Aaron Judge locked up the MVP with this stat no matter what Cal Raleigh truthers say

New York Yankees fans are sick of hearing the arguments. The ways some in the national media and on social media are desperately trying to fabricate a debate between Aaron Judge and Cal Raleigh for who is most deserving of the AL MVP are getting out of hand.

Whether it's FOX's subliminal message propaganda or Justin Verlander's little brother going out and claiming that if you're looking at stats "you're missing the entire point" in defense of Cal Raleigh's candidacy, the rhetoric is off the rails.

By whatever statistical metric other than home runs and RBI, Judge is the clear winner. If it's intangibles you want, the Yankee captain had the best month of his season in September with a 1.292 OPS and was instrumental in snapping the club out of their summer doldrums, avoiding the fate that befell the crosstown Mets. Read that again. Judge posted a higher OPS in September than he did in the season's opening month when he batted .427. Hard to argue that playing your best baseball, at a level no one else can reach, with your team's season on the line, isn't MVP worthy.

There's another argument to be made for Judge. One that should put the entire debate to bed for good. Finally. Simply put, it's an accomplishment few in baseball have ever been able to reach.

This stat should secure Yankees star Aaron Judge's second consecutive AL MVP trophy

A lot has been made about power in this debate. Judge finished the year with 53 home runs. Raleigh hit a historic 60. Case closed, right? Not even close. In 2017, Aaron Judge also made home run history, crushing 52 long balls and setting the record for most homers by a rookie. He lost the MVP that year to batting champ Jose Altuve, who posted a .346 average while hitting 28 fewer dingers than Judge.

That year, we were told batting average mattered. Judge hit a respectable .284 in 2017. Raleigh hit just .247 this season. So, sometimes it's power that matters, while other times it's contact ability. Totally logical to flip-flop so hard, right?

But what if you have both? What if you can put up elite power production while winning a batting title? Well, Judge did just that, posting a league-leading .331 average. With that, he joins a club that has only two other members.

There you have it. With the 2025 regular season in the books, Judge has become just the third player in MLB history to hit at least 50 homers and win a batting crown. The first man to do it was Jimmie Fox back in 1938. The last, before Judge, was Mickey Mantle nearly 60 years ago in 1956. These two legends are inner circle Hall of Famers, and Judge is the only other member of their club.

Why settle for a stellar batting average or elite power when you can have both? That's the case for Aaron Judge, and it is open and shut. If he doesn't take home the hardware, it will be a travesty, perhaps even greater than the robbery that was 2017.