What a finish!
One would have to admit the 2025 baseball season has given new meaning to “meaningful games in September.” Going into the last weekend, no fewer than six teams — the Mets, Tigers, Reds, Guardians, Astros and Diamondbacks — were all still engaged in “must win” games to avoid elimination.
And at the same time, Aaron Judge and Cal Raleigh were each continually making history, seemingly with every swing of the bat, in a spirited down-to-the-wire duel for American League Most Valuable Player.
How did all this late season drama come about?
We start with the Tigers who were in first place in the AL Central from April 1 until Sept. 24, leading by as many as 15 1/2 games on July 8 over the Guardians (14 over the Twins and Royals), the team that ultimately caught them. It’s been an epic collapse for sure — the blown 14-game division lead tied the ’78 Red Sox for biggest ever — but if you look closer maybe it wasn’t quite so surprising.
From the get-go the Tigers had a flawed lineup, way too many strikeouts with nobody (a la Judge, Raleigh, Jose Ramirez, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bobby Witt Jr.) who really scared you. Their best player, Riley Greene, leads the AL with 199 strikeouts. In addition, there’s a dramatic drop-off in quality from Tarik Skubal and the rest of the starting rotation, their bullpen was just average with no high strikeout relievers and they made no improvements at the trade deadline.
When it comes to collapses, though, the Mets did a pretty good job of rivaling the Tigers — they were 45-24 and leading the NL East by 5 ½ games on June 12, before going 37-54 up until the weekend, losing seven straight games in both June and August and eight straight in September. Their starting pitching became a mess with only the too-late arriving rookie Nolan McLean turning in consistently strong outings. On top of that, baseball ops chief David Stearns had a terrible trade deadline, grossly overpaying for rental relievers Tyler Rogers (who’s been so-so at best) and Ryan Helsley (who’s been mostly awful).
On a lesser level, the Blue Jays, who were generally acknowledged to be the best team in the weak AL — a team that put the ball in play, played superb defense and had deep starting pitching — were leading AL East by five games over the Yankees on Sept. 15 before disaster struck when two of their starting pitchers Chris Bassitt (lower back) and Jose Berrios (sore elbow) went down for the rest of the regular season. On top of that, 41-year-old Max Scherzer was pounded for 21 earned runs in his last five September starts and looks to be finished, while their mainstay shortstop Bo Bichette, who still leads the AL in hits, was sidelined for the rest of the season Sept. 6 by a sprained knee. Good thing they got Shane Bieber from the Guardians at the deadline.
With seven losses in eight games — at the same time the Yankees found a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow with four games against the pitiful, pitching-poor White Sox – the Blue Jay lead had vanished.
As for the Judge-Raleigh MVP race, if you were voting off pure overall statistics, Judge, who leads the league in batting, on-base pct., slugging, OPS, runs, walks and total bases — and will be only the third player in history (along with Jimmie Foxx in 1938 and Mickey Mantle in 1956) to win the batting title with 50 or more home runs — would have to be favorite, especially if this was the Player of the Year award — which it isn’t. And perhaps the biggest separation between Judge and Raleigh is the 80-something point differential in batting average and the fact that if Raleigh did win the MVP he would be the first AL winner to hit less than .250 (all the others were pitchers).
However, the term “most valuable” has always posed a quandary for the baseball writers, and in this race, if applied, it very well could level the field for Raleigh and maybe even give him the edge. To wit: When it comes to value to a team, it’s long been agreed the two most valuable positions on a team are shortstop and catcher. I would say especially the latter because of strenuous nature of the position and all the extra daily work required with the pitchers.
That said, Raleigh has already established the records for most homers in a season by a catcher (60 as of Saturday) and also by a switch hitter. The last time a catcher led the league in both homers and RBI — as Raleigh will this year— was 1970 and 1972 by Johnny Bench and both seasons he was voted National League MVP. Bench’s Reds also finished first both those years and that’s important because before Raleigh’s Mariners clinched the AL West last week they had not finished first since 2001.
Adding to his value, Raleigh has already caught a major league leading 120 games and will likely win a Gold Glove for his defense behind the plate. Which brings us to the other intangible when it comes to determining “most valuable”: Indispensability. If you took Raleigh off the Mariners for a significant amount of time would they will still win the AL West? Absolutely not. On the other hand, although the Yankees would likely not make the playoffs either without Judge for a long period of time, you could also make the case that no one, even Judge, was more indispensable to the Yankees with his all-around play this year than Cody Bellinger — and in short stints even Giancarlo Stanton.
IT’S A MADD, MADD WORLD
Amid all the talk about Cal Raleigh’s durability, it got us to thinking: What’s the record for most games caught in a season? The Elias Sports Bureau credits 160 by the Cubs’ Randy Hundley in 1968 and, with the introduction of the designated hitter five years later, you would have to believe that is one of baseball’s unbreakable records. … In contrast to the AL MVP, we’re prepared right now to bestow the NL MVP on the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani, who’s put together his second straight 50-homer season (54 as of Saturday) while leading the league in runs, slugging and OPS, and compiling a 2.87 ERA in 14 starts as a pitcher. It’s very possible Ohtani will prove even more valuable to the Dodgers in the postseason as a late-inning reliever to bolster their Achilles heel bullpen. Ohtani’s closest challenger, the Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber, leads in the NL in homers and RBI — but as a DH. I put no stock in the reports Mets owner Steve Cohen may make a run at Schwarber in the offseason. Just what the Mets need — another onerous long-term contract on a player who’ll be 33 in March, and besides, there’s no way Phillies owner John Middleton would let Schwarber walk — especially to the Mets.
