There's no gentle way to say this: the guy who hit 60 home runs and became the first catcher ever to do it is now hitting.159. Barstool Baseball put the numbers side by side and let them speak for themselves.
60 homers to 51 hits is the kind of stat line that stops scrolling thumbs. Raleigh's 2026 slash line has sat around.159/.264/.299 with just 12 home runs and a.564 OPS, according to reporting on his season — a drop-off that's been called one of the largest single-season collapses in modern baseball history for a player coming off a 50-plus homer year.
The Big Dumper's fall from grace is jarring because of just how high the peak was. Raleigh won the Home Run Derby, hit a career-high 60 bombs, and finished as AL MVP runner-up in 2025. Now he's reportedly flirting with one of the third-worst single-season batting averages in MLB history among qualified hitters. He hasn't hidden from it either, telling reporters flat out, "I'm awful. I've got to find a way to be better."
Sports Central's crew got into it on their show, arguing this level of collapse needs to be talked about more given how historically rare it is for a player to fall this far this fast.
The Sports Central hosts break down just how unprecedented Raleigh's drop-off has been compared to other 50-homer seasons.
The strikeouts, the chase rate, the inability to catch up to velocity — all of it points to a guy who looks like a different hitter than the one who terrorized AL pitching a year ago. There's no single explanation being offered, just a season that's gone sideways from Opening Day on.
Whether it's mechanical, physical, or just one of those unexplainable baseball freefalls, Mariners fans are watching a former MVP candidate try to rebuild his swing in real time. The rest of the league is watching too, because a fall this steep from a peak that high doesn't happen often — and when it does, it becomes the story of the season.