Mariners' Cal Raleigh may be powerless to stop Kyle Schwarber's assault on HR lead

Heading into the 2025 season, Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani were understandably considered the favorites to top the home run charts. However, while they have been up there as expected, they've found themselves trailing an unlikely contender from your Seattle Mariners.

We are of course referring to Cal Raleigh, who has been a pleasant surprise with one of the greatest ever campaigns by a catcher. Even though he surpassed Hall of Famer Mike Piazza last year for the most home runs by a catcher in their first four seasons, no one expected the Mariners' clubhouse leader to be this prolific.

Cal Raleigh's ongoing pursuit of history

Raleigh currently has 50 home runs, which not only leads the majors but is also the most ever by a catcher in a season. With one month remaining, he still has an excellent chance to pass Mickey Mantle's Major League record 54 homers by a switch-hitter and Ken Griffey Jr.'s M's franchise-best 56 from 1997 and 1998.

Thanks to Raleigh's special season, he is seen as one of the two front-runners to be named AL MVP along with Judge, and in some cases is even considered the outright favorite. There's no doubting his place at the top of the home run charts has played a significant role in this, but the potential achievement appears to now be under serious threat from Kyle Schwarber.

Raleigh has yet to really go into a power slump this year even as his batting average has dipped, with him consistently around double digits on a monthly basis when it comes to hitting home runs. However, Schwarber has been on fire for the Philadelphia Phillies since the beginning of July.

Over these past two months Schwarber has hit 24 home runs, working out to an average of one every 9.8 at-bats. By comparison Raleigh has 17 bombs at an average of one every 13.1 at-bats; excellent in its own right, but just not at the same level of productivity as his Phillies rival.

As a result of this recent surge by Schwarber, Raleigh has a tenuous one-home run advantage to begin September and the concern in Seattle now is that he will lose this race.

Kyle Schwarber seemingly has all the advantages

Schwarber plays at the hitter-friendly Citizens Bank Park and he mostly pulls DH duty these days. Obviously he's also just a tremendous player in general and has some experience in pursuing home run titles, after leading the NL with 46 blasts back in 2022.

Interestingly Schwarber finished second that season for the overall home run lead behind Judge, who set the AL all-time record with 62 in a season. There had been some hope among Mariners fans that Raleigh could actually catch the Bronx Bomber's mark this year, but that seems unlikely at this point.

Ultimately, as Raleigh has said himself, the main aim is to make the playoffs rather than focusing on any individual goals. If this means sacrificing the home run title in order to qualify then he will be able to live with that just fine.

In the grand scheme of things, Raleigh is still the first ever catcher to hit 50 home runs in a season and there's worse things to happen than losing out to a guy like Schwarber, who is one of the most likeable stars in baseball today. At the same time, though, it will still be a shame if he does miss out, after being in such a good position and almost being destined to finish as king of the hill.