Examining the Fantasy Baseball Profile for Mariners Cal Raleigh

For fantasy baseball purposes, it may not be in your best interest to target some of your fan favorite Mariners players early in your draft. If you want to have even more reason to root for the M’s this season, then by all means, draft your favorite players. If you want to win your league, it is probably best to take the Mariners players to be on your bench. One of those players is Cal Raleigh.

In fantasy baseball, it all comes down to your league's format, which will help guide you on how to attack your draft. However, there are some scenarios where drafting Cal Raleigh makes some sense. If you have a 10-team league, Raleigh should probably be your backup catcher who you would feel good about starting if you had to. If you play in a 12-team league or a bigger league than that, the switch-hitting backstop should be drafted as one of the last starting catchers.

MLB.com recently came out with their fantasy baseball rankings, and they had him at the bottom of their third tier for catchers, ranked 11th overall at the position. Fantasy Pros also had him ranked similarly, putting him at 12th among catchers.

Cal Raleigh, or “Big Dumper” is coming off of a breakout season. He finally found success after he was recalled from the minor leagues when Tom Murphy went down with an injury. He went on to slash .211/.284/.489 in 119 games. Obviously, he did not do too well in the categories of batting average and on-base percentage, which may be necessary for your fantasy league. But, the plus that Big Dumper brings to the plate is his home run power.

Last season the 26-year-old hit 27 home runs, the most among all catchers. Raleigh brings the thunder from the catcher position but isn't as well-rounded for fantasy purposes as other catchers. He certainly has the potential to hit for a higher average and get on base more, especially after having success last year. If he can slash .250/.300/.500 he will be a top of the line catcher.

One reason to hope for more success in 2023 is that Raleigh was one of the most shifted players in the big leagues last year. Another is because hopefully, Tom Murphy will be able to hit against more left-handed pitching, leaving more favorable matchups for Raleigh. He hit 24 of his 27 home runs off of righties last year, so he will hopefully have a good year in reality that will translate to fantasy!