Is Seattle Mariners’ Cal Raleigh having the best season for a catcher of all time?
It’s an appropriate question to be asking now that Raleigh has hit 50 home runs in 2025, continually breaking new ground on the single-season home run record for a catcher.
On Tuesday, MLB Network’s Brian Kenny dove into a monologue about past seasons from catchers who compete with Raleigh’s current campaign.
Kenny ultimately decided that Cincinnati Reds legend Johnny Bench’s 1972 season was the best all-time for a catcher, but not before discussing other elite backstops. Keep in mind, too, that Raleigh’s season is still not over.
“What are the best catching seasons of all time?” Kenny wondered aloud during an airing of “MLB Now”.
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“Let’s start with … Buster Posey, 2012. This is a 25-year-old Posey hitting .336, leading the National League in batting average. He doesn’t have the monstrous totals of some of the other contenders, but he’s in a very tough hitter’s park that gives him a league-leading 171 OPS+.”
“All right, so while we’re introducing this, here are the park-adjusted hitting numbers for catchers in a single season,” Kenny continued. “We’re going to count 450 plate appearances and up. Mike Piazza has the top two … then Joe Mauer, then Buster Posey … (then) a couple of anomalous … great seasons .. Javi Lopez, 2003 … Chris Hoyles, who knew? 1993.”
Kenny went on to mention other names like Carlton Fisk, Gary Carter, Yogi Berra and Roy Campanella, before landing on the premise that Johnny Bench takes the cake.
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“You can pick either of Bench’s MVP years (1970 or 1972) … but in ’72, he had the higher OPS+ and … led the National League (with) 40 homers, 125 RBIs. Had 16 more walks than strikeouts. But his real calling card: a shutdown of the running game in a real stolen base era. He led the National League with a staggering 56 percent caught stealing percentage that year.”
“That wasn’t even his best defensive season,” Kenny continued. “He was better in 1968. This is the difference-maker: you could not run on Johnny Bench.”
“If I’m picking one (season) … Johnny Bench, age-24 season, 1972. Tremendous power, and in any era, you could not run on him.”
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