Cal Raleigh is living through the kind of season that puts a catcher into the history books. Mariners fans have always appreciated the “Big Dumper” for his power bat and solid glove, but earlier this week when he cleared the fences for his 50th home run of the 2025 season, he joined a group that didn’t exist before him. No switch-hitting catcher had ever gone deep that many times in a season, and the only other switch-hitter at any position to hit 50 was Mickey Mantle. For a position built around bruises, pitch calling, and durability rather than jaw-dropping offense, Raleigh has made himself a star with numbers that echo across the game.
Naturally, people have started asking where he fits in among the great switch-hitting catchers of the past, and that brings up Jason Varitek in Boston and Jorge Posada in New York. Those two defined an era of AL East baseball, but they did it in ways that look different from Raleigh’s all-out power assault. Raleigh’s offensive game is power first, second, and third. He’s never hit for average, hovering instead in the .220–.240 range most years. His career batting average is .224, which is lower than what fans saw from Varitek’s .256 or Posada’s .273.
But averages don’t tell his story. The home run totals do. Raleigh hit 27 in 2022, 30 in 2023, 34 in 2024, and has suddenly leapt to 50 this season with 28 games left to play, leading the majors and staking his claim as the most dangerous switch-hitter of his generation. His OPS in 2025 .938 range, showing that even with fewer singles and doubles than Posada ever produced, his slugging makes him a force at the plate. Compare that to Varitek, whose best season saw 25 homers and an OPS around .859, and Posada, who had peak years with 28 homers and an OPS in the .940s. Raleigh has blown past Varitek in raw power and is standing toe-to-toe with Posada’s best hitting seasons, even if he’ll probably never chase Posada’s high batting average seasons, like the .338 mark Posada posted in 2007 at age 37.
What makes Raleigh’s story so unique is how his defense has kept up with the offense. You’d think hitting that many bombs might make a guy a liability behind the plate, but Raleigh has turned himself into one of the best defensive catchers in baseball. In 2024 he won both the Gold Glove and the Platinum Glove, the latter recognizing him as the single best defensive player in the entire American League. He led all of baseball’s catchers in caught stealing, and Mariners pitchers posted the lowest ERA in the league when he was calling games. That combination of cannon arm, game management, and framing is what made Seattle’s staff look better than the sum of its parts. Raleigh is already one of those guys pitchers trust, and in only a few years he’s developed the reputation of being as valuable behind the dish as he is with the bat.
Varitek’s reputation was built on that very idea of trust. He was never the biggest bat in Boston’s lineup, though he could drive the ball out when needed, but he was the heart of the pitching staff and the clubhouse. The Red Sox eventually made him team captain, and he literally wore the “C” on his jersey, something almost unheard of in baseball. His leadership was such a cornerstone that his name is inseparable from Boston’s 2004 curse-breaking championship. Varitek caught four no-hitters in his career, won a Gold Glove, and commanded respect from every pitcher who threw to him. You don’t talk about his numbers as much as you talk about the way he handled the game. Fans in Boston saw him as the captain in every sense, the guy who stood toe-to-toe with Yankees rivals and anchored a roster that made history.
Posada’s value leaned more toward the offensive side, though he had plenty of grit behind the plate too. He was one of the Yankees’ “Core Four” alongside Jeter, Rivera, and Pettitte, and his switch-hitting bat gave those late-90s and 2000s Yankees a dangerous middle-of-the-order presence. He was never the smoothest defensive catcher, but he was tough and durable, logging over 1,500 games at the position. What Yankees fans remember best are his clutch hits in October and the steady power he provided year after year. From 2000 to 2011, no catcher in baseball hit more homers or drove in more runs than Posada. That’s why he finished with 275 home runs, five Silver Slugger awards, four World Series rings, and a permanent place in Yankees Monument Park. He might not have had Varitek’s captaincy or Raleigh’s sudden eruption of raw power, but he blended enough of everything to become one of the most important catchers of his generation.
Raleigh hasn’t had his October yet. That’s the one piece missing if you stack him next to Varitek and Posada right now. Seattle hasn’t returned to the postseason during his rise, so he doesn’t yet have the chance to show whether his bat carries into the pressure cooker of October. But the way fans treat him at T-Mobile Park suggests that they’re ready to follow him there. He’s become a cult hero, with MVP chants raining down after each homer and teammates gushing about how every one of his at-bats feels like must-watch TV. Mariners manager Dan Wilson called his season “incredible” in a way that’s hard to fathom, and pitchers like Logan Gilbert can’t stop talking about the confidence they feel with him back there.
Here’s the thing, folks: Varitek’s entire career was tied up in Boston’s championship breakthrough, and his value extended into leadership qualities that don’t appear on a stat sheet. Posada’s bat was more consistent than either Varitek’s or Raleigh’s, and he played deep into October almost every year of his career. Raleigh’s power has already eclipsed anything they did in a single season, but he hasn’t yet had the years or the championships to match their legacies. What makes the comparison fun is how different each path looks. Varitek was the ultimate leader, Posada the offensive constant in a dynasty, and Raleigh the power-hitting phenom rewriting what a catcher can do in a season.
With that… If Raleigh keeps this up for a few more years, he might end up in the same conversation with Posada and Varitek when people talk about the best switch-hitting catchers ever. For now, he’s carved out a lane of his own. Fans in Seattle have seen a catcher who can slug like a first baseman, defend like a Gold Glover, and energize a lineup every night. The story isn’t finished, but hitting 50 home runs as a catcher ensures that Cal Raleigh has already put himself in rare company.
If you cannot play with them, then root for them!