Best Aaron Judge-Cal Raleigh MVP argument surfaces, but still doesn't hold weight

The baseball world has had a few days to digest New York Yankees superstar Aaron Judge winning his third MVP, but some people still aren't having it. The idea that Seattle Mariners star Cal Raleigh had the best season for a catcher ever, yet still fell short of Judge, continues to bother fans and pundits alike, including popular sportscaster Dan Patrick.

On a new episode of The Dan Patrick Show, Patrick set up an interesting theoretical situation to argue that Raleigh deserved MVP. While it was a more compelling stance than other pro-Raleigh arguments, it still wasn't completely convincing.

Dan Patrick says Cal Raleigh would have won AL MVP in 2025 if he was playing for the Yankees

"Here's the question I would ask when Yankee fans get sensitive about this," Patrick said. "If Aaron Judge was on Seattle, and Cal Raleigh was on the Yankees, who wins MVP? And that's a rhetorical question because we know that Cal Raleigh, as catcher of the Yankees ... and he is a Gold Glove catcher ... he is gonna be your MVP."

"Cal Raleigh plays the most important position in baseball," Patrick continued. "Look at that pitching staff (in Seattle). He helped develop a very good, young pitching staff. ... But I think the hammer is, if Cal Raleigh was the catcher for the Yankees hitting 60 home runs, winning the division, developing a young pitching staff, being a Gold Glove catcher, he wins the MVP."

"I just think you gotta factor in where Cal Raleigh was doing this," Patrick said. "And the importance of doing it in a big market. Now, (Shohei) Ohtani could play anywhere and still win the MVP ... but I think Cal Raleigh, to me, location is what prevented him from winning the MVP ... Doing it in a Yankee uniform? They'd have a monument built for him already."

There are a couple of flaws in Patrick's thesis here. To get the small one out of the way first, Raleigh wasn't a Gold Glove catcher in 2025. But the more important point is this. The premise that smaller-market teams like the Mariners are dwarfed in visibility by a club like the Yankees might still apply to fans, but it doesn't hold as much weight when you apply it to the 30 voters for AL MVP, which are baseball writers spread across each of the league's 15 cities, two apiece.

Moreover, voting results showed that there wasn't an AL East bias in Judge's favor, nor was there an AL West bias in Raleigh's.

Writers representing both of those divisions were split down the middle (5-5) on the Judge-Raleigh decision, whereas AL Central voters sided 7-3 in favor of Judge, which ended up being the difference.

Patrick's argument is based on a false premise, as if MLB writers are limited by regional cable packages (is this the 1980s?) and aren't capable of accessing games or coverage of players outside of their geographical market. That's simply not the reality of the digital age we live in, especially if you are a writer whose job is to cover professional baseball -- you'll follow all players (especially the best ones), regardless of what city they play in.

If there was legitimate Yankee favoritism happening with this MVP race, the vote tallies wouldn't have been nearly as close as they were. Judge had the superior season, with Raleigh right on his heels, and the voting results reflected an unbiased, fully knowledgeable panel of MLB writers (who watched both players closely all season long) coming to that collective conclusion.