As we reach the All-Star break, Aaron Judge is having yet another monster season, leading the majors in all three slash categories, plus WAR, Hits and Total Bases, and leading the AL in Runs and Walks. Yet, somehow, Judge’s 35 dingers are only second best this season, trailing nobody’s pre-season pick for home run champ, Seattle’s switch-hitting catcher Cal Raleigh. More on Raleigh’s improbable power surge after the jump.

Raleigh’s 38 home runs at the All-Star break is an AL record, and trails only Barry Bonds‘s total of 39 in 2001 for the major-league record. Here is a sampling of the first half home run records that Raleigh has blown away.

As a west coast team, and the major league team most remote from all others (Seattle is an 807 mile drive from San Francisco), the Mariners typically don’t attract a lot of media attention outside the Pacific Northwest. So, you may not know a lot about Raleigh. Here’s a brief rundown.

Raleigh was born in Cullowhee, North Carolina (pop. 7,682), in the extreme west of the state, and is the first major leaguer to hail from the town (the second is Twins’ right-hander Zebby Matthews; in the first ever batter-pitcher matchup of Cullowhee players, Raleigh smacked a 3-run homer in this game). Raleigh debuted in 2021, playing 47 games that season, but struggled at the dish, with only a .532 OPS. He broke through the next year, smacking 27 long balls for the Mariners to set a franchise record for catchers.

While nobody foresaw a season like this for Raleigh, it didn’t come completely out of the blue. This is Raleigh’s fourth consecutive 25+ HR season, with increasing totals in Hits, HR, RBI, TB, BB and OBP the last three seasons, a trend that seems all but certain to continue this year. Raleigh’s third consecutive 30 HR season puts him in the company of Mike Piazza, as the only catchers with that trifecta. And, with the second half of the season still to play, Raleigh has already eclipsed Piazza’s record for home runs by a catcher over the first 5 seasons of a career.

Raleigh has 8 multi-HR games so far this season, six as a catcher and two as a DH. He needs two more such games as a catcher to tie Javy Lopez‘s 2003 record, and three more at any position to tie the record 11 such games by Aaron Judge (2022), Sammy Sosa (1998) and Hank Greenberg (1938). More momentous would be surpassing Salvador Perez‘s catcher record 48 home runs, and Aaron Judge’s AL record 62 blasts; as I write this, Raleigh is on pace for 64 round-trippers.

But, it’s not just home runs. Raleigh seems almost certain to post his second consecutive 30 HR, 100 RBI season, a feat accomplished among catchers by only Mike Piazza (1996-2000) and Rudy York (1937-38). Raleigh is on pace for 138 RBI this season, a total that would rank 3rd among catchers, behind only Johnny Bench (148 in 1970) and Roy Campanella (142 in 1953). Raleigh has also added some speed to his game, with a career best 10 SB already this season, becoming the third catcher to post a 30 HR/10 SB season and seeming all but certain to become the first to post a 40 HR/10 SB season. Other qualified season (modern definition) catcher records that Raleigh could challenge include Piazza’s .638 SLG and 185 OPS+ in 1997; Raleigh is currently at .634 and 190.

Catchers tend to wear down in the summer heat, and Raleigh is no exception, posting a .677 career OPS in August that is easily his lowest in any month of the season. So, it seems unlikely that he will match many of the records I’ve mentioned. But, it will sure be fun to watch him try. I’ll close with this quiz question: Who was the first catcher to post a 30 HR/10 SB season?