Ken Griffey Jr. knows what everyone else knows — Cal Raleigh is in a league of his own.
The Seattle Mariners All-Star is quickly establishing himself as a franchise great, becoming the first catcher and just the second Mariners player ever — after Griffey — to hit 50 home runs in a single season.
Raleigh is now considered the slight favorite over the reigning MVP Aaron Judge to win AL MVP.
“I don’t vote on the MVP race, but my favorite being part owner of the Mariners is, I’m always voting for a Mariner,” says Griffey Jr. in a one-on-one interview with GamesHub. “It’s going to be interesting. The last month, that’s when I heard you make your money. The last month is going to be big for both of them. Aaron Judge, everybody knows what he’s done over the course of the last five years. Cal this year has been unbelievable.”
Raleigh has the most home runs (50) and the third most RBI’s (107) in the majors this season. However, Judge trumps him with batting average, leading the majors with a .324 batting average while Raleigh has just a .247 batting average.
Griffey Jr. — who won the AL MVP in 1997 — says it’ll come down to the last month of the regular season when it comes to who will end up winning the award.
The Mariners and New York Yankees are both in the wild card hunt, with the Yankees holding a slight edge with a three-game lead over the Mariners.
“It’s fun to watch, but it’s the last month that counts,” says Griffey Jr. “I would tell you that Cal would easily give up 15 home runs to have 15 more Ws. That’s just the kind of person he is. He wants this team to win. If he had 35 home runs at the end of the year and we were 10 games up, he’d be just as happy. The season he’s having is remarkable and a lot of fun to watch.”
The Baseball Hall of Famer says he talks to Raleigh “all the time.” He calls him “down to earth” and “a lot of fun” to be around. When asked who Raleigh reminds him of past or present, the 55-year-old has a hard time nailing down a comparison because the game is different from when he played.
“He’s just one of those guys that’s down to earth, a lot of fun,” says Griffey Jr. of Raleigh. “His younger brother is bigger than him. He’s 14, so I told his dad, ‘You’re in trouble.’ (He said) ‘I can’t wait for him to get out the house, somebody has to pay for these meals.’ But the game is different. The style of play is different. It’s just a different game.
“It doesn’t mean that it’s any better, it’s any worse, it’s just different and you have to play within the rules,” Griffey Jr. continues to say. “You look at basketball, what they’ve done, and the rule changes. In football, people are trying to keep guys on the field for the long haul, and there’s part of the safety features of not taking out catchers. Other than that, guys that are playing now and the guys who are superstars can be superstars in any era.”
Griffeys Rave About Elly De La Cruz
While Griffey Jr. is obviously best known for his historic Mariners tenure (1989-1999), he spent the last half of his career with the Cincinnati Reds (2000-2008). Although he wasn’t as dominant in Cincinnati as he was in Seattle — he dealt with a lot of injuries early on — he did clinch three of his All-Star bids there.
Furthermore, it’s the franchise where his dad, Ken Griffey Sr., made his name, winning both of his World Series and clinching three All-Star bids in the process.
The franchise player of the Reds is Elly De La Cruz, arguably the MLB’s most dynamic talent right now. At 23 years old, he’s already a two-time All-Star, has led the majors in stolen bases and is a part of the MLB’s exclusive 20-50 club, becoming just the 15th player to do so.
“No, being six-foot-five with all the speed and power, it’s tough to compare him to anybody,” says Griffey Sr. when asked if he can compare De La Cruz to anyone. “He can be his own man when he does things. I watched him make a throw the other day and I said, ‘Not very many people can do that either.’ He’s a special talent.”
“No, not at all,” says Griffey Sr. if De La Cruz playing in a smaller market hurts him. “I think him playing in Cincinnati is a big-enough market. Everybody knows who De La Cruz is. I’ll put it this way, if he was in the Bronx, it might be a little different.”
Griffey Jr. disagrees with that notion about De La Cruz possibly being more marketable or having a higher profile if he played with a big-market team such as the Yankees, saying that as long as you’re a “generational” talent, your name will be out there.
“I don’t know about that,” says Griffey Jr. “The only reason why I say that is because nobody wanted to go to Seattle. People didn’t even know where Seattle was. Now people are talking about Seattle. I think that if you have that one guy that is generational, then that doesn’t matter where you play.”
The Reds are currently in contention for the last NL Wild Card spot, but they’re four games back of the New York Mets. Griffey Sr. says “winning” also helps in that recognition of truly great players.
“That would probably be the key, is winning,” says Griffey Sr. “Winning is always the key in baseball, really. Especially if you plan on being in the playoffs and World Series. But if you want to develop players, there was eight of us in Cincinnati that got recognition, and they call us the ‘Great Eight’ in Cincinnati with the starting line up in ’75 and ’76, so there’s a little difference, a lot of people know about us.”
