Cal Raleigh is a baby-faced, ruddy-cheeked catcher who won the 2025 Home Run Derby, becoming the first catcher to do so. He also set the single-season home run record for primary catchers by hitting 49 homers, surpassing Salvador Perez's 2021 mark. In one game he crushed two pitches — a middle-middle four-seamer for a first-inning home run and, in the next inning, a middle-middle change-up for another two-run homer — to reach the record. His charm combines sweetness and humor, amplified by teammates' nicknames and frequent national attention.
For anyone who engaged with MLB All-Star Week, the lasting image of Cal Raleigh is a ruddy-cheeked kid strutting about a yard with a baseball bat and declaring himself the home run derby champion. The Raleigh of now, in all honesty, doesn't look all too different-still baby-faced with a generally pink mien-but time has given him the rare ability to achieve his childhood dreams.
He did, in fact, win the 2025 Home Run Derby (after squeaking by, less romantically, via a fraction of an inch and the the fuzzing of significant figures), the first catcher ever to do so. And though "I'm now the all-time MLB leader in single-season home runs by a primary catcher" would be a little bit more of a mouthful for a child to chant, he's done that too.
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