Coming off a runner-up finish for the 2025 AL MVP award and a historic 60-home-run season, expectations were high for Cal Raleigh heading into 2026.
That’s not going to be replicated every year, but what’s gone on so far this season instead has been rather shocking. Raleigh has struggled mightily, pacing for career-worst numbers in almost every statistical category at the dish while also having missed a month with an oblique injury.
Why has the superstar catcher had such a down campaign so far? Plenty of factors can be attributed to his struggles, and one of them that Raleigh himself recently somewhat pointed to was the World Baseball Classic.
“I’m not one to make excuses. I don’t regret going to play for Team USA. I think that was a great opportunity. I would still do it over again just because you don’t get that opportunity every day. At the end of the day, was it harder to get at-bats? Yes. Did it maybe throw my timing off a little? Maybe. But I’m not here to speculate and make excuses,”
The 29-year-old Raleigh is hitting just .165 with 10 HRs and 35 RBI in 74 games played so far this season.
From a strange encounter with Mariners teammate Randy Arozarena to going 0-for at the plate and being left out of the starting lineup for Will Smith, the WBC certainly wasn’t what Raleigh would have hoped it to be.
That being said, you would expect a player of his caliber to turn the page and be ready what’s most important: the MLB season.
Raleigh unfortunately hasn’t been able to do that, and if Seattle, who currently sits 1.5 games out of the final Wild Card spot, wants any chance of getting into the postseason, they’ll need their middle-of-the-order slugger to get going, and in a hurry.
Next: LeBron James Didn’t Want to Play with Donovan Mitchell in Cleveland?
