Despite injuries impacting their elite starting rotation, the Seattle Mariner remain atop the AL West. Last season, the offensively challenged Mariners were unable to stave off the Houston Astros, who won the division with a second-half surge. This year, Seattle has been more impressive at the plate, thanks in large part to a scorching-hot start by Cal Raleigh.

However, Raleigh is anything but a one-dimensional player as he’s earned high praise for his overall defense, pitch framing, ability to throw out runners and handling of the pitching staff. Raleigh is a complete catcher and he’s performed at an elite level offensively and defensively in 2025.

“There’s no debate, he is the number one catcher in baseball,” insider Jon Heyman said of Raleigh per MLB Now on X. “It is such an advantage to have a catcher with these kind of stats… It’s huge because there’s a lot of catchers… who are just defensive catchers, who are outstanding defensively but don’t have half the stats, one-tenth the stats of Cal Raleigh,” Heyman added.

Mariners’ Cal Raleigh stakes claim as baseball’s best catcher

May 6, 2025; West Sacramento, California, USA; Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh (29) hits a RBI single against the Athletics during the ninth inning at Sutter Health Park.
Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images

The Mariners clearly agree with this assessment as the team wisely signed Raleigh to a six-year, $105 million extension at the start of the season. The new deal will keep the Gold Glover in Seattle through 2030.

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Raleigh burst onto the scene in 2022, displaying rare power for a catcher right off the bat. He improved each year since and finished last season with 34 home runs, 100 RBI, 73 runs scored, a 118 OPS+ and 4.7 bWAR for the Mariners. He also was awarded the Platinum Glove for his defensive efforts in 2024.

This season he’s been even better at the plate. Raleigh is not a great hitter for a catcher, he’s just a great hitter. He’s been in a season-long competition with Aaron Judge for the AL home run lead and recently surpassed the Yankees’ slugger again. Raleigh has 19 homers on the season, tops in the American League and one behind Dodgers' star Shohei Ohtani.

He also is sporting a .966 OPS, 182 OPS+ and is already up to 2.9 bWAR in May. When you combine that with his strong showing in defensive runs saved, defensive runs above average and caught stealing over the last two seasons, Raleigh appears deserving of the title of baseball’s best catcher.

Now the Mariners need the pitching staff to get healthy for a strong second half. The team is 30-24 but only has a half-game lead over the Astros in the division. Seattle has made the playoffs once in the last 23 years. Fans are counting on Raleigh leading the team back to the postseason.