"You’re not the MVP" - Cal Raleigh’s "historic" run downplayed by MLB insider despite topping Aaron Judge in HR race

Cal Raleigh hit two home runs in the Seattle Mariners' 12-3 win over the Detroit Tigers on Friday. The catcher who has been making headlines is one home run short of Barry Bonds' 39-homer mark, the most in MLB before the All-Star game.

Raleigh is arguably having the best offensive season by a catcher in MLB history. He has hit 38 home runs in 92 games with 81 RBIs and a .264 batting average. In any other season, that would have been enough to be named as the best at the halfway mark.

However, Jayson Stark of The Athletic thinks Yankees captain Aaron Judge should be the unanimous AL MVP before the All-Star break. Judge is projected to hit a .360/.468/.737 slash line with 60 home runs, 146 runs, 136 RBIs, and 103 extra base-hits. That would be one home run more than Yankees legend Babe Ruth, who had a scintillating 1921 season from the plate.

Apart from the home runs, the Mariners slugger only beats him in RBIs, Judge having 79, boosted by Raleigh's five-RBI game, including a grand slam on Friday night.

Stark apologized for not choosing Raleigh over the Bombers' slugger, despite a "historic" season.

"So sorry, Cal," Stark wrote. "Your year is awesome. Your year is special. Your year is historic. But you’re not the MVP. There will be people out there who want to reward the sweet-swinging catcher in our midst. I get it.

"I respect you all. Just understand that you’d be finding a reason not to vote for a man unfurling one of the most spectacular seasons ever by a human not named Babe Ruth."

MLB insider dishes out Cal Raleigh-like treatment to Pete Crow-Armstrong

Like Aaron Judge, Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani is the frontrunner for the National League MVP. And like Cal Raleigh, he has a first-time competitor in the form of the Chicago Cubs' Pete Crow-Armstrong.

The Cubs outfielder has had a remarkable season, becoming just the third player in MLB history to hit 25 home runs and 25 stolen bases before the All-Star break. Even Ohtani, who had a 50-50 season last year, had 26 home runs and 23 stolen bases before the All-Star break. But as per Stark, Ohtani is still the front runner.

"So I, too, went into this process practically looking for reasons to argue that, say, Pete Crow-Armstrong was the real NL MVP in 2025. But sorry. There just aren’t enough of them," he wrote.

Shohei Ohtani outpaces PCA in OBP, SLG, and OPS and has been on base 65 more times. He has seven more home runs, leading the National League and is on pace to get 153 runs from the leadoff position.