Cal Raleigh edges Aaron Judge for Baseball Digest player of the year

NEW YORK (AP) — Cal Raleigh won the Baseball Digest/Inside Edge major league player of the year award Friday, narrowly beating out Aaron Judge.

The switch-hitting catcher from the Seattle Mariners, who became the seventh player to hit 60 home runs in a season, received 12 of 24 first-place votes and finished with 56 points in balloting by a panel of baseball writers and broadcasters that included several former players, managers and executives.

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Judge was chosen first on eight ballots, and the New York Yankees outfielder garnered 53 points. Los Angeles Dodgers two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani got the other four first-place votes and came in a distant third.

Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes was selected pitcher of the year by a wide margin over Detroit Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal, and Boston Red Sox closer Aroldis Chapman was a runaway winner for reliever of the year.

In addition to leading the majors in homers, Raleigh topped the American League with 125 RBIs while batting .247 with a .948 OPS for the AL West champion Mariners.

He shattered MLB records for home runs by a catcher and switch-hitter, and broke the Seattle single-season mark previously held by Hall of Fame outfielder Ken Griffey Jr.

Raleigh joined Alex Rodriguez (1996) as the only Mariners players to win the Baseball Digest award.

Judge, who edged Ohtani by two points for last year’s prize, led the majors in batting average (.331) and OPS (1.144) while finishing second in runs scored (137). He had 53 homers and 114 RBIs.

Raleigh and Judge are expected to run 1-2 in some order in what could be another close vote for AL MVP when results are announced next month.

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