Cal Raleigh authored one of the most impressive offensive seasons a switch-hitter or catcher has ever put together last season, slugging 60 home runs and driving in 125 runs as the Mariners came within a whisper of capturing the American League pennant. The prolonged display of power and flair for the dramatic earned him Sports Illustrated‘s Breakout Star of the Year award, an honor across all sports.
Things are not going as splendidly for Raleigh and Seattle in ’26 as the switch-hitting slugger is mired in a nasty slump that’s beginning to border on the unbelievable.
A 3-1 victory over the Astros on Monday night moved Seattle to within two games of .500 and the first-place Athletics. That’s the good news. The bad is that Raleigh is now hitless in his last 36 official at-bats. Again, just to put a fine point on it, the person who finished second in American League MVP voting to Aaron Judge a few short months ago is mired in an 0-for-36 slump.
Batting average has never been Raleigh’s calling card. He’s a career .222 hitter who managed to make a great case for baseball’s best while raising that to .247 last season amid 188 strikeouts. His slide has that figure all the way down to .157 and his on-base percentage isn’t much better at .288. More alarmingly, more than 35% of his at-bats end in a strikeout.
“Honestly, it’s not been great,” Raleigh said over the weekend about his current dry spell at the plate. “It’s been really ugly. I’m trying to do my best to just compete up there.”
There were no answers to be found on Monday night as Raleigh went 0-for-4 with another strikeout. Mariners manager Dan Wilson, desperate to shake things up, has moved his once-reliable weapon from the No. 2 spot in the order to cleanup without generating the desired spark.
It’s still early, the West is very much up for grabs, and Raleigh’s track record of inflicting damage on baseballs suggests he’ll eventually break out of this funk. Yet it’s quite astounding to click around Baseball Savant and discover just how much he’s struggling. After posting a .296 average against four-seam fastballs in ’25, Raleigh is hitting a dreadful .093 this campaign. He’s slugging only .222 against the sport’s most ubiquitous pitch compared to .594 last year. There hasn’t been much more success against curveballs and sliders as he’s hitting .100 and .111 respectively against those offerings.
Getting an MVP-quality bat turned around long-term is more important than fixing whatever is going on right now with a hit to break the streak. Yet Raleigh is creeping up on some fairly select company when it comes to prolonged pain at the plate. Craig Counsell and Dave Campbell went hitless in 45 straight at-bats, as well as ol’ Bill Bergen, who played for the Brooklyn Superbas. Eugenio Velez went 46 without finding any joy while experience a cup of coffee with the Giants in 2011. Chris Davis is the all-time record holder at 54 at bats without a hit.
Now, there is a sliver lining to all this. Raleigh doesn’t have to hit for much of an average in order to be a thorougly productive player. He’s shown that while ascending. As long as the home runs are flying, failing eight out of 10 times isn’t going to bother anyone. Despite all his struggles, he has seven round-trippers on the season those could come in bunches once the weather turns.
The first step, though, is to get a hit. Any hit. A blooper or seeing-eye single sure would be nice, just so people could stop talking about what’s becoming an elephant in the room.
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