Mariners fans should take new threat to Cal Raleigh's power superiority seriously

It took Cal Raleigh until April 13, in the Seattle Mariners' 16th game of 2025, to hit the fifth home run of his record-breaking 60-homer season. It's worth noting because Shea Langeliers already has that many homers through the Athletics' first six games of 2026.

This early in the season, on-pace numbers are simultaneously useless and hard to ignore out of pure morbid curiosity. So in the interest of saving everyone a few seconds of searching, FanGraphs projects Langeliers to finish with 135 home runs at his current pace.

Like we said, useless. But if this is Langeliers asserting himself as a real threat to Raleigh as MLB's best power-hitting catcher, it would be unwise to not take it seriously.

Because of Shea Langeliers, Cal Raleigh shouldn't count on leading catchers in home runs this year

Raleigh has led catchers in home runs in each of the last four seasons, and he's obviously the favorite to do so again in 2026. The slow start that he (and certainly other Mariners hitters) are off to probably will prove to be an early indicator of regression, yet any fewer than 40 homers would be a letdown.

Even sans his hot start, though, Langeliers would have been the best pick to dethrone Raleigh as MLB's best slugging catcher this season.

He's been on an upward trajectory since 2023, going from 22 homers that year to 29 in 2024 and 31 last year. And something clearly clicked for him around last year's All-Star break, as he promptly went off for a 1.018 OPS and 19 homers in the second half. That was only three fewer than Raleigh.

Thomas Harrigan of MLB.com got deeper into what's been driving Langeliers' ascent, with the main takeaway being that the 28-year-old is simply owning the strike zone. Yet because he still chases quite a bit, pitchers might be able to slow him down just by throwing him fewer strikes.

Even so, there's nothing to be done about the one advantage Langeliers will retain on Raleigh no matter how he's pitched. Whereas Raleigh and the Mariners have to contend with T-Mobile Park in home games, Langeliers gets to swing it at Sutter Health Park. Suffice it to say it's a stadium that favors hitters.

For his part, Raleigh just hasn't looked right at the plate so far. His timing seems off, which is no surprise given his truncated spring and his unceremonious benching in the World Baseball Classic. Pitchers aren't making it easy either, as they've taken to relentlessly pounding him inside with fastballs.

Whenever Raleigh gets going, he'll already have quite a bit of catching (heh) up to do in his home run race with Langeliers. And while the hope here is obviously that Raleigh will come out on top, it's also worth rooting for something that has never happened before: two 40-homer catchers in one season.