Mariners’ Dan Wilson amazed by Cal Raleigh’s ‘unbelievable’ first half

Entering 2025, Dan Wilson probably laid claim to the best first half of a season by a Seattle Mariners catcher.

But this year, he’s had a front-row seat to the undisputed new holder of that title.

Recap: Raleigh, Garver combine for 4 HRs as M’s beat Cubs 9-4

Seattle’s manager was an All-Star for the team in 1996, the only catcher in M’s history – for a few more weeks, at least – to earn that distinction. And to be fair, “Dan the Man” had a pretty good stat line at the time of that Midsummer Classic in Philadelphia, hitting .308 with 12 homers and an .848 OPS in 75 games.

But Cal Raleigh isn’t just having the best first half to a season that a Mariners catcher has ever had, but could be in the middle of the best season by a catcher in MLB history period.

The numbers behind Cal Raleigh’s historic first half

Raleigh added two more home runs to his MLB-leading total in a 9-4 win over the Chicago Cubs on Friday, and he now has 29 homers, 63 RBIs, a .273 average and 1.025 OPS in 73 games. He’s already hit the most homers ever by a catcher before an All-Star break, taking the mantle from the great Johnny Bench, and still has over three weeks of games to add on to the record.

“It’s unbelievable. He just continues to find barrels and gets himself into good counts,” said Wilson, who is in his first full season as the Mariners’ skipper, after Friday’s win. “… I mean, he’s just doing it all. Caught a really nice game behind the plate. I thought they did a great job with the game plan. It’s a tough hitting lineup. They executed on both sides of the ball, and Cal, just – it’s amazing what he’s been doing.”

Oh, right – Raleigh isn’t just a slugger, but also the reigning Platinum Glove winner as the American League’s best defender regardless of position. That’s why he’s hearing chants of “M-V-P, M-V-P” – even in Chicago.

We like the sound of that!

🌟 https://t.co/Q16mvWt8m4 🌟 pic.twitter.com/IgulaZ4b0g

— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) June 20, 2025

Barreled up

When Wilson spoke Friday about the season “The Big Dumper” is having, one word kept coming up: barrels.

The numbers behind Cal Raleigh’s historic first half

The MLB.com glossary defines a “barrel” as “batted-ball events whose comparable hit types (in terms of exit velocity and launch angle) have led to a minimum .500 batting average and 1.500 slugging percentage since Statcast was implemented Major League wide in 2015.”

Raleigh, as you might expect, is one of the best in baseball in producing barrels this season. Entering Friday, he owned a barrel rate of 19.7%, which is fifth in baseball behind only some of the hardest hitters in the league: Aaron Judge (24.9%), Oneil Cruz (24%), Shohei Ohtani (21.9%) and Pete Alonso (20.7%).

Wilson credited Raleigh’s ability to time up fastballs, which then helps him adjust to off-speed pitches, for his elite barrel rate.

“He’s locked in, and staying on-time for the heater is a must,” Wilson said. “If you’re on-time for the heater, you give yourself a chance with the other stuff.

“I think he’s just so dangerous because he’s tough to pitch to. He hits breaking balls, he hits the hard stuff. He hits just about everything and he’s got power to all fields. So he’s just a really difficult out, and when he’s finding barrels like he has been, he’s dangerous. And he continues to prove that time and time again.”

There was an interesting – probably unintentionally so – choice of words there: “He’s tough to pitch to.” Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider infamously said in 2023 that Raleigh is “not very tough to pitch to when you execute your pitches.” Raleigh, of course, has made Schneider live to regret ever saying that with a career .361 average and 1.016 OPS with 10 home runs in just 24 games against Toronto.

The second of Raleigh’s homers Friday went clear out of Wrigley Field onto Waveland Ave., traveling 419 feet. That was a pretty cool sight for Wilson, who grew up in the Chicago area.

“I watched a lot of Cubs games on TV, and you saw that happen. And then just to see Cal do it, it’s a little bit surreal, but that’s what he’s been doing,” Wilson said. “You know he gets the barrel to it and it’s going to go somewhere hard, and in this ballpark you’re going to get a chance to hit out of the ballpark.

“He has just been so consistent finding the barrel.”

More on the Seattle Mariners

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• Why Rowdy’s DFA made the most sense for Mariners
• Top M’s prospect Colt Emerson on tear after making a tweak
• Is Julio’s new ultra-aggressive approach sustainable? Passan’s take
• Seattle Mariners’ Logan Gilbert takes us inside his return from the IL

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