#MLBVideos: PREVIEW: 2025 AL MVP race! 👀 (Aaron Judge, Cal Raleigh, José Ramírez are the finalists!)

PREVIEW: 2025 AL MVP race! 👀 (Aaron Judge, Cal Raleigh, José Ramírez are the finalists!)

MVP between Cal Raleigh and Aaron Judge. What do you value in baseball? Let’s have a conversation. See you. He’s done it again. Number 60. I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer here. Judge does what Aaron Judge does against everybody. There she goes. The magical season continues for Cal Raleigh. Can we just acknowledge how fun this has been watching these two guys? It certainly was amazing. And finally, we will have the moment of truth tomorrow. The MVP finalist, Aaron Judge, Cal Raleigh, and oh, by the way, Jose Ramire has no one giving any love to him, but he had a fantastic season for the Guardians. But we all know it’s going to be Judge Ye versus Cal. I’ll be hosting that MVP show with Sean Casey and Tom Rucci. So, can’t wait to see it. And again, there’s no bias here, but Ryan does work for the Mariners. He does see Kyle Raleigh up close and personal. Hangs out with his entourage. Listen, Raleigh had an incredible season. Only the seventh player ever to hit 60 home runs, record for a catcher, record for switch hitters. Make the case why Kyle Raleigh should be the MVP. Well, you know, you mentioned some of the numbers in regards to the home run numbers. I felt like every night when we were in the booth calling games, there was another milestone that we had to make sure that we we covered every night. Then all of a sudden, you rolled in at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, there he is. He’s so involved with so many different elements with this team. And not to mention too, look, I I know there’s been enough of a narrative now where enough people have chimed in and said as a catcher, what he’s doing is historical. Um, and there’s so much more value there with how he he affects different parts of the team. But you got a situation where the the Mariners were built on starting pitching coming out of the gates. They didn’t go out in the offseason and add a whole lot offensively. The offense carried this team the first half of the year and a big reason why is for Cal Roelly the home run rates. Not to mention too you got Bryce Miller who talks about the impact he made on him late in the year in regards to being you know psychologically what he did for him. Brian Woo the year prior to that said listen man we need you. You can’t have these situations where you’re skipping starts or missing bullpens. He just does so much behind the scenes. I see it every single day. And you know Buck brought this up in the afternoon. You put catches gear on Aaron Judge behind the plate or Otani. What kind of offense are we talking then? It’s it’s just it’s historic and it’s you can’t be overlooked. There’s one other factor to consider when you’re making a case for him is the travel alone. Yeah. Can you Seattle as you know every time you get on a plane is three or four hours. Sometime it’s six hours and you I know talking Panella years ago what a what a challenge that was on the body day in and day out. But this guy I know Dan Wilson said if I led him he would catch 162 games. Okay. And he’s he’s part of everything and he takes that on. And also a switch hitter with numbers very close to the same left and right. What a skill that is alone. Can throw, maybe win a goal glove. I don’t know if anybody’s had more of an impactful uh season on his team and their success than Cal Raleigh. There’s the splits. By the way, speaking of the batting average certainly, he’s better from the right side, but the home runs, listen, he still has pop from both sides. The on base percentage to Bucks point only 11 point differential and he’s slugging 681 as a righty. Well, the the home runs per play appearance was actually better from the right side. This is something the last couple years, but to point too, you get to the the All-Star break, makes the All-Star team, he’s on that national stage, wins the home run derby. It’s very easy for them to look, okay, Mitch Gar, we need you to get behind the dish a little bit more. But they didn’t, you know, because Cal just wasn’t not willing to get, you know, back to to be a DH. He wanted to be behind the plate. He was pushing so hard to be a catcher for just all these little things that happened. I mean, the third most innings behind the dish. Yeah. No pass balls. Just some of the things that that are tough to really quantify up against Aaron. And I think he wanted to be there for his pitching staff. Yeah. You know, and not that he was knocking the the guy behind him, but you know, I said a long time ago, if you really want to know the value of a player, how does he impact his teammates? Does he make them better? And I think Cal Raleigh makes his teammates better. Raleigh caught 1,072 innings, third most in baseball, the most games started at catcher without a pass ball in the last 75 seasons, which is crazy. Having said all that, Buck, the MVP is going to be Aaron Judge. I hate to tell you, he led in every major statistical category. We’re talking like this is, you keep saying his story. How many games did he catch? Listen, he hit 331. Nobody hit over 315. He had the best war. He had the best OPS by almost 200 points. Like this is an unreal season this guy had. Nobody can have that kind of power and that kind of average than Aaron Jud. There’s not an argument with with these guys. This guy’s unbelievable. He’s one of the generational player and his contact to damage ratio is unbelievable. And he plays good defense and he throws well and he runs the bases well. It’s just it’s just a year where you actually have most years it’s like, okay, go ahead and give it to him. This is one of those rare years where you have to even think about there being a competition with Judge and uh and him. What’s the best case for Judge? Well, man, I mean, just purely, you know, numbers when you stack them up and you put them right next to each other with Cal, obviously Cal RBI’s and home runs, I get it. But when you, you know, dive, you don’t have to dive that deep to look and see how dominant he is on the number side. The other thing, too, with Aaron Judge, it’s pretty fascinating. Look, I know this is not his first time or second time. He’s been doing this year after year. You take one soda out of that lineup last year and all of a sudden it’s a completely different dynamic going into 2025. Yeah. But the numbers are actually better, especially some of the rates and everything else with the on base and everything around how much he impacts the guys up and down that lineup. Yeah, it’s it’s funny how the you think that this protection, oh, they got to have somebody protect him. He proves that wrong. That’s a great point because, you know, guys, I found that the anxiety that guys like him create in pitchers, they seem to make more mistakes to them. Okay, I can’t hang this breaking ball to him. Oh, I got to get this here. And the anxiety that guys like Judge create in pitchers, they actually leads to more mistakes. That’s a good point. A lot of sleepless nights. One more sleepless night for these guys until we find out who the MVP is.

Who will win the 2025 American League Most Valuable Player Award? @MLBNetwork breaks it down!

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