The Mariners announced that they’ve signed catcher Cal Raleigh to a six-year extension that starts this year. It’s reportedly a $105MM guarantee for the Excel Sports Management client. He had previously agreed to a $5.6MM salary in 2025 to avoid arbitration, so this deal adds five years and $99.4MM in terms of new money. He was slated to hit free agency after 2027, so this deal buys out three free agent seasons and there’s also a vesting option for 2031. Raleigh gets full no-trade protection.
The specific breakdown is a $10MM signing bonus and $1MM salary in 2025, followed by salaries of $11MM and $12MM in 2026 and 2027. He will then make $23MM salaries for three straight years. For 2031, there is a vesting player option valued at $20MM with a $2MM buyout. The option would vest if Raleigh appears in 100 games behind the plate in at least four of the six guaranteed seasons.
Raleigh, now 28, was a third-round pick of the M’s in the 2018 draft. As a prospect, he drew attention as a switch-hitting catcher with notable power. His 2021 debut wasn’t great but he has since established himself as one of the best two-way catchers in the game.
Over the past three seasons, Raleigh has stepped to the plate 1,612 times. His 28.3% strikeout rate in that time is a bit on the high side, but he’s also drawn walks at a 10% clip and hit 91 home runs. The end result is a .222/.303/.457 line, which translates to a 117 wRC+. That indicates he’s been 17% better than the league average hitter, but that’s even more impressive for a catcher, since they are usually about 10% below average.
The switch-hitter hasn’t been totally balanced in his production. 73 of his 93 career homers have come against righties and he has a .223/.304/.454 line when hitting from the left side. When he turns around to bat right-handed against southpaws, his line drops to .202/.271/.410, though the 94 wRC+ on that latter line is still passable.
Defensively, he’s received strong marks for all aspects but especially his framing. FanGraphs gave him the third-best framing mark last year, behind only Patrick Bailey and Jake Rogers. Statcast had him second only to Bailey.
The overall package is quite strong. FanGraphs has credited him with between 4.2 and 5.3 wins above replacement in each of the past three seasons. That means he was worth a total 13.9 fWAR over the 2022-24 period. That was tops among all catchers in the league and in the top 20 of all position players. It’s difficult to quantify a catcher’s contributions to a pitching staff but Seattle has had strong results from the mound during Raleigh’s time as well.
He just crossed the three-year service line in 2024, qualifying him for arbitration for the first time. As mentioned, he and the club settled at $5.6MM for this year. He would have been slated for two more arbitration passes before hitting free agency after 2027, his age-30 season.
Had he stayed healthy and productive between now and then, he could have perhaps been in line for a strong trip to free agency. However, the earning power of catchers at that age isn’t tremendous, as shown on MLBTR’s Contract Tracker.
While shooting into nine-figure territory and beyond is common for other players, the wear-and-tear of the catching positions make it rare for that group. J.T. Realmuto is actually the only free agent catcher to get to nine figures. He and the Phillies agreed to a five-year, $115.5MM deal going into 2021. Only four other free agent catchers have gone beyond $53MM. Willson Contreras got $87.5MM from the Cardinals, Brian McCann $85MM from the Yankees, Russell Martin $82MM from the Blue Jays and Yasmani Grandal $73MM from the White Sox.
Extensions have been the path for the top deals for catchers. Joe Mauer and Buster Posey are tops on that leaderboard, though those deals are both over a decade old. More recently, some rough comps for Raleigh can be found in Will Smith and Sean Murphy. Smith’s $131.5MM guarantee is larger than Raleigh’s, though he was one year closer to free agency, therefore giving him a bit more earning power. The nine-year term is a bit eye-popping but that was largely viewed as a way to lower the average annual value for tax purposes.
Murphy was in the same three-to-four service window as Raleigh and got $73MM over six years plus a $15MM option. The two players had a broadly similar profile as strong two-way backstops. Raleigh’s deal shoots well beyond that one.
For the Mariners, they generally struggle to attract top free agents. That’s perhaps somewhat due to the pitcher-friendly nature of T-Mobile Park but more generally about the club not having massive payrolls. Since Jerry Dipoto has been atop the baseball operations department, this is now the eighth contract the club has given out worth more than $24MM. Of those eight, only two of those were free agent deals. They went to Robbie Ray and Yusei Kikuchi, both pitchers.
The six extensions have gone to Raleigh, Julio Rodríguez, Luis Castillo, Jean Segura, J.P. Crawford and Marco Gonzales. There are couple of pitchers in there but four of the six have gone to position players, showing that to be a preferred way of spending money for the club, particularly the lineup.
Perhaps not coincidentally, Raleigh’s salary jumps up at a time when the club should have some extra payroll capacity down the line. He will almost double his salary from 2027 to 2028, going from $12MM to $23MM. By that time, Castillo’s deal will be done the guaranteed portion, though there is a vesting option for 2028. Castillo would need to throw 180 innings in 2027 and be verified as healthy by an independent surgeon. Even if Castillo is still around in ’28, the deals for Mitch Haniger, Mitch Garver, Crawford, Polanco and Víctor Robles will all finish between now and then.
It’s surely an exciting day for Raleigh, the Mariners and their fans. “Big Dumper” has become one of the better backstops in the league and a fan favorite. He’ll now be slated to stick around for six or maybe even seven more years, instead of just three. He’ll be 33 years old in the final guaranteed year of the deal and 34 in 2031, the vesting option year. Barring a future trade, he will eventually spend the majority or perhaps his entire career in Seattle.
Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported that the two sides had agreed to six-year, $105MM deal. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic relayed the no-trade clause. Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times first reported on the vesting option that could push the total to $123MM. Passan reported the specific salary breakdown. Rosenthal reported the vesting condition.
Photos courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images.
