Throughout baseball history, catcher has been an offensively challenged position.
It’s not hard to understand why. First, catcher defense is so important that backstops are selected in large part based on their ability to block, receive, throw and work with pitchers. Second, the physical demands of the position are such that it’s hard for catchers not to wear down over the course of a long season.
Because of all that, when a catcher does swing the bat at a superstar level, it’s truly special. And that’s what the Mariners' Cal Raleigh did in 2025. The first catcher to win the Home Run Derby bashed baseballs all year long, and crushed his 59th and 60th home runs against the Rockies on Sept. 24, becoming the seventh player in MLB history with 60 home runs in a season (10th overall occurrence).
It's important to note here that catcher home run hitting can be defined in different ways:
- The Elias Sports Bureau, MLB's official statistician, judges the record based only on home runs hit as a catcher. In other words, only homers hit when the player was in the lineup at catcher, as opposed to as a designated hitter, first baseman, etc.
- Many other observers consider all home runs hit by a catcher, which means that any big fly by a player identified as a "primary catcher" would count. Even "primary catcher" could be based on different thresholds, such as players appearing at that position for at least 50% or 75% of their games.
Below, we will look at the AL/NL single-season leaderboard based on both of those definitions, beginning with Elias' official record.
Most home runs as a catcher in a single season
1) 49 -- Cal Raleigh, 2025 Mariners
60 total HR
The man they call Big Dumper proved his status as a power threat over his first three full seasons in the Majors, hitting 27 homers in 2022, 30 in '23 and 34 in '24. But he took his slugging to a completely different level in 2025, swatting 10 big flies in the opening month and never looking back. When he hit his 54th home run of the season on Sept. 14 against the Angels, it was his 43rd as a catcher, setting the single-season record for most homers hit as a catcher.
2) 42 -- Javy Lopez, 2003 Braves
43 total HR
Until Raleigh came along, nobody had gone deep more times in a season while actually playing catcher. (Lopez also hit one homer that season as a pinch-hitter). But while Lopez was a power threat throughout his career, this season came a little out of nowhere after he averaged just 16 homers from 1999-2002.
3) 41 -- Todd Hundley, 1996 Mets
41 total HR
Most would assume that the 1990s Mets catcher with the most home runs in a season would be Mike Piazza. Most would be wrong. It was Hundley who set that mark in his breakout 1996 campaign after hitting a total of 50 homers in 491 games over his first six seasons. Two years later, the Mets would acquire Piazza and then trade Hundley.
4-T) 40 -- Roy Campanella, 1953 Dodgers
41 total HR
Campanella starred in the Negro Leagues before signing with the Dodgers and becoming a three-time NL MVP Award winner. The second of those came in 1953, when Campy finished third in the NL in homers and first in RBIs (142) while starting 131 games behind the plate.
4-T) 40 -- Mike Piazza, 1997 Dodgers and ‘99 Mets
40 total HR in both seasons
The Hall of Famer was never better than in 1997, his last full season in L.A., when he hit .362/.431/.638 and led the Majors with a 185 OPS+, which also is far and away the best figure ever produced by a qualifying AL/NL catcher. Despite that, Piazza was dealt to the Marlins and then the Mets in May 1998, moves that did nothing to slow down his mashing.
6) 38 -- Johnny Bench, 1970 Reds
45 total HR
Bench has a strong case as the greatest catcher of all time, and his 1970 campaign shows why. At just 22 years old, Bench hit 45 home runs, which stood as the most by a primary catcher for more than 50 years. Heading into 2025, he also remained the only catcher to lead the AL or NL in big flies, a feat he accomplished again two seasons later.
Most home runs by a catcher in a single season
Note: The list below is the same regardless of whether 50% or 75% of a player's games coming at catcher is used as a qualifier.
1) 60 (49 hit as a catcher) -- Cal Raleigh, 2025 Mariners
2) 48 (33 hit as a catcher) -- Salvador Perez, 2021 Royals
3) 45 (38 hit as a catcher) -- Johnny Bench, 1970 Reds
4) 43 (42 hit as a catcher) -- Javy Lopez, 2003 Braves
5-T) 41 (41 hit as a catcher) -- Todd Hundley, 1996 Mets
5-T) 41 (40 hit as a catcher) -- Roy Campanella, 1953 Dodgers
7-T) 40 (40 hit as a catcher) -- Mike Piazza, 1999 Mets
7-T) 40 (40 hit as a catcher) -- Mike Piazza, 1997 Dodgers
7-T) 40 (34 hit as a catcher) -- Johnny Bench, 1972 Reds
10) 38 (35 hit as a catcher) -- Mike Piazza, 2000 Mets
Most career home runs by a catcher
Only eight players who have spent the majority of their careers (50% of games or more) behind the plate have recorded 300-plus homers. Here they are:
1) 427 (396 hit as a catcher) -- Mike Piazza
2) 389 (327 hit as a catcher) -- Johnny Bench
3) 376 (351 hit as a catcher) -- Carlton Fisk
4) 358 (305 hit as a catcher) -- Yogi Berra
5-T) 324 (299 hit as a catcher) -- Lance Parrish
5-T) 324 (298 hit as a catcher) -- Gary Carter
7) 311 (304 hit as a catcher) -- Ivan Rodriguez
8) 301 (235 hit as a catcher) -- Salvador Perez