The 2025 American League MVP race was at one point (not too long ago) considered a two-horse race between New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge and Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh. The combination of Judge’s IL stint — which began in late July — and Raleigh’s historic August — which saw Raleigh break the single-season home run record for a catcher — seemed for the moment to give Raleigh fans a stronger rallying cry for his MVP candidacy.

As the Yankees had difficulty working Judge back into his defensive position, fans and analysts alike pushing for a Raleigh MVP seized the opportunity to double down on the idea that Raleigh’s 2025 season is more impressive than Judge’s because “The Big Dumper” also plays the catcher position.

The inconvenient truth for Raleigh supporters in that vein, however, is that Judge’s offensive numbers in 2025 have become far and away superior to Raleigh’s, to the extent that, even if Judge doesn’t return to the outfield for the rest of the season and continues to DH, he’s still clearly the most deserving player of the AL MVP award.

Aaron Judge’s recent stretch for the Yankees all but guaranteed him a third MVP trophy

Judge has been completely on fire recently, and it’s obvious that any lingering effects from his right flexor strain are no longer impacting his plate prowess.

In the last 12 games, Judge slashed .350/ .500/ .725/ 1.225 with five home runs against a gauntlet of American league playoff contenders: the Houston Astros, Toronto Blue Jays, Detroit Tigers, and Boston Red Sox. It’s also worth noting that Judge climbed above Yankees legends Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra on the franchise’s all-time home run list during this stretch.

But back to the present era. If Judge hadn’t already separated himself offensively from Raleigh in 2025, the aforementioned 12-game stretch did just that. There’s simply too wide a gap between Judge’s slash line on the season entering Monday (.326/ .447/ .678/ .1.125) and Raleigh’s (.244/ .359/ .577/ .936) for a difference of six home runs to make up for (Judge: 48; Raleigh: 54).

Raleigh might still have some semblance of a case for MVP if he were having the type of Platinum Glove season he had in 2024, but that hasn’t been the reality for Raleigh in 2024, as his defensive metrics are down from last year.

Additionally, while Raleigh has driven in more runs than Judge (115 RBI against Judge’s 102), Judge has registered 29 more hits than Raleigh in 49 fewer at-bats.

Unless you are giving Raleigh an unbalanced and illogical advantage over Judge just by virtue of Raleigh playing the catcher position, the MVP race, as it stands today, is not much of a race at all.