Mariners can't hide just how bad Cal Raleigh's 2025 downfall has gotten

Some of you may remember a scene in the Adam Sandler movie Little Nicky, when former Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino unsuccessfully tries to sell his soul to the devil in exchange for a Super Bowl win. Is it possible Cal Raleigh was able to negotiate a deal in order to have his magical 2025 season, highlighted by becoming just the seventh player in Major League history to hit 60 home runs?

We only ask, because we're running out of (rational) reasons to explain just why Raleigh has been so bad this year. Yes, we can appreciate what happened with Randy Arozarena at the World Baseball Classic could have impacted him initially, and certainly the right oblique issue he foolishly tried to play through before finally going on the Injured List didn't help. However, he's been back and healthy for nearly two months now, and nothing has improved.

Raleigh's fall from grace is almost of biblical proportions, and this description of his disastrous campaign is only slightly hyperbolic. It really has been truly horrendous for the 2025 AL MVP runner-up, with him ranking in the first percentile for overall Batting Run Value. He has a negative bWAR and is projected to set career-lows with a .161 batting average and .303 slugging percentage.

In many respects, the disappointment surrounding Raleigh this season represents the feeling about the team as a whole. After repeatedly (and understandably) believing he would turn things around, this hope has now all but vanished. In fact it's gotten so bad that even the Mariners themselves have all but given up hope, dropping him down to eighth in the order for last Friday's home series opener versus the Rays.

Things look disastrously bad for Cal Raleigh whether it be compared to other players this season or all-time

It's not even like you can call this decision harsh, with Raleigh suffering the biggest wOBA decline of any hitter relative to last season at -.132, which is -.040 ahead of George Springer in second place. It gets worse though, when you delve back into the history record books to find out how much of a decline the 2025 Silver Slugger has suffered.

As of now, he has the second-biggest year-to-year, wRC+ drop-off of the live-ball era (which began in 1920):

We genuinely apologize for all these damning statistics, but they really do illustrate just how bad Raleigh has been, after four years of being arguably the best catcher in the majors. It can't be stressed enough how much the Mariners were not built for this. Of course no one expected 60 home runs again, but similarly, no one had this level of falloff on their Bingo card.

It's painful to think how many close losses could have been wins if Raleigh was even the 2024 version of himself, when he hit 34 home runs and 100 RBI. As much of an influence he has on the team when things are going well, the same applies when things are going badly. Perhaps he can still find time to make another deal with the devil, because with the Mariners now seven games below .500, this is looking more and more like a lost season for everyone in Seattle.

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