Cal Raleigh homers as Mariners prevail on SNB

Raleigh’s 2026 might wind up as a bigger outlier than his 2025; his 165 OPS+ from last season is closer to his 117 OPS+ from 2022-24 than is his current 64 OPS+. Raleigh is 1-for-14 in his last five games, leaving him at .159/.264/.299 for the year.

Raleigh has been remarkably consistent this year, keeping his batting average between .160 and .170 since the start of May. Fantasy managers may welcome this off day, and definitely shouldn’t feel married to starting Raleigh down the stretch even if he is still giving the occasional dinger.

Raleigh’s slam came on Caleb Ferguson’s first pitch after intentionally walking Dominic Canzone to lead the bases in the seventh, so that had to feel especially good. Raleigh followed it up with a double-play ball in the eighth, but he wound up with an RBI anyway after Edwin Arroyo had the ball dribble out of his glove while trying to toss it to the shortstop. Raleigh also struck out twice and had another groundout, so it was really just the one good swing tonight. Still, maybe it will help. It’s his sixth career slam and his 10th homer in 297 plate appearances this season.

A groundout, a popout and two strikeouts. Raleigh is hitting .154 with one homer in 16 games since coming off the injured list, and his current .560 OPS is the same mark he had when he got hurt in May. In his 60-homer season, Raleigh had 200 hard-hit balls and 188 strikeouts in 159 games. Right now, he has 42 hard-hit balls and 79 strikeouts in 57 games.

Raleigh hit a ball 394 feet to right off Mitch Keller in the fourth. Raleigh, who missed a month with a strained oblique, seemed to catch fire in the minors before being activated a week ago, but he’d gone just 3-for-18 with no extra-base hits since returning. The homer tonight was his eighth in 48 games overall this year.

Raleigh came up big on his first day back with the Mariners. With the bases loaded in the seventh inning in a tie game, he delivered a base hit to drive in two runners to give Seattle the lead. The two runs would prove to be the difference in the win. The 29-year-old slugger is now hitting .165/.249/.317 with seven homers and 20 RBI across 185 plate appearances.

Raleigh returns to Seattle’s lineup for Tuesday’s series opener against the Orioles following a one-month absence recovering from a right oblique strain. The 29-year-old slugging backstop seemed to unlock something with his swing during his minor league rehab stint where he went 6-for-14 with five homers across four games at Triple-A Tacoma. He broke nearly every single-season offensive record for a catcher last year and could be in line for a monster second half if he’s rediscovered his previously elite form at the dish.

Raleigh will rejoin Seattle’s lineup following a one-month absence due to a right oblique strain that put him on the injured list for the first time in his six-year career. The 29-year-old slugging backstop went 6-for-14 with five homers across four games for Triple-A Tacoma on a brief minor league rehab assignment. It’s possible the time away and out of the spotlight enabled Raleigh to rediscover last year’s record-setting form, which makes him an obvious buy-low candidate in all fantasy leagues.

Raleigh is hitting .429 with three home runs and a 2.214 OPS since starting his rehab assignment last weekend. We would say he’s ready to come back and rejoin the Mariners’ lineup.

Raleigh started at catcher and played five innings behind the dish. That was all he needed to crush a pair of homers, including a grand slam, during his second rehab contest. The 29-year-old backstop figures to need a couple additional tune-up contests since he’s been out since mid-May recovering from an oblique strain. It wouldn’t be surprising if he were ready to rejoin Seattle’s lineup later this week.