The New York Yankees are hoping the return of their captain can help keep the sky from falling entirely on their 2025 season, as the team has officially activated Aaron Judge from the Injured List ahead of Tuesday's game against the Texas Rangers. Judge suffered a flexor tendon strain two weeks ago, and is now back after a minimum 10-day stay on the IL as New York attempts to put an end to their four-game losing streak and hold on to their tenuous grasp on a Wild Card spot.
But while playoff positioning might be the most important thing riding on Judge's return, it's certainly not the only thing. This news also figures to have major implications on the race for AL MVP over the season's final two months, a race that got thrown back up in the air when Judge went down. But his main competition for the trophy, Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh, wasn't quite able to take advantage — and if Judge is back for good, he'll have a hard time making up the rest of the gap.
For more news and rumors, check out MLB Insider Robert Murray’s work on The Baseball Insiders podcast, subscribe to The Moonshot, our weekly MLB newsletter, and join the discord to get the inside scoop during the MLB season.
Cal Raleigh failed to take advantage of Aaron Judge injury in AL MVP race
Raleigh certainly hasn't been bad over the past couple of weeks. He's slashing .222/.263/.472 over his last nine games, adding three more homers to run his season total to an MLB-leading 42. But those numbers represent a pretty significant decline from his previous historic pace, especially in the OBP department. And unfortunately, that's how high Judge had set the bar before he went on the IL late last month.
Raleigh has put a bit of distance between he and Judge in the race for the AL home-run crown. But the Yankees outfielder still holds an appreciable gap in most of the categories that MVP voters are likely to consider: He's hitting .342/.449/.711 on the year, with a 182-point advantage in OPS (and a 44-point edge in OPS+) and a 0.7 lead over Raleigh in fWAR.
Of course, none of that is insurmountable with some eight weeks left to go in the regular season — especially if Judge's injury renders him incapable of playing the field on a consistent basis. If Raleigh gets back to hitting like he was earlier this summer, and the Mariners snag a playoff spot while the Yankees continue to fade, the gap might shrink enough that voters might reward the player on the better team (who's also having a historic season at his specific position).
But if Judge is able to stay in the lineup and hit anything like the way he was before he went down, he's likely to retain an edge in every significant statistical category. This was more than likely Raleigh's one chance to close the gap for good and make this a dead sprint to the finish. Instead, he blinked at the worst possible time.