Fans watching the Sunday Seattle Mariners game during opening weekend may have noticed a commercial featuring the team’s All-Star catcher and switch-hitter, Cal Raleigh, as the newest, high-performing team member at Spokane-based Washington Trust Bank.

In the ad inspired by the television show “The Office,” Raleigh dons a WaTrust baseball jersey as he executes his duties as the bank’s “Home Run Officer,” while branch employees adjust to working with the reigning home run champion and learn how his baseball skills translate to banking.

The three-year partnership with Raleigh was signed last October and marks the bank’s first with a professional athlete in its 124-year history. The campaign launched opening weekend of the season and is part of a broader strategy to boost name recognition in expanding Washington Trust markets, including Tacoma and Bellingham — where the bank recently opened new financial centers — while reinforcing its hometown, team-based banking identity, says Ingrid Campbell, vice president, marketing director for Washington Trust. 

As the Mariner’s star catcher, Raleigh occupies one of baseball’s most leadership-intensive roles, which includes managing pitchers, reading hitters, and helping direct the game from behind the plate, Campbell says. Combined with his status as one of the region’s most visible sports figures who led Major League Baseball in home runs last season, the blend of strategy and star power made him a natural fit for Washington Trust's teamwork-centered campaign, she says.

“Cal is one of the most recognizable figures in Northwest sports,” says Drew Repp, public relations strategist for Washington Trust Bank. “He has a devoted fan base that spans from the Puget Sound to the Inland Northwest and beyond. Cal personifies the traits of our local community — hard work, commitment, and teamwork — making him an ideal partner to convey our brand of banking.”

As the privately held bank enters communities where it doesn’t yet have the generational recognition it enjoys in Spokane, Campbell says aligning with a widely known Pacific Northwest athlete helps introduce Washington Trust’s collaborative, relationship-based banking model to prospective customers.

“Cal is very well known,” Campbell says. “That helps us get our name recognition going faster in some of those markets.”

The Home Run Officer campaign was created by Boise-based marketing and advertising agency Duft Watterson LLC and will air in all markets in which Washington Trust Bank operates. The financial institution has 45 branches and offices in Washington, Idaho, and Oregon, according to a press release.

The campaign will be supported across multiple channels, including radio and social media. Duft Watterson partnered with Los Angeles-based production company Sasquatch & Co. to produce the commercial spots.

The new marketing campaign also aligns with Washington Trust Bank’s ongoing West Side expansion strategy. Campbell says the partnership with Raleigh is designed to help the Spokane-based financial institution build familiarity faster in those markets, where physical expansion and brand recognition need to grow in tandem.

As previously reported by the Journal, the bank has added branches in Tacoma and Bellingham in the past year, building on its earlier move into Vancouver, Washington, as it works to connect its footprint across the state.

In July 2025, Washington Trust Bank purchased a six-story building at 1102 Commerce Street, in downtown Tacoma, located a block west of its newly leased branch at 950 Pacific and directly below the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber. Washington Trust Bank likely will occupy the first two floors of the nearly 30,000-square-foot Commerce Street building — formerly the headquarters of Commencement Bank — with plans to operate a branch at the newly acquired building.

While the bank has had a presence in the Puget Sound region for 25 years, the branch and building acquisition represent the financial institution’s first physical location in Pierce County, Sarah Howard, the bank’s senior vice president and team lead in the Puget Sound region, told the Journal last year.

Campbell says the bank is upgrading the downtown Tacoma building with occupancy expected by early 2027. In Bellingham, the bank is working toward building a larger permanent branch to replace its current location.

The parallel investments in physical infrastructure and regional marketing support a deliberate growth strategy: establishing branch access while using Raleigh’s broad Pacific Northwest star power to shorten the timeline for customer trust and brand recognition. 

“He’s a real family-oriented person,” Campbell says. “I think our family private ownership appealed to him and aligned with his values, along with obviously our values. He’s very community driven, and as are we, so the partnership made sense all around.”

Founded in 1902, Washington Trust Bank is headquartered at 717 W. Sprague, in downtown Spokane. It has over $10 billion in assets and employs approximately 1,200 people, with 19 of the bank's 45 branches and offices operating in the Spokane-Coeur d’Alene region, according to the Journal's Banks list.

Four generations of the Stanton family have led the privately held bank. In 2024, Jack Heath became the first person outside the Stanton family to be named CEO. Peter Stanton, the fourth generation of the Stanton family to lead the bank, transitioned from his role as CEO and chairman of the board to serving exclusively as the company’s executive chairman.