New York Yankees OF Aaron Judge won his second straight AL MVP award, and third overall in the last four years, on Thursday night, edging out Seattle Mariners C Cal Raleigh. It was a decision that wasn’t well-received in the Pacific Northwest.
The Seattle Times’ Ryan Divish shared an emotional case for Raleigh’s intangibles in reporting the catcher’s MVP vote loss. As Divish pointed out, the award was voted on before the postseason.
The Mariners’ magical run to Game 7 of the ALCS would’ve edged out the Yankees’ four-game elimination in the ALDS, both series having been played against the AL champion Toronto Blue Jays.
“His value to his team and its success is not calculable by numbers or metrics. His leadership and presence can’t be quantified, but couldn’t be discounted,” Divish prefaced before saying, “Despite a performance that likely won’t ever be replicated or surpassed by another catcher, it wasn’t good enough to win the American League Most Valuable Player award.”
Raleigh had 60 home runs but was inferior to Judge in every other major statistical category. In most worlds, that’s grounds for an MVP win for Judge. But there’s a level of Yankees fatigue around the MLB. It’s like Los Angeles Dodgers fatigue, but worse, since New York hasn’t been winning it all, so it feels unearned.
Judge’s case definitely isn’t helped since his 2022 home run chase for Roger Maris’ non-asterisk 61-HR record cut into college football games on ESPN. There was no similar fanfare for Raleigh’s similar chase this year.
Raleigh had a generational season in Seattle, while Judge had a business-as-usual season in New York. It’s a tough pill to swallow for Mariner fans, but it’s how baseball is.
The big markets spend and collect hardware, while the smaller markets have surprise seasons that more often than not come short.
