Aaron Judge and Cal Raleigh could tie for the American League MVP Award.
As intimidating with their bats as both players continue to perform, even coming down to the final week of the regular season, the debate continues as to who will be recognized as the top offensive threat of 2025.
The New York Yankees, Judge’s club where he’s starred for the past decade, and Raleigh’s Seattle Mariners, who are positioned to win the American League West for the first time since 2001, both have qualified for MLB’s postseason that begins on Tuesday.
Without Judge and Raleigh’s services this season, it’s not a stretch to proclaim that neither the Yankees nor the Mariners would be in the postseason picture. Both of their performances in 2025 all but certified them to hoist the MVP Award presented by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
The winners of both the AL and National League MVP Awards will be announced in November and presented to the recipients in January 2026 in New York City.
Raleigh, now in his fourth full season with the Mariners since making his MLB debut with the club in 2021, is having a “career year.” Having slammed 34 home runs in 2024, the most of his abbreviated time in the big leagues up until this season, Raleigh, heading into Wednesday evening’s home game at T-Mobile Park against the Colorado Rockies, has belted 58 round-trippers. Raleigh also leads the American League with 121 RBIs.
However, if there is one anemic component to his offense, Raleigh’s .245 batting average stands out. Striking out 180 times this season continues to be a drag on the argument for anointing Raleigh the clear choice for writers’ votes.
Judge, who collected last season’s AL MVP honors unanimously and was the MVP in 2022 as well, became the 17th to win multiple MVP awards in the league. Thus far in 2025, as the Yankees are set to entertain the Chicago White Sox in the Bronx today, Judge has clubbed 49 home runs and driven in 105 runs. He has also walked 120 times.
Hitting .325, with five games to play before the postseason, Judge is besting Raleigh at the plate by 80 points. This one statistic could be the difference maker when comparing both sluggers’ value to their respective clubs.
Whereas Raleigh, a catcher, plays arguably the most physically challenging position on the field and only missed three of the Mariners’ 157 games this season, Judge has battled injuries. An elbow injury in July resulted in Judge sitting for 10 games. When he returned to New York’s lineup, Judge was inserted as the designated hitter in Yankees manager Aaron Boone’s lineup. He has since been eased back into his usual right field position.
For all the media attention gained by both players this season, Raleigh’s participation in this past July’s T-Mobile Home Run Derby, a day prior to the annual MLB All-Star Game, made him a household name with baseball fans beyond the West Coast. Raleigh won the event by hitting a total of 54 home runs in the three rounds of competition. Judge didn’t participate in the Derby.
Raleigh, a switch-hitter, surpassed Kansas City Royals’ all-star backstop Salvador Perez, who hit 48 home runs in 2021, to become baseball’s catcher with the most home runs hit in a single season. Another all-time hitting record achieved by Raleigh this season is hitting the most home runs by a switch-hitter. Previously, Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle held the switch-hitting record of 54 in a season.
The last time, and only time, the Baseball Writers’ Association of America voted a tie for MVP came in 1979. St. Louis Cardinals’ Keith Hernandez and Pittsburgh Pirates’ Willie Stargell, who would be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1988, tied for National League MVP honors. Each received 216 total voting points. Hernandez gained 10 first-place votes, and Stargell earned four. Although Hernandez appeared on every ballot, Stargell was left off four ballots.
The year 1979 was magical for Stargell and his Pittsburgh Pirates’ teammates. The Pirates won the World Series championship by besting the Baltimore Orioles in seven games. Personally, “Pops,” as Stargell was called by his peers, slapped 32 home runs, had 82 RBIs, and hit .281. Hernandez hit .344, drove in 105 runs, had 210 hits, plus 11 triples.
There have been other very close voting outcomes for MLB MVP races. In 1996, Texas’s Juan Gonzalez won out by three points over Seattle’s Alex Rodriguez. The final AL MVP vote in 1996 was 290-287. Gonzalez received 11 first-place votes while Rodriguez, who was in his third year with the Mariners, was the recipient of 10.
Going back further to another close vote, Mantle and Roger Maris in 1961 were separated by only four points. This was the season in which Maris broke Babe Ruth’s single-season home run record of 60. Maris topped Ruth’s 60-homer mark by hitting his 61st homer in the last game of the 1961 season. Maris, with a 202-198 vote, was selected as AL MVP.
A season earlier, in 1960, Maris won his first of two AL MVP Awards with the Yankees, again by outscoring his teammate Mantle. With a score of 225–222, Maris and Mantle were separated by three points.
Just as the final games on the schedule could determine a club to be a Wild Card Series entrant or division champion for postseason positioning, they likely will be equally important for Judge and Raleigh as to which one is ultimately declared the American League MVP.
