By Tyler Kepner, Chandler Rome, Britt Ghiroli and Zack Meisel

Plenty has changed about baseball. Little has changed about how voters are supposed to determine the league’s Most Valuable Player. From the official guidance given by the BBWAA:

There is no clear-cut definition of what Most Valuable means. It is up to the individual voter to decide who was the Most Valuable Player in each league to his team. The MVP need not come from a division winner or other playoff qualifier. The rules of the voting remain the same as they were written on the first ballot in 1931: 1. Actual value of a player to his team, that is, strength of offense and defense.

2. Number of games played.

3. General character, disposition, loyalty and effort.

4. Former winners are eligible.

5. Members of the committee may vote for more than one member of a team.

With that as a primer, here’s how The Athletic’s voters in the election for American League MVP, in which Aaron Judge earned 17 first-place votes and 355 points overall to prevail over Cal Raleigh (13 first-place votes).

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History should be rewarded

Voter: Tyler Kepner

Past BBWAA elections: 1998 AL Cy Young, 1999 AL Cy Young

Why I voted for Cal Raleigh: It’s important to honor history when it happens. Raleigh’s 60 home runs set not one single-season record, but two — most home runs by a catcher and most by a switch-hitter. He did it across 705 plate appearances, a staggering total for a backstop.

Raleigh caught 121 games and logged 249 2/3 more innings in the field than Aaron Judge. That comes to 27 full games on defense at the sport’s most physically and mentally demanding position — an extra month