Cal Raleigh Is Once Again Making Mariners Panic Look Like a Terrible Investment

Cal Raleigh’s April has been messy, but the power is already answering the panic.

Apr 26, 2026; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh (29) celebrates after hitting a solo home run against the St. Louis Cardinals in the fourth inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Joe Puetz-Imagn Images | Joe Puetz-Imagn Images

At some point, baseball fans might want to start treating Cal Raleigh slow starts like bad weather in Seattle. Annoying? Sure. Worth building your entire emotional portfolio around? Probably not.

Raleigh opened the 2026 season like he was personally trying to test the structural integrity of everyone’s patience. The batting average dipped as low as .132. The strikeouts were loud like usual. The timing looked off. And because he was coming off a 60-homer season, every empty at-bat felt bigger than it probably should have. That is the tax you pay after doing something ridiculous. Once you break the sport’s brain for six months, people get weird the second you look normal again.

But Raleigh is already making that early panic look like exactly what it was: premature. The 2026 line is not as cartoonishly clean as last April’s, and that’s kind of the point. He isn’t matching the opening act of his 60-homer season beat for beat, because asking any catcher to do that again is basically asking gravity to take the summer off. But after striking out 20 times in his first 10 games, Raleigh has still clawed his way back over the Mendoza line, pushed his home run total to seven by April 28, and reminded everyone that the power didn’t go anywhere. 

🚨 CAL RALEIGH HOME RUN 🚨 pic.twitter.com/87gWPxhAsy

— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) April 26, 2026

Cal Raleigh’s Power Surge Is A Familiar Reality Check For Worried Fans

With two games still left this month, this is where the comparison to last April gets interesting. Raleigh’s April 2025 was the launching pad for one of the most absurd power seasons we have ever seen from a catcher. In April of last year, he hit .253 with nine home runs, 16 RBI and a .942 OPS. This April, based on the current line, he is essentially standing in the same neighborhood again: .205, seven homers, 17 RBI and a .707 OPS.  

So, technically Raleigh is “regressing” from 2025 if the expectation is that he should hit 60 home runs again. But that was always a silly bar to clear. A catcher hitting 60 homers is not the new normal. It’s a baseball fever dream.

Raleigh’s 2025 season was historic because it was not supposed to happen like that. Setting single-season home run records for catchers, switch-hitters and Mariners players is not a baseline. It’s a museum exhibit.

So when people ask whether this start is disappointing, the better question is: compared to what?

Compared to last season? Maybe. But that’s like being disappointed that a sequel didn’t win Best Picture before the trailer dropped. Compared to a realistic version of elite catcher production? Raleigh is doing more than fine. He’s doing the exact thing the Mariners need him to do, which is weather a rough patch, keep taking his walks, and eventually start turning mistakes into souvenirs again.

The recent stretch is what changed the temperature. Raleigh homered in three straight games against the Athletics, then kept the power coming on the road. Even in Seattle’s ugly 11-4 loss to the Twins, Raleigh supplied one of the few Mariners highlights with a two-run homer. 

Cal dumps No. 7️⃣. #TridentsUp pic.twitter.com/rYKe0YE3AS

— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) April 28, 2026

This is why the panic was always a little premature. Not completely irrational, because the strikeouts and the overall slash line could be better. But still, premature. Raleigh is not a singles-first contact machine who needs every part of the profile to look clean. He is a switch-hitting catcher with game-changing power, enough patience to avoid being a pure chase-and-pray slugger, and the kind of damage ability that can flip games.

The Mariners don’t need Raleigh to recreate 2025 down to the decimal. Nobody should be asking a catcher to hit another 60 homers like he’s renewing a subscription. They need him to remain a middle-of-the-order force, keep punishing mistakes, and make opposing pitchers treat his at-bats like a traffic cone in the middle of a freeway.

Right now, after all that early noise, Raleigh’s April looks suspiciously familiar to the ones that preceded his historic 2025 eruption.

But if this is the “regression” season, the Mariners will take it. And everyone who sold their stock after two bad weeks might want to check the receipt.