Last season, Cal Raleigh hit 60 homers. This season, he has zero through nine games.
That’s now partially thanks to Los Angeles Angels outfielder Jo Adell, who robbed what would have been the Seattle Mariners catcher’s first long ball of the season in the first inning of Saturday’s game.
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Facing Angels starter Jack Kochanowicz, Raleigh clubbed a ball 104.7 mph and 370 feet to right field. It was a bona fide barrel … and landed just low enough for the 6-foot-2 Adell to snag it.
It’s been a slow start to the season for Raleigh, who entered Saturday slashing .138/.242/.172. He had so far registered only four hits while striking out an AL-high 16 times in 33 plate appearances.
And that’s after going 0-for-14 at the plate for Team USA at the 2026 World Baseball Classic in March.
Is that cause for panic? Well, food for thought, this time last year Raleigh was hitting 125/.250/.250 in seven games. He did have a homer by then, but the point is that disappointing numbers in early April are very easy to erase. Raleigh went on to finish second in AL MVP voting and become only the seventh player (or fourth, if you remove players with steroid allegations) in MLB history to reach 60 homers.