Passan shares unique factor that may help Cal Raleigh’s MVP case

After he walloped his league-leading 32nd home run of the season Monday night, the chants of “MVP” started pouring in for Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh.

Those chants weren’t coming from a home crowd at T-Mobile Park, but instead from fans at Target Field in Minneapolis.

Mariners’ Julio Rodríguez has a mentality with Raleigh hitting behind him

Raleigh is on a historic home run pace this season. He’s on track to shatter MLB records for catchers and switch-hitters, plus break the American League record. And it was evident from those chants in Minneapolis – and the same ones that were heard in Chicago over the weekend – that the rest of the country is starting to take notice.

Has Raleigh finally done enough to make himself the AL MVP front runner over Yankees slugger Aaron Judge? ESPN MLB insider Jeff Passan told Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk on Tuesday that Raleigh hasn’t quite reached that threshold yet.

“I’m not there yet, and that says something considering just how great Cal Raleigh has been,” Passan said. “If we’re going to do this, baseball makes it very easy. And I understand it’s not all about numbers specifically, but Aaron Judge is hitting almost 100 points higher, Aaron Judge is getting on base 80 points higher and Aaron Judge has a 70-point lead in in slugging percentage. Just across the board, the numbers are significantly better.”

Raleigh has four more home runs that Judge this season and six more RBIs, but as Passan noted, Judge leads Raleigh in many significant offensive categories. Judge, who leads the AL in batting average, has a .367/.468/.734 slash line and a 1.202 OPS. Meanwhile, Raleigh is slashing .278/.383/.665 with a 1.048 OPS.

Passan said that if Raleigh is able to tighten the OPS gap between himself and Judge, that the catcher has a “really excellent case” for MVP.

“I am not taking a single thing away from Cal Raleigh,” Passan said. “I acknowledge his superior defense. I acknowledge how difficult it is to play catcher every day, and to do so at the volume he’s doing it is absolutely absurd. All those things warrant consideration in this case. But to me, the numbers offensively just need to be a little bit closer than they are in terms of the metrics as opposed to the counting stats.”

Judge is still the AL MVP at the moment in Passan’s opinion, but he feels there is a unique factor that could help Raleigh’s case.

“Despite what everybody thinks about East Coast bias, about New York media, about all the rigamarole there, people love Cal Raleigh, man,” Passan said. “They love Cal Raleigh. They love to say Big Dumper. They love to watch his home runs fly from both sides the plate.

“I don’t think that he’s going to have a narrative problem in the same way that others going up against the king of New York might have otherwise. The Cal Raleigh narrative right now is about as good as it gets.”

Hear the full conversation at this link or in the audio player near the top of this story. Tune in to Brock and Salk weekdays from 6-10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app. 

More Seattle Mariners coverage

• Cal Raleigh’s latest home run sets multiple records
• Ahead of trade deadline, M’s fans should be rooting against D-backs
• Watch: Seattle Mariners keep home run surge going against the Twins
• Red-hot Seattle Mariners prospect Colt Emerson wins POTW honors
• Seattle Mariners promoting two prospects ranked in MLB’s top 100

Related

Seahawks’ big concern going into season is kicker Jason MyersSalk: Leonard Williams sets his path to being a Seahawks ROH memberBrock & Salk: Leonard Williams deal ‘great news’ for SeahawksBaldinger: How Seahawks’ defense can continue to evolvePassan: What stood out about Mariners rookie pitcher Kade AndersonWhy you should still buy the Mariners as a playoff team