How And In What Manner Cal Raleigh Put The Ass Back In Big Dumper

Cal Raleigh got off to a slow start to the year, which was to be expected. It is impossible to follow up a 60-homer season with another of the same caliber, and between instigating teammate beef on the global stage and dealing with an early-season oblique strain that eventually landed him on the injured list, the slugging Seattle Mariners catcher has had much to fight through, even if partially self-inflicted.

Alas, since he returned from the IL in mid-June, things have not gone much better for either Raleigh or the Mariners. Across the second half of the season so far, Raleigh has had a .509 OPS and a 56 wRC+; on the year, he has an OPS of .564 and a wRC+ of 68, meaning he is 32 percent worse than the average MLB hitter. Weighted Runs Created Plus is the most comprehensive catch-all statistic out there but hard to distill in just a few words. Put another way: While Raleigh is not presently qualified for end-of-year statistics because of his stint on the IL, if he were, he would tie for third-worst offensive player in the league with Nasim Nuñez of the Washington Nationals, ahead of only Ezequiel Tovar (of the Colorado Rockies) and Jarren Duran (still, somehow, of the Boston Red Sox).

“We’re not playing well, that starts with me,” Raleigh said after the Mariners lost 4-1 to the New York Yankees on Aug. 11. “I’m awful.” (Since then, the Mariners first extended their losing streak to six games, joining the rarefied ranks of teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers, and then promptly snapped their streak with a 1-0 victory in the final game of the series against the Yankees.) Even knowing that Raleigh was not likely to have the same sort of season he had last year, it is difficult to grasp the scope of his drop-off, which is, unfortunately, historic. Per Mike Petriello, Raleigh is currently experiencing the second-largest decline in OPS in baseball history.