The most important play for the Mariners this year, if there was any doubt, was a Cal Raleigh home run.
The Mariners were 1 1/2 games back on August 8. It was the first game of a crucial weekend series against the Rays, not just in the standings but with Ichiro in town for his Hall of Fame weekend. It was a frustrating and impossibly fast game, as Kate Preusser wrote at the time, and the Mariners all of a sudden found themselves down 2-0 in the bottom of the eighth.
Then J.P. Crawford singled. Then Cole
Young singled. Cal stepped to the plate with two on and two out, the MVP chants raining down.
He delivered.
Cal’s 43rd home run of the year was arguably his most important. By Win Probability Added (WPA), which measures how much a given play changes a team’s chance to win, it was Mariners’ top play of the season, shifting their odds from 15% to 85% with one swing of the bat.
It was also the Mariners’ top play of the regular season by Championship Win Probability Added (cWPA), which considers how much a play changes a team’s chance to win the World Series. That one swing improved the Mariners’ odds to win it all by 0.72%, according to Baseball Reference. That may sound like a small number (it is a small number), but of the 710,084 pitches thrown in MLB this year, that was the third most important.
Cal Raleigh hit a lot of home runs in 2025.
He hit long home runs. He hit short home runs. He hit home runs to all fields.
He hit home runs from the left side of the plate. He hit home runs from the right side of the plate. He hit home runs off nine different pitch types. There are only nine different pitch types.
He hit home runs off 53 different pitchers. He hit home runs in 48 different games. He hit home runs in old stadiums, new stadiums, minor league stadiums and a Little League stadium — 18 in total, across 16 cities.
He even hit home runs in the exhibition for hitting home runs.
He hit more home runs than any catcher in history. He hit more home runs than any switch hitter in history. He hit more home runs than any Mariner in history.
In fact, Cal in 2025 became the first Mariner ever to lead MLB in homers. He reached the top of the leaderboard for the first time on April 20 when he slugged his ninth home run. He jostled with the leaders before falling behind in early May with a (brief) homerless stretch. But he soon regained his pace, and on May 31, clubbed his 22nd homer to reach the top spot. He spent every day thereafter as the MLB home run leader. When he hit his 27th on June 17, the leaderboard was his alone.
It’s tough to choose a favorite, but mine came on July 4. And because we’re talking about Cal Raleigh in 2025, it’s necessary to clarify that this was his first of two home runs on the day.
The Mariners were teetering, having fallen to seven games back. They desperately needed a win against a lowly Pirates team.
Cal stepped to the plate in the first inning with Julio on base. He worked a 3-1 count, got a 92 mph fastball over the heart of the plate, and delivered his quintessential home run swing: casual, violent and undeniable. He knew it was gone off the bat and pimped it off his back foot, watching it fly into the left field bleachers. It was not only his hardest homer of the season at 114.7 mph but the top exit velocity of his career.
“Cal Raleigh how far!” was the call from Aaron Goldsmith. How far, indeed.
The following is a list of every home run Cal hit in 2025 with a few bits of info and a video link. Feel free to pick your favorite in the comments. Cal provided plenty to choose from.
