From home runs to home-field advantage, Cal Raleigh and Aaron Judge have been facing off throughout this MLB season for the American League’s most valuable player (MVP) award.

Judge, a 6’7 outfielder for the New York Yankees, already holds two MVP awards under his belt at 33 years old. As the Seattle Mariners’ prodigal catcher, Raleigh is immensely talented, as well, holding a Platinum Glove title as well as a Golden Glove award. For the 2025 season, the title of the American League’s MVP was earned by Aaron Judge.

What stats made the final deciding fact?

For Judge, in 541 at-bats, he had 179 hits, making his batting average impressive at .331. With the median batting average in Major League Baseball sitting at .243, this puts him well ahead of the curve. Defensively, he spent 95 of his games playing right field and the other 56 as the designated hitter. With 822 innings played, he had 203 total chances with a whopping 201 putouts and only 1 error. An understandingly stellar performance, he had a fielding percentage of .995. Judge was ranked 4th in home runs this season with a tally of 53 out-of-the-park hits.

As a Platinum Glove recipient in 2024, Raleigh was named the best player in the American League. This season, his stats skyrocketed, setting multiple records for the Seattle Mariners. At 28 years old, he’s number one in the MLB for home runs this year, with 60 in the regular season, followed by 6 more in the postseason. With a batting average of .247, he’s right in the average of the league, but his swing strength is anything but average. As one of the best catchers statistically, with 1072 innings played this past year, he threw out 21 runners this year with four errors made. But his defensive average is slightly higher than Judge’s, sitting at .996.

There has been tension throughout the postseason, with Mariner and Yankee fans anxiously waiting for results. Some non-Seattle fans were upset with the awarding, saying that Raleigh was more valuable to his team than Judge was to New York.

Padres’ fan and senior Kellen Thompson said, “It should’ve gone to Raleigh.”