As the Mariners prepare to face the Blue Jays in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series, star catcher Cal Raleigh will be tasked with trying to lead Seattle to their first World Series appearance in franchise history. The Mariners are the only team in MLB that have not made the World Series once, and one of four teams that have yet to win the title.
Regardless of the outcome of Monday’s game and the ALCS, Raleigh will remain in contention to win his first MVP award, and become the first catcher since 2012 to claim the award.
Raleigh is in a close race with Yankees star Aaron Judge, who is also a strong contender to take home the AL MVP award this year. If Raleigh were to defeat Judge, he would become the 13th catcher in MLB history to win the award, and this would mark the 19th time a catcher has claimed the award.
Before the MVP winner is announced following the conclusion of the 2025 postseason, here’s a look at how Raleigh’s season stacks next to every other MVP-winning catcher.
This season, Raleigh has slashed .247/.359/.589 for 147 hits, 110 runs, 60 home runs and 125 RBIs, reaching new career-highs in practically every statistic. Raleigh’s top competitor, Judge, slashed .331/.457/.688 with 179 hits, 137 runs, 53 home runs and 114 RBIs. He posted an OPS of 1.144 and a 9.7 WAR.
Raleigh led all of MLB in home runs and led the AL in RBIs. Judge led MLB in WAR, OPS, on-base percentage, slug rate and batting average and led the AL in runs. Raleigh finished second to Judge in WAR.
Player
Year
Batting Average
Home Runs
RBIs
OPS
WAR
Cal Raleigh
2025
.247
60
125
.948
7.3
Below is a list of every catcher that has won the MVP award. Notably, the first two catchers to win MVP, Bob O’Farrell in 1926 and Mickey Cochrane in 1928, won those awards when prior award winners were not allowed to win MVP again. This would change in 1931, when the Baseball Writers’ Association of America took over the voting for the award.
Player
Year
Batting Average
Home Runs
RBIs
OPS
WAR
Bob O’Farrell
1926
.293
7
68
.804
3.4
Mickey Cochrane
1928
.293
10
57
.859
3.4
Mickey Cochrane*
1934
.320
2
76
.840
3.7
Gabby Hartnett
1935
.344
13
91
.949
4.8
Ernie Lombardi
1938
.342
19
95
.915
5.3
Yogi Berra
1951
.294
27
88
.842
4.5
Roy Campanella
1951
.325
33
108
.983
6.3
Roy Campanella
1953
.312
41
142
1.006
6.8
Yogi Berra
1954
.307
22
125
.855
5.0
Yogi Berra
1955
.272
27
108
.819
4.2
Roy Campanella
1955
.318
32
107
.978
5.0
Elston Howard
1963
.287
28
85
.869
5.0
Johnny Bench
1970
.293
45
148
.932
7.1
Johnny Bench
1972
.270
40
125
.920
8.5
Thurman Munson
1976
.302
17
105
.769
5.0
Iván Rodríguez
1999
.332
35
113
.914
6.1
Joe Mauer
2009
.365
28
96
1.031
7.6
Buster Posey
2012
.336
24
103
.957
7.2
*Mickey Cochrane served as a player-manager for the Tigers in 1934, becoming the first rookie manager to record 100 wins in a season.
Of every catcher who has won MVP, Raleigh holds the largest edge in home runs. Raleigh broke the single-season record for most home runs by a catcher in a season with 60, 12 more than any other catcher has hit in one year. Raleigh’s RBI total is tied for third among catchers that have won MVP, trailing only Johnny Bench and Roy Campanella. Both his OPS and WAR are also in the upper half of catchers that have taken home MVP.
Raleigh has a significantly lower batting average than every other catcher to win MVP. Over half the catchers hit above .300 when they won MVP, but Raleigh would be the only catcher to hit below .270 with his .243 average this season.
If Raleigh were to win the award, he would join Mauer and Posey as one of three catchers to win the award this century. Raleigh hit more than double the home runs either Mauer and Posey hit in their MVP-winning seasons, and also bests them in RBIs. Mauer and Posey both hold the advantage in batting average and OPS.
Notably, 10 of the 12 catchers to win MVP have also won at least one World Series in their careers, all but Mauer and Hartnett. With a win Monday, Raleigh maintains his chance to win MVP and the World Series in the same season.
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