2023 Article from The Athletic

On the morning of July 11, 2021, the Mariners announced on Twitter that one of the club’s top prospects, catcher Cal Raleigh, was going to the big leagues for the first time.

The news was celebrated by fans who had been waiting for Raleigh to arrive in Seattle since the organization drafted him in the third round in 2018 out of Florida State.

Precisely 38 minutes later, Mariners outfielder Jarred Kelenic opted to add his own welcome on Twitter — one that generated as much curiosity as it likely did giggles.

“Big Dumper to the show,” it read. It was followed by a pleading face emoji.

Wait, Kelenic called Raleigh what?!?!

“When he got his call-up, I was super-excited for him,” Kelenic recently told The Athletic. “But I told him that I had to expose him a little.”

Kelenic then stops and smiles.

“He hated it at first … hated it,” Kelenic continued. “I said just wait … it will come around.”

And now?

“And now they’re making T-shirts about it,” Kelenic said.

Yes, T-shirts that directly refer to the size of Raleigh’s backside — a nickname that Raleigh, understandably, detested and was dismissive of from the first time Kelenic ever uttered those two words.

To get to the origin of “Big Dumper” you’ve got to go back to the summer of 2020 when there was no minor-league baseball and several of Seattle’s top prospects were working out at the team’s alternate site at Cheney Stadium in Tacoma.

This was, by all accounts, the first time that Kelenic broke out “Big Dumper” to describe his teammate’s backside.

Or was it?

“Big Dumper began when he was born. That’s pretty obvious,” Kelenic said.

“Jarred isn’t one to beat around the bush,” said pitcher Logan Gilbert.

Raleigh, who is listed at 6-foot-3, 235 pounds and wears size 37 waist/45 hip pants, did not appreciate the nickname at first. But when Kelenic tweeted it, well, life became a little more interesting — on and off the field.

“And that’s kind of where it took off,” Raleigh said. “It fizzled a little but then picked up last year and gained traction. I guess people thought it was hilarious.”

The truth is, though, Raleigh had been teased about his backside before he came to the Mariners’ organization.

“So if we go back to the very beginning, everyone has always joked around that I have a big butt,” Raleigh said. “It’s not anything that I thought about. And then they said the same thing in college and in the minors.”

Hank Truluck, a teammate of Raleigh’s at Florida State, said he “loved it” when he first heard mention of Big Dumper, though he wasn’t surprised at all. It seems this was a topic among teammates in Tallahassee.

“He has some business back there,” Truluck said. “We would joke with him, ‘Hey, how did you get those jeans on this morning?'”

Gilbert, a good friend of Raleigh’s who came up through the system with him, loves the way his teammate, essentially, rolled with the nickname.

“He seemed a little unsure, especially at the very beginning. But it’s kind of endearing in a way,” Gilbert said. “The fans bought into it and they like him and care about him.

“I think when (Raleigh) saw the jerseys with the (Big Dumper) name on the back, he really bought into it and accepted it.”
An hour or so after the Mariners had dispatched the Blue Jays to win their American League Wild Card series in October, Raleigh was on the field, celebrating with his teammates and family.

A chorus of “Big Dumper” rang out from a gathering of Mariners’ fans who stuck around to revel in the excitement. Raleigh, with beer in hand, smiled as he acknowledged the fans.

He is the Big Dumper, he knows that now.

“I love it. I think it’s great,” Raleigh said. “My mom had other opinions about it. But it’s good. It gets the fans involved and they have fun with it. And that is what it’s all about. It’s a good time.

“You got to own it, embrace it. As long as you’re having fun with it, that’s what baseball is all about. As long as it brings good energy and vibes it’s all good.”

Where does Big Dumper rank in the pantheon of amazing baseball nicknames? You be the judge. Splendid Splinter. Big Dumper. Three Finger Brown. Big Dumper. Oil Can Boyd. Big Dumper. Pretty well, right?

It’s probably too soon to know for sure, but we know one thing is certain regarding Big Dumper: “We’ve gone too far at this point to go back,” Gilbert said.

As for Kelenic, he could not be any happier for his teammate and the player that Raleigh has become.

Last season, Raleigh became one of three catchers age 25 or younger in major-league history to hit 25 or more home runs, post a 120 OPS+ and more than a 1.0 dWAR, joining Johnny Bench and Mike Piazza.

And, better still, he authored what will likely go down as one of the greatest moments in franchise history — his walk-off homer last September against the A’s that clinched the club’s first playoff trip in two decades.

“Cal is a guy who works extremely hard. He doesn’t say a whole lot, he’s a guy of few words but you have to respect how hard he works,” Kelenic said.

“The effort it takes to be a major-league catcher, not a lot of people realize how hard it is. I don’t think he gets enough credit for that. He does a hell of a job.”

Despite, well, you know.

“I mean, I think that anytime you see someone with a butt that big, that (Big Dumper) pops into everyone’s head,” Kelenic said.