Why Cal Raleigh might not be the Mariners' best hope for a major award winner

The finalists for the four major awards chosen by the Baseball Writers' Association of America were announced on Monday, and you'll need to bust out your shocked face upon seeing which Seattle Mariner is officially in the running for American League MVP.

It's Cal Raleigh, obviously. He just had one of the greatest seasons ever by a catcher, a switch-hitter and a Mariner, notably setting a single-season record on all three fronts with 60 home runs. It's (probably) a once-in-a-lifetime achievement, and he arguably deserves MVP honors accordingly.

And yet, we've been over this. Raleigh is up against Aaron Judge, and even the former's recent Player of the Year honors may not portend what would technically be an upset in the AL MVP vote.

As good as Raleigh was, Judge ended up leading MLB in WAR, AVG, OBP, SLG, OPS and OPS+ and the American League in runs, walks and total bases. And while Raleigh and the Mariners won their division while Judge and the New York Yankees did not, that is merely an accident of geography. The Yankees won four more games than the Mariners.

But, hey, at least there's still Dan Wilson to root for. He's up for the AL Manager of the Year against John Schneider of the Toronto Blue Jays and Stephen Vogt of the Cleveland Guardians, and it wouldn't be surprising if Wilson emerges as the winner on Tuesday, November 11th.

Cal Raleigh might not represent the Mariners' best hope for a major award winner

This is based on little more than a hunch, which is really all anyone can work with when it comes to anticipating the Manager of the Year winner. The award has always felt like a vibes thing, and the ones emanating from Wilson this season have already been acknowledged. He was named as the AL Manager of the Year by The Sporting News, whose year-end awards are determined by peer votes — meaning that Wilson won because of the respect he commanded within Major League Baseball.

We're talking about awards that don't consider the postseason, so what happened in Game 7 of the ALCS (i.e., the pitching change that shall not be named) is not relevant here. What is relevant is what Wilson brought to the Mariners throughout the regular season, and foremost among the things to credit him for is how he facilitated the team's player-driven culture.

As the former catcher said in May:

"The biggest thing for me was, I felt that the teams that I was a part of that were player-led, those were the teams that were the most fun and the most successful. And when I say that [this is] a special group, that’s another way that they’re special — this is a group that wants that, and they can handle that kind of responsibility. And they’re unbelievable about it. That’s really important to me and these guys have really responded to that."

Dan Wilson

This was the right approach for a roster largely made up of homegrown players who are still young, but also well into a shared experience as major leaguers with the Mariners. Yet the team also needed Wilson to be its rock, and he was as the club weathered serious injuries to George Kirby, Logan Gilbert and Victor Robles.

Was Wilson flawless when it came to Xs and Os? Hardly. His pitching changes were a source of frustration well before the aforementioned Game 7, and he was probably too rigid with his lineups — and in the case of the leadoff spot, frankly too unimaginative.

But to focus only on those things is to lose sight of how much of a manager's job happens behind the scenes. Maintaining cohesion and communication is mostly what it's all about, and there was never any sign of disarray in either department under Wilson's leadership.

Granted, Schneider captained the Blue Jays to a worst-to-first season, while Vogt's Guardians pulled off an all-time comeback in the AL Central. If it doesn't go to Wilson, the AL Manager of the Year would not be wasted on either of them.

Yet at least when compared to Raleigh vs. Judge, there's no need to twist oneself into knots to make the case that Wilson deserves the AL Manager of the Year. Even if the argument is that he simply has the right vibes for the award, that's often all it takes.