the MLB lead. Judge and Ohtani are the reigning AL and NL MVPs, respectively, and combined have won five of the eight MVP awards given out in the past four seasons. Not bad company for Raleigh to be sitting in.

Raleigh become the first catcher in MLB history to reach 20 homers before the month of June, and joined Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez as the only Mariners to hit the 20-homer milestone before the end of May.

More: Cal Raleigh off to unprecedented start for MLB catchers

Raleigh is also making a great case to be in the AL MVP race this season. On the year he has a .264/.379/.637 slash line for a 1.016 OPS with 45 RBIs and 39 runs scored. He’s played in all 58 games for the Mariners this season despite typically being at the most demanding position on the field. And Raleigh isn’t just any old catcher – he not only won his first AL Gold Glove last season, but was also awarded the AL Platinum Glove as the best defender in the league regardless of position.

In addition to leading MLB in homers, Raleigh is third in slugging (.637), fourth in OPS, seventh in RBIs, tied for eighth in walks (37), tied for 12th in runs scored, and 24th in on-base percentage (.379).

The Mariners are off Monday, then open a three-game series at T-Mobile Park at 6:40 p.m. Tuesday against the Baltimore Orioles. Radio coverage on Seattle Sports will begin at 5:30 with the pregame show.

Seattle (32-26) currently leads the AL West by a half-game over the Houston Astros (32-27).

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