Throughout the season, the CBS Sports MLB experts will bring you a weekly Batting Around roundtable breaking down pretty much anything. The latest news, a historical question, thoughts about the future of baseball,

Raleigh is on pace to join Johnny Bench in 1974 and Joe Torre in 1970 as the only players whose primary position was catcher in MLB history to reach 700 plate appearances in a season, becoming too essential on both sides of the ball for the Mariners to rest him. Not that he’d want to, anyway.

Tucked all the way up in Seattle, Raleigh is no-longer quietly on pace for one of the greatest offensive seasons we’ve ever seen from a catcher, and is making a strong case he should be the favorite in the American League Most Valuable Player race with Aaron Judge.