Aaron Judge named 2025 American League MVP: Yankees slugger beats Mariners' Cal Raleigh in tight award race
This marks Judge's second MVP award in a row and third of his career
By
Mike Axisa
•
2 min read
For the second straight season, New York Yankees captain Aaron Judge has been named the American League's Most Valuable Player. Judge beat out Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh and Cleveland Guardians third baseman José Ramírez for the award, the BBWAA announced Thursday night.
As the voting results show, it was a close race between Judge and Raleigh:
| Player | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aaron Judge, Yankees | 17 | 13 | 355 | ||||||||
| Cal Raleigh, Mariners | 13 | 17 | 335 | ||||||||
| José Ramírez, Guardians | 19 | 6 | 5 | 224 | |||||||
| Bobby Witt Jr., Royals | 9 | 19 | 1 | 1 | 215 | ||||||
| Tarik Skubal, Tigers | 1 | 2 | 7 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 139 | ||||
| Julio Rodríguez, Mariners | 1 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 136 | ||||
| George Springer, Blue Jays | 1 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 125 | ||||
| Garrett Crochet, Red Sox | 1 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 74 | ||||
| Junior Caminero, Rays | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 37 | ||||
| Jeremy Peña, Astros | 4 | 7 | 6 | 32 | |||||||
| Byron Buxton, Twins | 3 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 30 | ||||||
| Nick Kurtz, Athletics | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 29 | |||||
| Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Blue Jays | 1 | 1 | 3 | 14 | |||||||
| Cody Bellinger, Yankees | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | |||||||
| Maikel Garcia, Royals | 3 | 1 | 7 | ||||||||
| Bo Bichette, Blue Jays | 1 | 1 | 5 | ||||||||
| Riley Greene, Tigers | 1 | 1 | 3 | ||||||||
| Aroldis Chapman, Red Sox | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Yandy Díaz, Rays | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Jacob Wilson, Athletics | 1 | 1 |
This is Judge's second straight MVP and the third of his career (he also won in 2022). He is the 13th player with three MVPs. Only Barry Bonds (seven) and Shohei Ohtani (four), who won this year's National League MVP, have more. Judge is the fourth Yankee with three MVPs, joining Hall of Famers Joe DiMaggio (1939, 1941, 1947), Yogi Berra (1951, 1954-55), and Mickey Mantle (1956-57, 1962).
He joins Shohei Ohtani, the Dodgers superstar who won National League MVP.
Judge slashed .331/.457/.688 this season and led baseball in batting average by 20 points, on-base percentage by 58 points, and slugging percentage by 66 points. His 53 home runs were second in the AL behind Raleigh's 60. Judge's 9.7 WAR was 1.7 wins better than the next best player, per Baseball Reference's calculations.
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Raleigh had a historic season and in fact is the first player other than Judge and Ohtani to receive a first-place AL MVP vote since José Abreu won the award in 2020. His 60 home runs are a new single-season record for a catcher, for a switch-hitter, and for a Seattle Mariner. Raleigh is one of only seven players with a 60-homer season.
All told, Raleigh hit .247/.359/.589 and led the AL with 125 RBI, and also in games started at catcher (119) and innings caught (1,072). FanGraphs WAR, which includes catcher framing, pegs Raleigh as a 9.1 WAR player in 2025. That is third among all players behind Judge (10.1) and Ohtani (9.4). In just about any other year, Raleigh wins AL MVP with ease.
Ramírez has finished in the top five of the MVP voting six times now, though he has yet to win the award. He had another tremendous season, hitting .283/.360/.503 with 30 home runs and 44 stolen bases. It was Ramírez's second straight and third career 30-30 season. His 5.8 WAR was sixth among AL position players.
Voting for the BBWAA's awards (Rookie of the Year, Manager of the Year, Cy Young, MVP) takes place before the postseason. They are regular-season awards.
