Cal Raleigh’s record-breaking home runs reignite his AL MVP campaign for Mariners

When Salvador Perez hit 48 home runs in 2021, he broke a single-season record for a primary catcher that had stood for over half a century. As such, he probably figured the record would be his for a long time.

But on Sunday, Cal Raleigh saw to it that Perez's record didn't even last four full years.

The Seattle Mariners' Sunday contest against the Athletics is still ongoing as of this writing, but the story of the game is already right there in front of everyone. With two-run blasts in the first and second innings, Raleigh collected his 48th and 49th home runs of the season to tie and then surpass Perez's record for a catcher.

One question now is whether "Big Dumper" can beat the single-season record for home runs as a catcher, which seems eminently doable. His two on Sunday give him 40 for the season as a catcher, putting him just two shy of Javy Lopez's record of 42 from 2003.

Raleigh also has a shot at other records, of course, including Ken Griffey Jr.'s Mariners record of 56. There is otherwise still a chance of him at least matching Aaron Judge's American League record of 62, set just three years ago in 2022.

Cal Raleigh's record-setting day is also a jolt to his MVP candidacy

After Mariners fans are done celebrating Raleigh's newfound place in the record books, it'll be time to say what we're all thinking: He needed this.

Though his 2025 season made the grade as an all-time great one for a catcher even before Sunday, that bat of his — one might say "those bats of his" on account of his switch-hitting talent — had been awfully quiet lately. Here's how the splits work out:

• 83 Games Through June 30: .276/.387/.649 with 33 HR
• 44 Games After July 1: .185/.281/.452 with 14 HR

Though Raleigh maintained the home run lead even as his hits began to dry up, Kyle Schwarber and Shohei Ohtani were steadily chipping away at it. And even as Judge and the New York Yankees were practically begging Raleigh to take the lead in the AL MVP race, he just kept slumping.

It would be premature to say that Raleigh is out of the woods. It'll take more than one good game to redeem what has been a bad couple of months, as it's not as if he's suddenly run into a wall of bad luck. His approach has been legitimately bad since the start of July, as his walk-to-strikeout ratio has been cut nearly in half (i.e., 0.60 to 0.35) relative to his first three months.

Sunday did, however, mark his first multi-homer game since back on July 11. And this is about the time of year when he typically does go from slumping to slamming. For his career, he has followed a .680 OPS in August with a .817 OPS in September.

If Raleigh does go on a heater to finish the season, the pressure in the AL MVP race will be all on Judge. He built what seemed to be an insurmountable lead early in the year, but his balky elbow has changed the equation in a major way. He can no longer play the field, and he's only hit .218 with three homers since coming off the IL on August 5.

To be clear, Judge still has a 1.114 OPS and 6.8 rWAR. Both are good for sizable advantages on Raleigh, who entered Sunday with a .930 OPS and 5.4 rWAR. At least as of Sunday morning, it was therefore hard to argue with betting odds that had Judge as the favorite to claim what would be his third AL MVP.

This is nonetheless a race that is far from over, and what Raleigh did on Sunday was reignite his candidacy in a major way. All he has to do now is keep the flame lit and torching baseballs, just as he did Perez's record.