Why Cal Raleigh will be MVP

The post-season awards are piling up for Seattle Mariners’ catcher Cal Raleigh. Following an historic season leading the Seattle Mariners to the American League championship, Raleigh received the Players Choice Award as the top overall player in major league baseball, as voted by the players, beating out Shohei Ohtani from the world champion Los Angeles Dodgers and Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees.

The players also voted Raleigh the American League Outstanding Player ahead of Judge. He also received the Silver Slugger Award as the best hitting catcher in the American League. A no-brainer there.

However, the biggest post-season awards, the American League and National League Most Valuable Player as voted on by the Baseball Writers Association, will be announced on MLB Network on Nov. 13 , 4:00, Pacific time.

Last week, the three finalists for all the BBWAA Awards were announced. Ton no one’s surprise, Raleigh, Judge, and Cleveland Guardians’ third baseman Jose Ramirez are the three AL MVP finalists. Post-season awards will be announced throughout the week on the MLB network, including Rookies of the Year, the Cy Young Award and the Managers of the Year award for the American and National League.

The AL MVP race appears to be a toss-up as both Raleigh and Judge both posted offensive records that would make them clear-cut favorites in most years.

Looking at the stats:

Raleigh posted a .247/.359/.589 slash line in 705 plate appearances and led the major leagues in home runs (60) and the American League in RBI (125). He surpassed Salvador Perez’s record for most homers in a season by a catcher (48) and Mickey Mantle’s season record of home runs by a switch hitter. (54).

Raleigh finished with an MLB-record, 20-plus homers from each side of the plate, and had 11 multiple homer games, tying Hank Greenberg of the Tigers (1938), Sammy Sosa of the Cubs (1998) and Aaron Judge of the Yankees (2022) in that department.​

Oh, by the way, Raleigh caught 1,072 innings — the most in the American League — and didn’t allow a passed ball. He’s also considered a top-notch handler of pitchers.

Judge posted impressive numbers also; a MLB-best 331 batting average, .457 on-base percentage, .688 slugging percentage, 1.144 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, 30 doubles, two triples, 53 homers, 114 RBI, 124 walks and 137 runs scored.

However, he’s purely an offensive player. He played only 95 games in the outfield and was mostly relegated to designated hitter duties in the final months of the season due to an arm injury.

Raleigh has an advantage in home runs and Judge in batting average. Voters today put more stock in home runs; note that Luis Arraez of the Padres is never an MVP candidate even though he’s won three batting titles.

Also, Raleigh plays a more taxing defensive position, which is why we predict that he’ll cop MVP honors. If Judge wins, there’s the predictable backlash that he benefits from playing in the New York media market. Who knows? That might help Raleigh get some votes from other AL cities (although the anti-Yankee feeling may be more fans than the voting media).

Another interesting sidebar: when major league baseball announced the three finalists for the awards last week, whether by mistake or a fluke, the lists seemed to have the players in the order many are predicting them to finish.

For example, Ohtani’s number one on the NL MVP list, Kyle Schwarber second and Juan Soto third. AL Cy Young has Tarik Skubal first, Garrett Crochet second and Hunter Brown third, all likely finishes.

Could the BBWAA have released the names in the order of their vote totals? If Nick Kurtz and Cade Horton are rookies of the year, Stephen Vogt and Pat Murphy are managers of the year, Skubal and Paul Skenes, Cy Young winners, then that very well may have been the case.

As for that race that’s consider a tossup, Pacific Northwest may be rejoicing; Raleigh’s listed first and Judge second.

It’ll be an interesting week.