Cal Raleigh should have been AL MVP (Opinion)

Yesterday evening, New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge won his second consecutive and his 3rd American League (AL) Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award overall. The voting was close this season with Judge receiving 17 of the 30 first-place votes and Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh (Big Dumper is the nickname) receiving the other 13 first-place votes.

The issue with this vote is that Raleigh should have won the AL MVP Award. Here is a comparison of their statistics throughout the entire season.

Cal Raleigh: .247 batting average, 60 home runs, 125 runs batted in.

Aaron Judge: .331 batting average, 53 home runs, 114 runs batted in.

From a statistical standpoint, both players had some of the best seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) history. However, Raleigh's season was more meaningful from a historical standpoint.

The 60 home runs from Raleigh were the most home runs ever hit by a catcher during a regular season in the chronicles of America's pastime. He surpassed the record of 48 home runs set by Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez in 2021. He also broke Mickey Mantle's record of 54 home runs, which was the most home runs by a switch hitter.

Breaking this record by 12 home runs is a significant moment in the annals of MLB history. Putting this record into perspective, he hit more home runs in a season than all of the all-time greats that ever played the position in the major leagues: Yogi Berra, Gabby Hartnett, Roy Campanella, Johnny Bench, Mike Piazza, Javy Lopez, Carlton Fisk, and Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez.

Even Aaron Judge thought that Raleigh should have won the MVP. He gave this quote about Raleigh and Cleveland Guardians third baseman Jose Ramirez after he was awarded the MVP on MLB Network.

"They had two incredible seasons. It's always fun playing against those two, especially playing Seattle. The main objective is 'Make sure Cal doesn't beat you.'"

From his own words, Judge's attention was solely focused upon Raleigh. The reason for that focus is due to Raleigh being more valuable to the Mariners than Judge to the Yankees. If Judge was not on the Yankees, then the Yankees still would have more than likely qualified for the AL Playoffs because the lineup and the pitching staff for New York was absolutely loaded this season.

If Raleigh was not on the Mariners, then Seattle would not have even sniffed the AL Playoffs. His play kept his team in the AL West Division title hunt. Due to his once-in-a-lifetime season, the Mariners organization was persuaded to go all-in before the trade deadline and acquired sluggers Eugenio Suarez and Josh Naylor.

Raleigh's play also had more impact upon each game than Judge because the catcher position has the most influence of any position in the game of baseball. The catcher has to make sure that the pitcher throws the right pitches in the proper locations in order to get hitters out each and every inning. The catcher will need to know the type of pitches get certain pitchers out from the scouting report. The catcher has to keep the pitcher calm when the pitcher loses control or when the pitcher gives up a big hit. Basically, the catcher is like the manager on the field.

Plus, the catcher position is the most physically-taxing position to play in baseball. The catcher has to crouch down for each and every pitch thrown in all of the innings. In between squatting down every pitch, the catcher then will still have to muster the strength to hit when it is time to step to the plate.

Out of the 30 writers that voted for the AL MVP award, only six of them are located along the West Coast. One could see that this vote is riddled with East Coast bias. They probably just watched Judge play and then went to sleep without watching Seattle games because their home games normally start at 10:05 PM EST.

Big Dumper should have won the AL MVP.

Disclaimer: The views of this post do not reflect the views of Vocal Media because Vocal Media's headquarters is located in Northeast USA. Nevertheless, I still think Raleigh should have won the AL MVP.