Jayson Stark of The Athletic calls Seattle catcher Cal Raleigh the AL’s 2026 “Least Valuable Player,” citing a drop from 60 homers in 2025 to 23 with three games left. He says that decline outweighs Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s nine homers and .695 OPS in the LVP debate.
Raleigh’s Baseball-Reference bWAR stood at 1.1, while his OPS fell from .948 in 2025 to .663 in 2026 and his OPS+ from 169 to 92. Stark’s case is the scale of that year-to-year collapse; the article says Raleigh need not be the AL’s worst player to warrant the label.
Seattle missed the postseason after coming one win short of the World Series in 2025, according to the article. It adds that Toronto also had a rough 2026, but played better than Seattle.
