Cal Raleigh arrives at 'pinch-me moment': Big Dumper's family affair at Home Run Derby

ATLANTA — Cal Raleigh long ago departed the world he knew and stepped into the surreal. Yet reaching the zenith of his professional career has a strange way of bringing it all home.

Raleigh punched his ticket to Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game and Home Run Derby on the strength of 38 home runs, the most by an American League player before the Midsummer Classic. He will find himself the topic of conversation in the clubhouse, the dugout, shagging balls in batting practice, his well-decorated teammates suddenly wanting to know the forces behind the man they call Big Dumper.

Yet when he steps to the plate for his first swing at the Home Run Derby, his past, present and future coalesce. Pitching is his father Todd, the former Western Carolina and Tennessee coach, the man who dragged young Cal along to practices and batboy opportunities and built a workout facility at their North Carolina home.

And catching is Todd “T” Raleigh, Raleigh’s 15-year-old brother whose games he tries to attend when his Seattle Mariners travels take him to back to the Deep South, who dons the hand-me-down cleats big brother bequeaths.

When Raleigh first played with the Mariners at Atlanta’s Truist Park, Jackson County, North Carolina chartered two buses to see him play. Now, much of the family has relocated even closer, with T attending school south of Atlanta.

And while Raleigh isn’t Aaron Judge or Shohei Ohtani, nor a Braves hero like Ronald Acuña Jr., he is the biggest curiosity among 81 of the globe’s best players assembled here.

A switch-hitting catcher with a Bondsian first half? A Platinum Glove winning catcher whose quiet leadership endeared him to teammates from Smoky Mountain High School to Florida State to Seattle? An unheralded third-round pick now leading the majors in homers and RBIs?

Raleigh’s new reality will come into focus like never before this week.

“Obviously, you have confidence as a baseball player and you believe in yourself,” Raleigh said at the All-Star Game’s July 14 media day. “But to be where I’m at right now, it’s kind of a pinch-me moment.

“It is a little crazy to be where I’m at. I’m just going to try to take advantage of this opportunity, keep the blinders on and hopefully our team is where we want to be.”

Apologies to the Mariners, but whether they win the American League West or not isn’t front of mind for most baseball fans.

As the second half unfolds, Raleigh will be commanding so many narratives.

Can he break Salvador Perez’s single-season record of 48 home runs by a primary catcher? Become the first backstop to top the 50-homer mark?

Hold off Ohtani (32 homers) and Judge (35) and win the 2025 home run crowd? Break Judge’s AL record of 62 home runs? Raleigh’s on pace for – gulp – 64 homers.

Surreal indeed, even for those with a front row seat.

“Everybody knew how good he was defensively, especially winning a Platinum Glove. This year, he’s just taking it to a whole other level,” says Mariners All-Star right-hander Bryan Woo. “I feel like everybody on the team is enjoying it just as much as fans are.

“We’re just scratching our heads in the dugout and saying, ‘This is unbelievable.’”

It is a shock and also something less than that, given the track Raleigh’s been on for most of his 28 years.

'It's like home'

Raleigh spent his formative years growing up across from the Western Carolina campus in Cullowhee, where Todd coached from 2000 to 2007. Along the way, he constructed a “Raleigh Ranch” near the home, where Cal and young T could hit, work out, and, as Cal puts it, “put in hard work and forget about everything else and just go to work.”

Raleigh starred at Smoky Mountain High School, on the doorstep of the Great Smoky Mountains and the Blue Ridge Parkway, and eventually earned a scholarship to Clemson. But the firing of coach Jack Leggett – he’d coach Todd at Western Carolina long ago – didn’t sit well.

Raleigh settled on Florida State, bringing with him outsize responsibilities for a freshman catcher.

“An intense competitor. Wants to win. Wants to help the guys around him. He was a leader for us at Florida State,” Detroit Tigers reliever Tyler Holton tells USA TODAY Sports. “Had a lot of expectations coming in as a true freshman, and he lived up to every one of them.”

Holton described Raleigh as “a bit on the quiet side but very humble. Came from a baseball background, very disciplined, leads by example and I have a lot of respect for him.”

Not much has changed a decade later.

Before he was a historic slugger, Raleigh became an elite receiver, winning a Platinum Glove last season in his third full season. The Mariners have featured arguably the game’s best rotation the past three years, and Raleigh’s framing and stewardship have a lot to do with it.

“He’s not a huge, rah-rah outspoken guy,” says Woo. “I think he’s come into his own a little bit this year and what he’s able to do setting an example and letting others follow along.

“He’s just doing things so consistently. Barring the results on the field, it’s just showing up every day, putting in the work. It’s great to see that out of your leader.”

And then came the power.

Raleigh hit 30 and 34 home runs the previous two seasons, though he batted just .232 and .220 those seasons. Yet he also spent most of 2024 alongside Justin Turner, the veteran utilityman and a trailblazer in last decade’s hitting evolution.

“He was a mentor to me last year, someone I can lean on and talk to,” Raleigh says of Turner. “Worked with him a little bit in the offseason. Growing as a player, understanding the league. It’s not just the physical stuff; it’s also about the mental capacity and trusting your abilities.”

There was also a tangible payoff: The Mariners signed Raleigh to a six-year, $105 million extension as this season began, striking what Raleigh calls “a great partnership.

“It’s like home now.”

'I've always had a big butt'

Yet Raleigh will spend this week closer to his roots. Todd and mother Stephanie and T and some two dozen others will be on hand as the world heralds Big Dumper, a label his mother cringes a bit at yet suits Raleigh since former teammate Jared Kelenic introduced it to the world in 2021.

“I’ve always had a big butt,” says Raleigh. “Big Dumper works for me. Everybody likes it.”

They’re all getting a taste of the good life in Atlanta, taking the field at Truist Park as Raleigh pays forward the chances his dad afforded him.

“My dad gave me the opportunity to be bat boy for his teams. I still remember to this day, some of my favorite memories on the baseball field,” says Raleigh. “Trying to do the same thing for him. Hopefully he’s not too nervous tonight.

“He saw Livvy Dunne today, got a picture with her at the hotel. So he doesn’t even care about the Derby anymore.”

And while Raleigh is growing into his skin as a hardball icon, the role reversal is not lost on him. He’s the one touted for the Derby, the one with the unavoidable nickname, the one fielding queries, instead of asking them, on the bases or behind the cage as the game’s greatest players convene.

“I feel like I was the guy asking questions a lot more often,” says Raleigh. “And now it’s the other way around. It’s a good feeling. You want to give back to players. I’m the same way; I still ask questions.

“I’m curious.”

And so is the baseball world, wondering where this surreal journey will finish this year.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Cal Raleigh, MLB's top home run hitters, makes Derby a family affair