Imagine a baseball player who not only smashes home runs with the best of them but also guides pitchers through tough spots and catches nearly every inning of every game—now picture that same player leading his team to victory in a high-stakes playoff showdown. That's Cal Raleigh in a nutshell, and if you're not hooked yet, just wait until you hear how he dominated Game 1 of the ALCS, turning what could have been a disastrous start into a Mariners win. But here's the kicker: despite his heroics, he's already locked out of the MVP race. Intrigued? Let's dive in.
TORONTO — Voting for the American League MVP had wrapped up well before the playoffs kicked off, so nothing Cal Raleigh accomplishes in these postseason battles will sway the final tallies. The same held true for Aaron Judge before the New York Yankees bowed out of contention.
Yet, if there was ever a single game that encapsulated why Raleigh deserves that MVP nod, it was Sunday night's Game 1 of the ALCS, where the Seattle Mariners edged out the Toronto Blue Jays, 3-1 (https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6712034/2025/10/12/blue-jays-mariners-game-1-score-results-takeaways-playoffs-mlb/).
This win carried extra weight for the Mariners, given the grueling path they took to get here. Just think about that epic 15-inning slog they endured in the Division Series clincher against the Detroit Tigers on Friday night—exhausting for anyone. Then, they hopped on a flight across the continent from Seattle to Toronto on Saturday, jet-lagged and weary. To top it off, they handed the ball to rookie starter Bryce Miller, a right-hander making his very first career postseason appearance on just three days of rest, marking the team's inaugural ALCS outing in a whopping 24 years.
At the heart of it all stood Raleigh, who had already snagged 209 pitches behind the plate in Game 5 of the DS. He stepped into his familiar roles—power hitter, pitch-calling master, pitcher whisperer, expert at taming Kevin Gausman, even seeming like the unofficial Rogers Centre landlord. And for those recalling the ill-advised comments from Blue Jays manager John Schneider back in April 2023, he doubled as a satisfying avenger.
I'm not aiming to reopen the debate on Raleigh versus Judge for MVP honors. I wasn't an AL voter this season, but personally, I see both as equally deserving. Their campaigns were legendary in their own distinct fashions—a shared award, much like the 1979 NL tie between the St. Louis Cardinals' Keith Hernandez and the Pittsburgh Pirates' Willie Stargell, would have been perfectly fitting.
Regardless of the outcome, the sheer scope of Raleigh's contributions—manning the most crucial defensive spot on the diamond while blasting home runs better than any switch-hitter in major-league annals—is downright mind-blowing. For beginners following baseball, catching is a demanding position requiring lightning-fast reflexes to block wild pitches, throw out base stealers, and manage the game flow, often leading to physical tolls over time.
And this is the part most people miss: Raleigh's versatility isn't just impressive—it's what separates him from the pack, sparking debates about whether a catcher can truly be a league's most valuable player. But here's where it gets controversial—who's to say a hitter's prowess should outweigh behind-the-plate heroics?
Let's break down what Raleigh pulled off on Sunday night:
He launched a massive sixth-inning home run after Gausman had retired 15 straight batters, scoring the Mariners' initial run and evening the score.
He made a lengthy visit to the mound to guide Miller out of a perilous 27-pitch first inning that began with George Springer's leadoff homer and featured a pair of walks. (For those new to the game, a mound visit allows the catcher to offer strategy or encouragement to the pitcher, helping them refocus.)
After guiding Miller through six solid frames, he handled the catching duties for three different relievers who combined to allow zero runs.
Facing a Blue Jays squad that demolished the Yankees for 34 runs across four games, the Mariners shut them down by retiring 23 of their final 24 batters, wrapping up on a mere 100 pitches. But for the toughest Cal since Cal Ripken Jr.—that 6-foot-2, 235-pound powerhouse who battles through constant aches and pains—it felt like just another routine afternoon at the ballpark.
Including postseason action, Raleigh now boasts an 8-for-17 (.471) mark with four homers against Gausman, one of baseball's elite arms. At Rogers Centre specifically, he's 17-for-54 (.315) with nine homers and 19 RBIs. Yet, post-game chatter mostly centered on his mound chat with Miller after the pitcher's second walk of the opening frame.
Miller admitted he couldn't quite remember the exact words, joking, “Sometimes he thinks he has jokes, and I give him a courtesy laugh, a little chuckle and settle back down and keep going.”
Mariners Game 2 starter Logan Gilbert shared his own quirky perspective on what he called Raleigh's “weird mound visits.”
“Sometimes he doesn’t say anything, or maybe I’m missing what he says,” Gilbert explained. “But he just kind of walks out there and stands there and looks at me. It’s kind of awkward sometimes. I think there’s an intention there. I’m trying to figure out what it is.”
All jokes aside, Miller acknowledged that Raleigh always picks the perfect moment for these visits, helping pitchers slow their roll and regain focus. Gilbert echoed that sentiment, admitting Raleigh knows his stuff. Mariners skipper Dan Wilson hailed the visit for steadying Miller during a frame that “could have exploded pretty quickly.”
It didn't spiral out of control, and though Miller found his groove—allowing just two more baserunners after the first—the Mariners still trailed 1-0 heading into the sixth.
Raleigh's first plate appearance against Gausman resulted in a single on a first-pitch fastball. His second? Five straight split-fingered fastballs from Gausman led to a strikeout. Raleigh's next opportunity arrived in the sixth, with the bases empty and two outs.
He got ahead 2-0, then watched a perfectly placed split down and in get called a strike, barely clipping the zone. Gausman bounced his next splitter, which Raleigh fouled off for strike two. Then came another split, hanging up just a tad too high. Raleigh crushed it to right-center for his 62nd homer of the season, playoffs included.
O, Cal-ada!@keybank (https://twitter.com/keybank?refsrc=twsrc%5Etfw) | #SeizeTheMoment (https://twitter.com/hashtag/SeizeTheMoment?src=hash&refsrc=twsrc%5Etfw) pic.twitter.com/y6YsYgkHTm (https://t.co/y6YsYgkHTm)
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) October 13, 2025 (https://twitter.com/Mariners/status/1977594958157902236?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
“I just choked up and wasn’t trying to do too much,” Raleigh recalled. “I was just trying to get bat on ball and really put something in play, maybe find a hole. I didn’t want to punch out again.”
After walking Julio Rodríguez, Schneider yanked Gausman at 76 pitches. Jorge Polanco added an RBI single later in the inning and another in the eighth. But as third baseman Eugenio Suárez put it, it was Raleigh's homer that “woke us up.”
“Gausman was splitting him to death the whole night. If he would have made the pitch and got it down where it was strike to ball, you never know,” Mariners hitting coach Kevin Seitzer noted.
“But Cal saw it up and put a good swing on it. And the cool thing was, it was a controlled swing. He wasn’t trying to do too much, and he crushed it. That’s how it works for him. He makes adjustments really, really well.”
To put Schneider's April 2023 remarks in perspective: He claimed Raleigh was “not very tough to pitch to when you execute your pitches” (https://www.sportsnet.ca/mlb/article/blue-jays-schneider-doesnt-want-raleigh-drama-to-be-a-narrative-in-alcs/), even after a game where Raleigh smacked two homers in a 10-8 Mariners victory. The comments were instantly regrettable.
“He’s hitting .200,” Schneider added at the time. “I know he’s done damage against us, and I think if you execute, he’s obviously got big damage potential and he’s got a lot of strikeout potential, too. And when you execute your pitches, you usually get the job done.”
Raleigh responded a year later (https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5407138/2024/04/10/mariners-cal-raleigh-john-schneider-blue-jays/), quipping, “I know a lot of guys have beef with him in this league,” and adding, “if you don’t have anything nice, don’t say it all, I guess, if you don’t want it to come back on you.”
Unsurprisingly, Schneider was pressed to address his past words before Sunday's matchup.
“Well, for one, that’s me as a young interim manager saying what I said to try to fire up my team, which obviously I shouldn’t have said,” he reflected, now in his first year of a three-year deal after shedding the interim title.
“I’ve got a ton of respect for him as a player and where he’s taken his game both at the plate and behind the plate to do it as well as he’s done it and to catch as many games as he catches. … I don’t want that to be a narrative in this series at all. I think he’s a phenomenal player.”
Sunday night, Raleigh proved it once more. He's now 10-for-25 (.400) in the postseason, while his Mariners teammates are just 35-for-193 (.181). He's also caught every single inning of every game so far—61 total—building on 1,072 innings from the regular season, ranking third behind Philadelphia's J.T. Realmuto (1,151 1/3) and Milwaukee's William Contreras (1,111 2/3).
But here's where the controversy really heats up: Is Raleigh the AL MVP? Some argue his dual-threat skills make him indispensable, while others say pure offensive output trumps defensive grit. What do you think—does a catcher's workload deserve MVP recognition, or should it go to sluggers like Judge? Share your take in the comments; I'd love to hear if you side with Raleigh's all-around brilliance or prefer a more traditional view. And don't forget to discuss: Could Schneider's words have actually motivated Raleigh to excel? Let's debate!
