NEW YORK — Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh sat in the visiting dugout at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday afternoon and acknowledged that he is not used to all the media attention he has been receiving lately. But it’s all good, though.
Raleigh has been one of the best players during the first half of the season. Besides leading the Majors in homers (36), he entered Wednesday night’s game leading the American League in RBIs (76) and carrying a slash line of .268/.383/.646. Raleigh is proud to tell everyone that he has nine stolen bases, which is tied for third on the team.
Raleigh is giving Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge some competition in the American League MVP race.
“I don’t necessarily enjoy [the attention], but it means you are doing something right,” Raleigh said. “I’m very fortunate to be in that spot. I try to keep it rolling. I know a lot of people would like to be in these shoes. I’m grateful for it, understanding that I’m very happy where I’m at.
“I’m not content at all — I want to keep going and help this team win as much as we can. Hopefully, at the end of the day, when I look up, we’ll be in the right place.”
For Raleigh, don’t compare him to Judge, who is in a class by himself. As Raleigh puts it, “[Judge] is a lot bigger than me.” All Judge is doing is leading the Major Leagues in several categories, including hits (121), batting average (.360), OPS (1.205) and slugging percentage (.738). According to FanGraphs, Judge leads all position players in Wins Above Replacement (7.2), which is 1.3 more than Raleigh (5.9).
“He is an amazing player. What he is doing out there is crazy. He is one of the best to ever do it,” Raleigh said about Judge. “He is a special player. Me being in that sentence, I’m just grateful to be in there. He is a really good one.”
Entering the season, Raleigh was a .218 hitter, but the improvement at the plate is because he is more focused on doing the right things in the batter’s box. For example, he is concerned more about his process at the plate than the results.
“Sometimes you get frustrated when you don’t get the result you want,” Raleigh said. “You are thinking, ‘Maybe I have to change something. I have to tinker here and there.’ I’m more focused on what I did at the plate — the process of it, the day-to-day of it rather than achieve a certain goal. I have to do this today in order to be where I want to be. Now, it’s just one pitch at a time, trying to win each individual pitch.”
Former teammate Justin Turner helped Raleigh with that new approach. The mentor told the pupil to play to your strengths and understand that you are not going to hit a home run all the time. Take your walks and base hits.
“Getting into the nuances was the biggest thing,” Raleigh said about Turner’s teachings.