The American League's Most Valuable Player award is expected to be the hardest pick for analysts and writers as they have to distinguish between two superlative seasons from the New York Yankees' Aaron Judge and the Seattle Mariners' Cal Raleigh.On Saturday, Cal Raleigh hit his 57th home run of the season against the Houston Astros, passing Ken Griffey Jr. in the all-time list for most HRs by a Mariner in the history of the franchise. He has also passed Mickey Mantle for the most home runs hit as a switch-hitter. He also leads the American League in RBIs with 129.As per MLB Network analysts Mark DeRosa and Yonder Alonso, if Raleigh reaches a particular number of home runs, that should secure the MVP award for him. For DeRosa, the number is 62, which would tie Aaron Judge's American League record set in 2022. For Alons,o the number is even lower at 60, which would make Raleigh the eighth person in MLB history to do so. View this post on Instagram Instagram PostThe arguments presented in Judge's favor are that, except for home runs and RBIs, he leads in every other batting metric, including the stat line, OPS, hits and walks. While both are miles ahead of the American League average, the Yankees captain is a runaway leader everywhere.The one defining factor has been in defense, where Raleigh plays as a catcher, the hardest position in baseball. Aaron Judge has primarily played in center field, while also having brief stints as the Yankees' Designated Hitter when he was undergoing a rehab spell from injury.While hitting home runs shouldn't be the sole metric for judgment, Aaron Judge did win the 2022 American League MVP after hitting 62 home runs, which were enough to eclipse a superlative two-way season from Shohei Ohtani, then part of the Los Angeles Angels. Yankees bench coach weighs heavily in favour of Aaron Judge's MVPIn an appearance on MLB Network Radio, Yankees bench coach Brad Ausmus made a strong case for Aaron Judge to win the MVP. Ausmus further weighed in as a former 3x Gold Glove winning shortstop.“I understand, as a former catcher, Cal Raleigh is having an unbelievable year as a catcher,” Ausmus said. “[He's] certainly deserving of MVP votes, but I actually don’t think it’s close. I saw, and you may have seen it, a tweet a few days ago that said if you subtracted 180 OPS points from Aaron Judge, he’d be Cal Raleigh. And if you subtracted 180 points from Cal Raleigh, he’d be an average major league player.”So, I don’t think it’s close. I think when you really look into the numbers, Judge, he’s got him, and [Raleigh] has had a phenomenal year ... He just happens to be playing in a year where Aaron Judge has been phenomenal.”Both teams' success could also determine their stars' MVP candidature. Currently the Yankees are in the AL Wild Card spots while the Mariners have leapfrogged the Astros to move to first place in the AL West.