2025 AL MVP: Judge or Raleigh? Should salary count? Raleigh was a bargain.

Baseball fans get hung up on ridiculous stuff. Hall of Fame. Most Valuable Player (MVP).

MVP should have given way to best player and eliminate the ambiguity of value. A really good player is more valuable to an average team than he would be to a team with multiple really good players.

MVP observations 1931-2013. Some are very cool.  Saturday, November 16, 2013

MVP: should money be considered?  Thursday, November 8, 2012

Cabrera entered the 2011 season with a career triple crown having led the AC: home runs (HR) 2008, RBI 2010, batting average (BA) 2011.  In 2012 Cabrera became the first player in 45 years to lead in all three in the same season, the traditional triple crown...

salary / WAR = $$$ per WAR:
Trout $500,000 / 10.7 = $46,729
Cano $14,000,000 / 8.2 = $1,707,317
Cabrera $21,000,000 / 6.9  = $3,043,478

Well, that puts MVP into an entirely different perspective.

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Roger Maris edged out Yankee teammate Mickey Mantle in 1960 and 1961 for American League (AL) MVP. Part of it was that Maris was the new guy in his first two Yankee seasons. And, of course, Maris hit 61 Home Runs (HR) in 1961 to break the 1927 record of 60 by the greatest Yankee Babe Ruth.

In 2025 Seattle catcher Cal Raleigh did the impossible: hit 60 HR.

Cal Raleigh season Home Run records: catcher, switch hitter.  Thursday, September 18, 2025

Updated 9/29/2025:

		HR	HR	HR	HR	HR	HR	HR	HR	HR	AB	AB	AB	AB	AB	AB	AB	AB	AB
	Year	Tot	C	1B	3B	LF	CF	RF	PH	DH	Tot	C	1B	3B	LF	CF	RF	PH	DH
Raleigh	2025	60	49						0	11	593	448						1	144	Raleigh
Lopez	2003	43	42						1	0	456	433						11	12	Lopez
Hundley	1996	41	41						0		540	532						8		Hundley
Campanella	1953	41	40						1		519	508						11		Campanella
Piazza	1997	40	40						0	0	556	520						5	31	Piazza
Piazza	1999	40	40						0	0	534	527						4	3	Piazza
Bench	1970	45	38	1	0	5	0	1	0		605	509	21	1	33	7	29	5		Bench
Bench	1972	40	34	0	2			4			538	463	8	14			53			Bench
Perez	2021	48	33						0	15	620	472						1	147	Perez
Piazza	2000	38	35						1	2	482	458						6	18	Piazza

Cal Raleigh has hit 49 Home Runs (HR) in 2025 as a CATCHER! That had been considered the record because Johnny Bench hit 45 HR in 1970, ignoring the fact that Bench hit "only" 38 as a catcher.

The real record had been held by Javy Lopez: 42 of his 43 HR in 2003 were hit as a catcher.

_________________________

Raleigh has also broken the season HR record of 54 HR by a switch hitter...

Rk	Player	HR	OPS+	WAR	Season	Age	Team	Lg	G	PA	AB
1	Cal Raleigh	60	169	7.3	2025	28	SEA	AL	159	705	596
2	Mickey Mantle	54	206	10.5	1961	29	NYY	AL	153	646	514
3	Mickey Mantle	52	210	11.3	1956	24	NYY	AL	150	652	533
4	Lance Berkman	45	163	6.0	2006	30	HOU	NL	152	646	536
5	Chipper Jones	45	169	6.9	1999	27	ATL	NL	157	701	567
6	Anthony Santander	44	131	2.9	2024	29	BAL	AL	155	665	595
7	Mark Teixeira	43	144	7.2	2005	25	TEX	AL	162	730	644
8	Lance Berkman	42	150	4.8	2002	26	HOU	NL	158	692	578
9	Mickey Mantle	42	188	8.7	1958	26	NYY	AL	150	654	519
10	Carlos Beltrán	41	150	8.2	2006	29	NYM	NL	140	617	510
11	Todd Hundley	41	140	5.0	1996	27	NYM	NL	153	624	540
12	Ken Caminiti	40	174	7.6	1996	33	SDP	NL	146	639	546
13	Mickey Mantle	40	162	6.4	1960	28	NYY	AL	153	644	527

Provided by Stathead.com: Found with Stathead. See Full Results.
Generated 9/29/2025.

Can Raleigh be voted American League (AL) Most Valuable Player (MVP)?

_______________________________________

https://stathead.com/tiny/tfJH8

For single seasons, in 2025, Playing in the AL, in the regular season, requiring Adjusted OPS+ >= 0 and Wins Above Replacement (WAR) >= 5.4 and Offensive WAR (oWAR) >= 0 and Defensive WAR (dWAR) >= -9, sorted by descending Wins Above Replacement (WAR).

Rk	Player	WAR	oWAR	dWAR	OPS+	Season	Age	Team	Lg	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
1	Aaron Judge	9.7	9.4	-0.5	215	2025	33	NYY	AL	152	679	541	137	179	30	2	53	114	124	160	.331	.457	.688	1.144
2	Cal Raleigh	7.3	7.7	0.1	169	2025	28	SEA	AL	159	705	596	110	147	24	0	60	125	97	188	.247	.359	.589	.948
3	Bobby Witt Jr.	7.1	6.7	1.3	136	2025	25	KCR	AL	157	687	623	99	184	47	6	23	88	49	125	.295	.351	.501	.852
4	Julio Rodríguez	6.8	5.8	1.5	128	2025	24	SEA	AL	160	710	652	106	174	31	4	32	95	44	152	.267	.324	.474	.798
5	Corey Seager	6.1	4.4	2.3	151	2025	31	TEX	AL	102	445	380	61	103	19	0	21	50	58	87	.271	.373	.487	.860
6	José Ramírez	5.8	5.7	0.2	137	2025	32	CLE	AL	158	673	593	103	168	34	3	30	85	66	74	.283	.360	.503	.863
7	Maikel Garcia	5.8	4.7	1.6	123	2025	25	KCR	AL	160	666	595	81	170	39	5	16	74	62	84	.286	.351	.449	.800
8	Jeremy Peña	5.6	5.1	1.3	132	2025	27	HOU	AL	125	543	493	68	150	30	2	17	62	35	93	.304	.363	.477	.840
9	Wyatt Langford	5.6	3.9	1.5	127	2025	23	TEX	AL	134	573	489	73	118	25	1	22	62	74	151	.241	.344	.431	.775
10	Gunnar Henderson	5.4	5.6	0.7	121	2025	24	BAL	AL	154	651	577	85	158	34	5	17	68	62	137	.274	.349	.438	.787
11	Nick Kurtz	5.4	5.1	-0.4	173	2025	22	ATH	AL	117	489	420	90	122	26	2	36	86	63	151	.290	.383	.619	1.002

Provided by Stathead.com: Found with Stathead. See Full Results.
Generated 9/29/2025.

	Salary	WAR	$$$/WAR
Judge	$40,000,000	9.7	$4,123,711
Raleigh	$2,666,667	7.3	$365,297

Ouch!

Cal Raleigh led AL in HR and RBI, two thirds of the season triple crown.

Aaron Judge led AL in WAR, oWAR, OPS+, Runs, BB, OBP, SLG, OPS, BA (which gave Judge a career triple crown).

Aaron Judge: career, not season, triple crown. Mays (RBI) and Musial (HR) did not do it.  Sunday, September 28, 2025

Triple Crown but not MVP: Klein, Gehrig, Williams, Williams.  Friday, November 16, 2012

Aaron Judge among the best hitters of all time.  Friday, September 26, 2025

In 2025 Aaron Judge hit at least 50 HR for the fourth time, joining Babe Ruth, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa as the only four to do it.

One .300 Batting Average in a league: AL 1968, NL 2025.  Sunday, September 28, 2025

Aaron Judge had the highest AL BA at .331 while Trea Turner had the only NL BA at least .300: a record NL low for highest at .304. Carl Yastrzemski has the MLB low for leading a league: .301 AL in 1968.

I cringe when I hear someone use the old term "led the league in hitting" to describe the player with the highest BA. But it's not completely irrelevant and it goes nicely with 53 HR and OPS+ 215.

Click this link for the full OPS+ list (sorted by personal best (1); followed sequentially for seasons at least 185, to include DiMaggio and Mays):

	Name	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13
1	Barry Bonds	268	263	259	225	225	206	188	188
2	Babe Ruth	255	239	238	231	220	218	217	211	206	204	201	193	192
3	Ted Williams	238	233	216	215	205	201	191	189
4	Aaron Judge	225	215	210
5	Rogers Hornsby	222	210	207	202	191	187	185
6	Mickey Mantle	221	210	206	195	188
7	Lou Gehrig	220	206	203	194	193	190
8	Mark McGwire	216	196
9	Frank Thomas	212
10	Ty Cobb	209	207	200	196	194	194	193	190	185

...

40	Shotei Ohtani	187	185
40	Jim Gentile	187
42	Ralph Kiner	186	185
42	Joe Morgan	186
42	Willie Stargell	186	185
42	John Olerud	186
42	Manny Ramirez	186	184
42	Mookie Betts	186
48	Joe DiMaggio	185	184
48	Willie Mays	185
48	Mike Piazza	185
48	Edgar Martinez	185
	Name	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13

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