How Cal Raleigh one-upped Mickey Mantle in pursuit of switch-hitter HR record

Mickey Mantle is no longer all alone atop the leaderboard for home runs in a season by a switch-hitter. He now shares the pinnacle with Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh — and his Big Dumper.

Having already broken the record for home runs by a primary catcher (49) and become only the second Mariner to hit 50 homers in a season, Mantle's switch-hitter record of 54 from 1961 was the next domino to fall in Raleigh's quest for home run glory. And fall it did on Sunday opposite the Los Angeles Angels in the first inning.

Up next for Raleigh is Ken Griffey Jr.'s Mariners club record of 56 home runs, which he still has 12 games to topple. His road to 60 home runs is not as certain to find paydirt, but he is within range and he even has a sneaky advantage working in his favor.

In the meantime, it's worth taking a moment to appreciate Raleigh's newfound place alongside "The Mick" — and, more specifically, how he got there.

Cal Raleigh did one thing that even Mickey Mantle didn't do

Are you already wondering how many times Mantle and Raleigh homered from each side of the plate in their respective history-making seasons?

Well, wonder no more:

• Mickey Mantle in 1961: 43 HR as LHB, 11 HR as RHB
• Cal Raleigh in 2025: 34 HR as LHB, 20 HR as RHB

If it's a question of left-handed and right-handed balance, one of these things is not like the other. In fact, Raleigh's 2025 season is unlike any other power display by any other switch-hitter. He is the first and only one to homer 20-plus times from both sides of the plate.

The point in bringing this up is not to disparage Mantle and what he did in 1961. Though he took 167 at-bats against lefties as a righty, there's at least one good reason why he hit so few home runs from that side of the dish.

Per Clem's Baseball, Yankee Stadium in 1961 was 301 feet down the left field line, but then went all the way out to 402 to straightaway left and 460 to left-center. It wasn't until Monument Park arrived in 1976 that "The House That Ruth Built" became more manageable for right-handed sluggers, and Mantle was long retired by then.

Despite this, he didn't spend his career as a switch-hitter in vain. The right side was Mantle's average side, as he hit .329 batting righty and .283 batting lefty.

Nonetheless, that Raleigh has been so prolific hitting home runs from both sides of the plate is multiple kinds of ridiculous.

Start with the rate at which he's homered from both sides of the plate, which comes to every 11.3 at-bats from the left side and every 8.7 at-bats from the right side. The former is the same pace Shohei Ohtani is homering at in 2025, while the latter is worthy of Mark McGwire in the late 1990s.

Even if there isn't an endless void out to left field or right field, T-Mobile Park is famously not in good standing with modern sluggers. According to Statcast's park factors, it ranks 21st as a home run haven for righty hitters, and 19th for lefty hitters.

It thus isn't the biggest surprise that the bulk of Raleigh's long balls (28) have come on the road, yet the 26 homers he's hit at T-Mobile Park are a new venue record by a solid five over the 21 that Nelson Cruz hit there in 2018.

There's also the sheer difference in scope between the competition than Mantle faced in 1961 compared what Raleigh has gone up against in 2025. Mantle faced 99 different pitchers that year, whereas Raleigh has gone up against 276 pitchers this year — nearly three times as many.

In a neutralized setting, Raleigh would already have 58 home runs by now. In that same hypothetical setting, Mantle would have finished his 1961 season with...well, 54 home runs.

Of course, New York Yankees fans will point out that the only thing Raleigh's 2025 season has on Mantle's 1961 season apart from homers is a 14-to-12 edge for stolen bases. Which is true, and era-adjusted stats shine brighter light on Mantle's slugging prowess from that year.

But if Mariners fans and Yankees fans can agree on anything right now, it's that both Raleigh and Mantle deserve the place they share in history. Far from the easy way, both got there the hard way.