11/13/25
MLB announced the MVP award winners on Thursday night and the results were not what Seattle Mariner fans had hoped for. Aaron Judge took home his second consecutive MVP award and the third of his career, finishing just four votes in front of beloved Mariner Cal Raleigh. Out of 30 voters, Judge took 17 first place voted while Raleigh took the other 13. They were the top two on every single ballot.
It came down to a two-player race with José Ramírez as the other finalist but he was a distant third place. The debate between Raleigh and Judge centered around if Judge’s edge in average and OPS outweighed Cal’s added value being a catcher and running the entire pitching staff. The voters obviously did not view the catcher’s position highly and instead decided to make the award about hitting only where Raleigh still was right there with Judge.
Aaron Judge led baseball in all three slash line categories (AVG/SLG/OPS) with a whopping line of .331/.457/1.144 while playing 152 games and DHing in 56 of those games. He finished behind Cal in home runs and runs batted in with Raleigh hitting 60 homers and driving in 125 runs in the regular season. Raleigh did all of that while playing 159 of the Mariners 162 games and catching 121 of those games while DHing 38. When you crunch the numbers, Judge was the DH in 37% of his games while Cal was the DH in 24%.
There is no denying that Aaron Judge had an MVP level season. He was an incredible threat at the plate and is putting together a career that puts him in the conversation of being the greatest right-handed hitter of all time. Aaron Judge is a special player and anyone who argues that does not understand the wonderful game of baseball.
However, Cal Raleigh put together a season the sport has never seen before and will likely never see again. Cal set the single season record for home runs by a catcher passing Salvador Perez, by a Mariner passing Ken Griffey Jr., and by a switch hitter passing Mickey Mantle. Those are three Hall of Famers and Raleigh did it while playing the most physically and mentally demanding position in the game. While worrying about two different swings and approaches at the plate being a switch hitter, Raleigh also had to understand the gameplan for every single pitcher on the Mariners staff, how to pitch to every batter on opposing teams, and baserunner tendencies to prevent stolen bases. That is a lot…and he did so at the highest level, winning the Home Run Derby and more importantly leading the Mariners to their first AL West title since 2001 and the ALCS where the Mariners played the Toronto Blue Jays and not the New York Yankees.
It can’t be put into words how difficult it is to not only be a switch hitter, but also a catcher at the same time. Nothing in the game can quite compare to what it takes to do just that. Again, both Cal Raleigh and Aaron Judge deserved to be MVP. Two historic seasons that unfortunately coincided with one another. However, this writer would have given his vote to Cal Raleigh and there will be a lot of debate on this outcome for years to come.
Cal Raleigh signed a six-year, $105 million contract with the Mariners and the Big Dumper made it abundantly clear that giving the city of Seattle their first World Series is his number one goal and takes priority over individual accolades. Right now he and Judge are even in terms of rings, which is the one stat both players care more about.
The complete results along with how each voter voted can be found below.
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