When Major League Baseball’s 2025 statistics are looked back upon in years to come, the numbers that will resonate most belong to a catcher.
While voters will determine whether Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh goes down in history as the American League’s Most Valuable Player, his 60 homers and 125 RBIs will be deemed the most impressive decades from now.
Raleigh put together an unprecedented season for someone asked to endure the pain that comes with getting beaten up by foul tips and pitches in the dirt and to devote significant time guiding a pitching staff. The 28-year-old became the seventh player — and the first catcher — in major league history to hit at least 60 homers in a season.
The previous single-season record for homers by a primary catcher was 48, set by Salvador Perez of the Kansas City Royals in 2021.
Three other players, including New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge, hit at least 50 homers during the regular season that ended Sunday. Judge, Raleigh’s primary competition for the MVP award, drilled 53 homers and led the majors with a .331 batting average, 20 points better than Bo Bichette of the Toronto Blue Jays and rookie Jacob Wilson of the Athletics.
National League home run leader Kyle Schwarber (56) of the Philadelphia Phillies and Shohei Ohtani (55) of the Los Angeles Dodgers also reached the 50-homer mark.
Trea Turner of the Phillies was the only qualifying player in the NL to reach the .300 mark. Turner batted .304 to win his second career batting title.
Schwarber led the majors with 132 RBIs, six more than the New York Mets’ Pete Alonso and seven better than Raleigh.
Schwarber’s total is the best by a Philadelphia player since Ryan Howard had a four-year run of 149, 136, 146 and 141 RBIs from 2006-09. Raleigh’s total is the most by a catcher since Hall of Famer Johnny Bench produced 129 for the Cincinnati Reds in 1974. Bench set the single-season RBI record for catchers with 148 in 1970.
Jose Caballero led the majors with 49 stolen bases. He swiped 34 in 86 games for the Tampa Bay Rays before being traded to the Yankees and notching 15 in 40 games. Pittsburgh’s Oneil Cruz and Juan Soto of the Mets shared the NL lead with 38. While Cruz was no surprise, Soto’s performance was a stunner as he never stole more than 12 bases in any of his first seven seasons. He posted 27 steals in 64 games after the All-Star break.
On the pitching front, Paul Skenes of the Pittsburgh Pirates compiled a 1.97 ERA to post MLB’s lowest mark since Justin Verlander flashed a 1.75 mark for the Houston Astros in 2022. Though his record was just 10-10, Skenes is the leading candidate for the NL Cy Young Award. Freddy Peralta (17-6) of the Milwaukee Brewers is part of that conversation after leading the NL in wins.
Max Fried (19-5) of the New York Yankees led the majors in wins while Boston’s Garrett Crochet (18-5) of the Boston Red Sox and the Yankees’ Carlos Rodon (18-9) were one behind.
Reigning Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal (2.21) of the Detroit Tigers led the AL in ERA for the second straight season with Hunter Brown (2.43) of the Houston Astros also excelling.
Crochet led the majors with 255 strikeouts and Skubal had 241. Logan Webb (224) of the San Francisco Giants led the NL.
Carlos Estevez of the Kansas City Royals had a MLB-best 42 saves. Robert Suarez (40) of the San Diego Padres was the NL leader.
On the dubious side of the ledger, Kyle Freeland (5-17) of the Colorado Rockies led the majors in losses. The Rockies also posted the worst record in the majors (43-119) to register their third consecutive 100-loss season. The Chicago White Sox (60-102) also posted 100-plus losses for the third year in a row. The Milwaukee Brewers (97-65) earned MLB’s best mark and set the franchise record for victories with Sunday’s win over the Cincinnati Reds.
From the rarity department, Rafael Devers played in 163 games to become the first player since Justin Morneau of the 2008 Minnesota Twins to play in more than 162.
Devers began the season with the Boston Red Sox and played in all 73 games during his time with the team. He was traded to the Giants on June 15 and played in all 90 San Francisco games after his arrival.
Morneau played in 163 games in 2008 because the Twins had a tiebreaker game to decide the AL Central.
–Field Level Media
