By Donald Laible
The debate is ongoing. Seattle Mariners’ Cal Raleigh or New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge. Who will be the 2025 American League Most Valuable Player Award winner?
As close as the two-way race for MVP honors appears at this time, there is a whole second half of the season to play. Slumps will happen. Hitting streaks will pop up. Injuries could seemingly come out of nowhere to sideline either Raleigh or Judge. Plus, next month is MLB’s trading deadline. Roster moves by general managers for clubs in postseason contention will affect lineups written by managers. So many variables come into play with a club, which in turn trickles down to individual performances that make any credible long-term prediction difficult.
Taking a deep dive into Raleigh’s current statistics and comparing them to his top contender for MVP honors, offers a pathway on what to expect after MLB’s All-Star Game in Atlanta, Ga., next month.
As dominant as Raleigh is this season, like all ballplayers, he has off-nights. On Wednesday, during the Mariners’ 2–0 loss to the Minnesota Twins, Raleigh’s bat went cold. Three strikeouts in four at-bats happen to the best of hitters. Exiting the game with a .277 batting average is still production to be proud of.
Heading into Thursday’s game with the Twins in Minneapolis, followed by three more on the road with the Texas Rangers, Raleigh has slugged 32 home runs, 81 hits, and 69 RBIs. With Raleigh leading all MLB players in homers and RBIs, Judge is in his shadow. The Yankee captain understands the pressures of maintaining individual numbers, while at the same time leading his club in postseason action. This is still foreign to Raleigh. Where the club finishes the season is most important.
Of the two superstars, it’s Judge who is a two-time AL MVP (2022 and 2024), six-time all-star, two-time AL RBI leader, plus, Judge has played under the brightest lights, and most pressure in a World Series.
Whereas Raleigh is in the midst of an incredible first-half hitting streak, Judge appears to be in cruise control. Judge’s 28 home runs, 63 RBIs, and a .361 batting average are not only exceptional, but expected.
No doubt, Raleigh shares the American League’s spotlight with Judge. Even the most recent All-Star Game vote totals released by MLB earlier this week tell a story. As of June 23, Judge has received 2,699,453 votes. Raleigh trails Judge by nearly 800,000 votes.
As far as who fans want to start in the American League, Raleigh is running away with votes. Toronto Blue Jays’ catcher Alejandro Kirk is in second place to Raleigh by well over one million votes.
When searching for an explanation of why Raleigh, this season, has become an offensive juggernaut, there is a suggestion that may appear too obvious.
On March 25, during a day off at spring training in Arizona, with one week to go before the opening of the regular season, Raleigh agreed to a contract extension—six-years, $105 million.
Money has been a motivator for athletes for as far back as one can remember. With his salary nearly quadrupled from last season, Raleigh has rediscovered his passion for baseball. Plus, with the Mariners 5.5 games behind the American League West-leading Houston Astros, there’s plenty of time for Raleigh and his teammates to make up ground. With all that is going right with Raleigh thus far this season, hopefully he has those closest to him on the team acting as a proactive support group.
Distractions and feeling the weight of the club on his shoulders as the season goes deeper, Raleigh could experience burnout. Looking back to the 1961 American League season, as Yankees’ Roger Maris was in hot pursuit of Babe Ruth’s 60-home run single-season record, he began to falter, physically. Maris’s hair fell out at a noticeable rate.
The higher the performance expectation, the more a ballplayer has been known to strain to meet those expectations. This is what Raleigh needs to be steered away from. Forget what Judge is doing on the field. Just stick to his game plan, be myopic.
Raleigh coming out of relatively nowhere this season to become the talk of the American League, and top of MLB catchers, is refreshing. MLB could always use a new superstar. The baseball fans in the Pacific Northwest, especially, know Raleigh is to them what Shohei Ohtani is to the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the rest of the National League.
