Cal Raleigh has fallen into another one of those valleys that’s becoming all too familiar.
The Seattle Mariners catcher started this season looking lost at the plate before rediscovering his power stroke. Now he’s right back where he began — in a funk that’s got everyone scratching their heads.
We’re talking about a stretch so bad it prompted this observation on social media Friday night:
Cal Raleigh amidst the single worst 21 AB stretch I’ve ever seen. 0 for 21 with 11 Ks is insane
That’s the kind of slump where it feels like Raleigh couldn’t make contact with a tennis racket, let alone a bat.
The thing is, we’ve seen this movie before. Early in the season, Raleigh looked completely overmatched before something clicked and he found his swing again. Now he’s back to square one, trying to diagnose what’s gone wrong.
It’s gotta be maddening for both Raleigh and Mariners fans. Coming off a 60-home run season in 2025 — a historic campaign by any measure — expectations were sky-high. But those kinds of years are nearly impossible to replicate.
Sure, some regression was inevitable after that kind of power display.
The problem? It didn’t have to be this severe. Right now, Raleigh looks completely uncomfortable in the batter’s box, and that’s a real issue for Seattle’s playoff hopes. The Mariners need their backstop to figure things out, because this version of Raleigh makes it tough for the team to reach its ceiling.
What makes this stretch particularly concerning is how similar it looks to his early-season struggles. Same swing-and-miss issues, same inability to adjust. At some point, you have to wonder if there’s something mechanical that keeps creeping back into his approach.
The good news? Raleigh has shown he can work through these valleys. The bad news? Time isn’t exactly on Seattle’s side if they want to make a postseason push.
