ATLANTA — In a sport filled with players built like superheroes and carrying themselves as such, the catcher currently taking over the sport still sees himself as a regular guy and goes by the self-deprecating nickname “Big Dumper.”
Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh, in many ways, is the man of the moment in baseball, surprising many including himself. His 38 home runs before the MLB All-Star Game lead the league and stand just one behind the league record for this point in the season. His 82 runs batted in also top the majors. But unlike his new contemporaries at the top of the sport’s pecking order of stars, players like the Yankees’ Aaron Judge and Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani, Raleigh still considers himself an everyday person.
“Judge is a monster. He’s a beast. They’re both great players. I’m just a guy from North Carolina, right down the road from here,” Raleigh said of Judge and Ohtani in an exclusive interview with Front Office Sports. “It’ll be fun to continue to compete with those guys. Hopefully, I can keep up and hold my own.”
As the legend of Raleigh grows, so, too, does corporate America’s embrace of him. Raleigh is signed with T-Mobile, and participated early Monday in an event at the mobile carrier’s Club Magenta fan experience at The Battery, the mixed-use development that surrounds Truist Park, site of this year’s All-Star Game. Washington state–based Scuttlebutt Brewing, meanwhile, will unveil Big Dumper Beer next month.
“It connects us with the fans, which is what it’s all about, and helps promote the game of baseball, which is what we’re all trying to do,” Raleigh says of his rising commercial profile.
The fifth-year switch-hitter is the starting catcher for the American League in Tuesday’s All-Star Game and will bat cleanup. On Monday, he became the first catcher to win the Home Run Derby, providing another big dose of national publicity for a player otherwise competing in the relative anonymity of Seattle.
He did so with his father pitching to him and his 15-year-old younger brother, whom he called “Little Dumper,” catching.
Raleigh, meanwhile, is now arguably one of the more underpaid players in MLB, as he signed a six-year, $105 million extension not long after switching agents from Scott Boras to Excel Sports Management, and will get $11 million of that this season between salary and signing bonus. The contract, however, was designed to give Raleigh security on multiple fronts, particularly the ability to stay in Seattle, where he’s intent on helping build a winner.
Backstories
Originally from rural Cullowhee, N.C., with a population of 7,300, Raleigh’s ascent has been far from conventional. Though he’s the son of a baseball coach and was a standout player at Florida State, he spent three years in the minors before reaching the big leagues, and another two seasons often struggling to become an impact player.
“I wasn’t expecting this, this first half,” Raleigh said in a major understatement. “I obviously had confidence, as a baseball player, you have to, but to be where I’m at, I’m very grateful. I’m in a pretty cool spot.”
The “Big Dumper” nickname was coined by former teammate Jarred Kelenic, referring to Raleigh’s considerable posterior.
“It is quite the nickname,” Raleigh says. “It didn’t catch on at first, but I’ve always had a big butt … and once I started playing a little better, fans in Seattle thought it was awesome.”
Raleigh, meanwhile, has also expanded his use of torpedo bats this season. After starting with the oddly shaped, but legal, models strictly from the left side, he now uses them from both sides—though with slightly different weights.
Several potential records are well within reach for Raleigh this year, including the single-season home run mark for a switch-hitter, the most by a catcher, and the Mariners’ single-season record, held by Mickey Mantle, Salvador Perez, and Ken Griffey Jr., respectively.
“I’m just going to try to keep it going,” he said.
