Cal Raleigh’s 65 Home Runs: Did He Really Break Aaron Judge’s AL Record?

Back in 2022, Judge hit 62 home runs during the regular season, breaking Roger Maris’s 61-year-old AL record. It was a huge deal. Historic. The kind of thing that gets you MVP votes and a massive contract extension. Judge also hit two more homers in the postseason that year, giving him 64 total between April and October.

Raleigh finished the 2025 regular season with 60 home runs—already an incredible achievement that put him in elite company with Babe Ruth, Roger Maris, and Judge himself. Add his five postseason homers, and boom: 65 total. One more than Judge’s combined total from 2022.

Here’s Where Things Get Weird

Here’s the thing that’s got baseball fans—and especially Yankees fans—up in arms: playoff home runs have never counted toward regular season records. Like, ever. It’s not a thing we’ve done in baseball history because postseason stats are tracked separately for a reason.

The regular season record is 62 home runs in the American League, set by Judge. Raleigh’s 60 homers are phenomenal, but they don’t break that record. Combining regular season and postseason stats to create a “new record” feels like we’re just making stuff up as we go along. It’s apples and oranges, folks.

And Twitter? Oh boy, Twitter had thoughts.

Baseball Fans Were Not Having It

Social media absolutely exploded with reactions ranging from confusion to outright mockery. One fan bluntly stated, “Playoff home runs don’t count.” Another pointed out, “Since when do postseason home runs count?” Fair questions, honestly.

My personal favorite response came from someone who sarcastically noted, “Judge hit a home run in 2022 spring training, Raleigh hit 0 home runs in spring training, guess they are tied at 65.” Savage, but it perfectly highlights how ridiculous it is to start cherry-picking which stats we combine.

Another fan asked, “How is this becoming a thing? I understand the post and how you’re talking about the total but it’s weird that we’re starting that now.” Exactly. When did we collectively decide that combining regular season and postseason stats was something we do now?

Why This “Record” Feels Forced

Look, I get it. The Sporting News and other outlets wanted to hype up Raleigh’s incredible achievement. He had an absolutely phenomenal season, and hitting five postseason homers while your team is one game away from the World Series is clutch as hell. But creating a “record” that didn’t exist before just to manufacture a storyline? That’s weak.

Records matter in baseball. They’re sacred. We don’t just invent new categories because we want someone to have broken something. The single-season home run record in the AL is 62. That’s Judge’s record. The combined regular season and postseason record? That’s… not really a thing anyone cared about until now.

It’s almost like saying, “Well, if we count spring training, Grapefruit League games, and that one home run derby he participated in, then actually…” No. Stop. That’s not how this works.

Cal Raleigh Still Deserves His Flowers

Despite all my griping about manufactured records, let’s be crystal clear: Cal Raleigh had an absolutely incredible 2025 season. Sixty home runs is insane. He became just the fourth player in AL history to reach that mark, joining Ruth, Maris, and Judge. That’s genuinely elite company.

He also became the fastest catcher to reach several home run milestones and set multiple franchise records for Seattle. The guy is a legitimate superstar and one of the best power hitters in baseball right now. He doesn’t need a questionable “combined stats” record to validate his season.

After the heartbreaking ALCS loss, Raleigh was visibly emotional. “I hate to use the word failure, but it’s a failure,” he told reporters. “We expected to get to the World Series and win the World Series… it hurts.”

That’s the kind of competitor you want on your team. Someone who doesn’t celebrate individual achievements when the team goal falls short. Respect.

The Bigger Picture

The Seattle Mariners remain the only MLB franchise that’s never appeared in a World Series. That drought continued in 2025 despite Raleigh’s heroics. For all the talk about records—real or manufactured—the only number that really matters to Seattle is zero: zero World Series appearances in franchise history.

Raleigh will be back next year, still mashing home runs and still trying to lead Seattle to that elusive championship. And when he does, nobody will care about combined regular season and postseason home run totals. They’ll care about a World Series trophy.

So yeah, congrats to Cal Raleigh on an amazing season and 65 total home runs across all games in 2025. But let’s not pretend he broke Aaron Judge’s AL record. Judge still holds that at 62 regular season bombs. Records should mean something, and making up new categories just cheapens the whole thing.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go argue with Yankees fans on Twitter about whether spring training stats should count toward career totals. (They shouldn’t, obviously.)