Hayden Braun, Contributing Writer<\/p>\n
Seattle Mariners player Cal Raleigh, also known as \u201cBig Dumper,\u201d is in the midst of the best catcher season of all time, passing Salvador Perez\u2019s 48-home run season from 2021, according to The Sporting News<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Raleigh leads the league in home runs with 53 at the time of writing, according to the MLB<\/a>. He is also the first catcher to win the home-run derby championship, adding to his historic season.<\/p>\n The big debate on who should be the American League\u2019s MVP is between Raleigh and New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge. Judge has the better numbers at bat in nearly every category, from batting average, on base percentage and slugging percentage, according to Stathead<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, people forget what being a catcher means. Raleigh is playing one of the most physically demanding positions in baseball, in which offensive output is not necessarily a must. He is putting up elite numbers in homers, RBIs and on-base percentage plus slugging percentage (OPS), being top 10 in each of his categories while catching in over 100 games, according to the MLB<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Raleigh also has so much positional value as Wins Above Replacement<\/a> (WAR) heavily favors catchers who hit. He is posting a top-tier WAR while anchoring the defense, and that alone should give him an edge. Raleigh is top 10 in seasonal WAR and No. 2 in offensive WAR.\u00a0<\/p>\n Judge is not carrying that defensive load or managing a pitching staff like Raleigh. MVP stands for \u201cmost valuable player,\u201d it is not just a statistical award. While stats have some influence, they are not the sole factor.\u00a0<\/p>\n Raleigh has been the key piece in the Mariners\u2019 playoff push this season, who sit No. 2 in the American League West, and hold the No. 6 in the American League.\u00a0<\/p>\n There is a narrative edge to Raleigh winning AL MVP. Writers love a story, and a switch-hitting catcher leading the Mariners\u2019 playoff push would get massive attention. There have only been 12 catchers to win MVP<\/a> since the award was first introduced, and if Raleigh wins he could be the 13th catcher all time to take the title.\u00a0<\/p>\n Raleigh can still write history, even with the season coming to an end. Less than 21 games remain before the playoffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n Raleigh still has a chance to reach 60 home runs. This would be an AL record, allowing him to smash one of if not both of Judge\u2019s home-run records \u2014 58 in 2024 and 62 in 2022. Raleigh still has a 32% chance of reaching 60 home runs at the time of writing, according to sabermetrics writer Dan Szymborski<\/a>.<\/p>\n Raleigh can also put out the greatest batting season by a Mariner ever if he passes Ken Griffey Jr.\u2019s 56 home-run record.\u00a0<\/p>\n As much as Cal Raleigh deserves the MVP award, his historic season has already redefined what it means to be an elite catcher. Judge may have the better batting average, but Raleigh\u2019s value is measured in more than just statistics \u2014 it is measured through leadership and endurance.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Mariners have a good chance at making it to the playoffs in October, and if MVP truly stands for most valuable player, then the award should go to Cal \u201cBig Dumper\u201d Raleigh.\u00a0<\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n Post navigation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hayden Braun, Contributing Writer Seattle Mariners player Cal Raleigh, also known as \u201cBig Dumper,\u201d is in the midst…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":["post-146395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}