Since Mike Trout’s calf injury in 2021, the baseball world has only celebrated Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani as global representatives of the game. But the 2025 season changed everything. Seattle’s catcher, Cal Raleigh, stepped into that spotlight, or better to say, came to snatch that spotlight.

After hitting 34 homers last season, the “Big Dumper” led the league with 60 home runs as the first-ever catcher in the league, and AL leading 125 RBIs. Raleigh, who was already an elite catcher and won the franchise’s first Platinum Glove in 2024, became the first catcher in MLB history to hit 60 homers and even broke Mickey Mantle’s record for a switch-hitter. And Aaron Judge, who was the undisputed king of the American League until this season?

The Yankees captain is as good as ever. Judge won the AL batting title with a .331 average and smashed 53 dingers and drove in 114 runs even after missing a few games due to injury. His advanced stats were on another planet, as with 1.145 OPS and 215 OPS+, he led all of baseball. This set up a classic MVP debate where the Baseball World was divided between two questions. Was Raleigh’s historic 60 home runs more valuable? Or was Judge’s superior all-around offensive production more valuable?

And this debate exploded during the ALCS Game 5 against Toronto when Raleigh’s game-tying homer in the bottom of the eighth innings, his fourth in the postseason, sparked a Seattle offense that ended at a 6-2 lead after Eugenio Suraez’s grand slam and eventual win for the team. The popular X account, TalkinBaseball, tweeted a new “record” after the game. It said, “Cal Raleigh has 64 homers in the regular season and postseason combined, tying Aaron Judge’s American League record that he set in 2022.” 

It suggested Raleigh’s 60 regular-season homers plus 4 playoff homers equaled Judge’s 62 regular-season homers and 2 postseason homers that he smashed during 2022 when the Yankees fell to the then World Series champion Houston Astros in the ALCS in a four-game sweep. But the fan didn’t take that gladly. They argued that postseason home runs never count toward regular-season records. Baseball’s official rules confirm this. So, Postseason stats have their own category, and they felt

This new record was disrespectful to Judge’s record

The most common reaction was from the fans who felt it was a sudden attempt to change history. “Why are we trying to make this a thing now where we count postseason homers for season records? It’s never been that way.” Baseball’s official rules, like Rule 9.22, are built around the 162-game “scheduled league” season. This makes sure every player has the same chance.

So one fan sarcastically said, “Why don’t we count homerun derby too? Might as well if we’re gonna do this nonsense.” They simply pointed out other events where players hit home runs. If playoff homers count, why stop there? And another fan even noted what about all the home runs hit before the season even starts? They asked, “Are we going to start counting ST (Spring Training) homers next year?”

So, one fan summed it up perfectly, “Stupid stat. Way more games played now. For most of the history of baseball, there was no playoffs. It was the top team in each league went to the World Series – the end.” This is a sharp observation. From 1903 to 1968, a player could only play in the World Series. That meant a max of seven or eight extra games. Today, Cal Raleigh can play in over 20. So, it is basically an apples-to-oranges comparison.

Finally, some comments showed the real pain behind the debate. “That’s not exactly how it works but okay.” This fan knows Judge’s 62 is the real record. But the “but okay” is full of frustration.  The Yankees were eliminated from the playoffs after dropping 4 back to back games in the ALCS in Judge’s historic season. They lost the 2024 World Series. And they just lost in the ALDS… to the Blue Jays. Meanwhile, Raleigh’s Mariners are now one win from their first World Series. Judge may be the record holder, but Raleigh is the one winning when it matters most.