The 2025 AL MVP Hater's Ball

It’s Friday, and the weather in the PNW is god awful. It has rained more than an inch the past 24 hours, the sun is barely denting the grayness of the skyline, and holiday pressure is begging to mount. That’s not a problem for you though, is it? You’re already super prepared, right?

Making things worse, the AL MVP vote did not go the way we as Mariner fans hoped. We’re not going to lambast the BBWAA here. These awards are hard, and the vast majority of the voters take the responsibility very seriously. Still, we need to say something about it.

Last night the 2025 American League’s Most Valuable Player award went to New York Yankees “outfielder” Aaron Judge. It was the third win for Judge, on the back of an offensive performance that borders on the historically obscene.

Nipping at his heels in a close second was the intrepid hero of our tale, California “Cal” Raleigh. It was an incredibly close vote, with Judge receiving 17 first place votes to Raleigh’s 13. Neither player received a third place vote, and no other player received a vote higher than third. Here ya go:

While I’m disappointed for Cal, it’s hard to feel any acute grievance. This was not a miscarriage of justice like, say, 1996 Alex Rodriguez and Ken Griffey Jr. losing out to literally Juan Gonzales and his 3.5 fWAR. By practically every measure old and new (besides one) Judge had the advantage offensively.

He’s a terrific hitter; one of the greatest of all-time, and 2025 is one of his greatest seasons. Raleigh’s case came down to how you valued his defensive position relative to Judge’s, and how cool you thought it was to see a switch-hitting catcher hit 60 home runs.

I would have been thrilled had Raleigh won the award. He deserved it. So did Aaron Judge. In a perfect world they’d share the crown. This is - spoiler alert here - not a perfect world.

ANYWAY, we here at Light Bat HQ are mostly interested in breaking down the vote to determine just who is doing the most hating. Hating is sports fandom at its purest. It uses data and logic but is not beholden to them. It will merely shape them to serve whatever needs the hating has at any given time.

To that end we have broken down the MVP vote by city and, based on how Raleigh and Judge performed respectively against that city’s teams, determined just how much hater-ass hating is going on across these United States*.

*And Toronto

A few notes:

-There are millions upon millions of people in Texas whose spirit and character are not reflected by the state’s most annoying stereotypes. We’d love to meet one of them someday.

-Minnesota I am sorry that we have Scandanavian heritage here and access to the sea. You don’t have to be so passive aggressive about your feelings of inadequacy.

-The committee recognizes and appreciates the closer a city is in relation to New York the more that city’s voters were inclined to let hatred fuel a vote for Cal. BBWAA members of Boston, Baltimore and, yes, even New York. We see that hate, and we honor it.

In conclusion: The 2025 AL MVP result was disappointing but predictable and not unjust. We nonethless would like to petition NYC Mayor-elect Mamdani to institute a new “MVP Tax” that applies only to Aaron Judge; the funds of which can help pay for his many progressive policies, and hopefully drive Aaron to join all the massive swath of NYC elite who will start fleeing the city, uh, any day now.

Imagine Aaron Judge in Boston whites. Boy oh boy, could be cool!