Cal Raleigh reportedly signs six year, $105m contract extension with the Seattle Mariners

The Big Dumper has landed for the long haul.

The Big Dumper is locked in. The Seattle Mariners and Cal Raleigh have agreed upon a six year, $105 million contract extension that buys out three years of free agency and begins in the 2025 season, per reporting by Jeff Passan of ESPN. The contract ensures Raleigh will be under contract with Seattle thru his age 33 season. Per Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times, the deal has incentives that can push the contract up to as high as $123 million.

The star catcher was due $5.6 million in the 2025 season in his first year of arbitration, so this deal will supersede that total, allowing the Mariners certainty now through the 2030 season for both Raleigh and Julio Rodríguez, the two superstars that are the core of their team’s competitiveness in the position player group. Raleigh was the team’s best player a year ago, and is on a historic pace to start his career as a catcher as a slugger and overall numbers as a catcher. Not only that, only JT Realmuto (361) has played more games than Cal’s 359 since the start of 2022.

Raleigh’s not only been durable, but his relationship with longtime Mariners catching coach Dan Wilson, now the club’s manager, has been highlighted as a positive aspect of Raleigh’s experience in Seattle and as a mutually beneficial environment of trust. Additionally, Raleigh switched agents in the off-season, changing away from big swinging Scott Boras to Excel Sports Management. It appears that the move was relevant, as the extension long wondered about has come to fruition.

This winter, we’d looked into what a Cal Raleigh extension might look like. That had settled on a projection of eight years, $120 million. The deal Raleigh has actually inked appears to give him the third-largest contract for an active catcher, trailing only Will Smith of the Dodgers and the Phillies’ Realmuto.

As an aside, today was supposed to be Cal Raleigh’s 40 in 40. But you know who this is. Calboy. The Big Dumper. The rock that catches The Rock. Droughtbreaker, Bringer of Rain. The foundation of the pitching staff that has carried the Mariners through the last few years of success. The best catcher in franchise history already, who is on a pace absolutely unprecedented for any backstop in Mariners history. He will now be a Mariner for up to at least 11 years. He will be a Mariners Hall of Famer. I am taking the over, for overjoyed.

Projections:

FGDC: 584 PA, 119 wRC+, 5.3 fWAR, .227/.307/.450
PECOTA: 561 PA, 109 wRC+, 3.9 WARP, .221/.306/.431

Overs/Unders:

Zach: Under

In 2022, Cal caught 958 innings, then he caught 1,058 in 2023, and led MLB with 1,122 last year. I keep worrying all that time in a squat will catch up to him.

Eric: Over

Fueled by spite and a hatred toward the Mariners front office, Cal will simply have one of the best offensive seasons ever by a MLB catcher. I will not elaborate further.

Kate: Over.

I’m not 100% sure about this, but I thought I spotted that one of Cal’s gloves has “.220” embroidered on it, which I’m guessing is a reference to his batting average last season. Cal is harder on himself than anyone, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him kick these 220ish batting average predictions into space, pushing those offensive numbers even higher to go along with his Platinum Glove-quality defense. The cheers for Cal this spring were louder than for any other player, and I think he takes that seriously