Today we take a break from the IBWAA ballot to talk about the NYY Silver Slugger nominees and break the news of the winners!
Tweets:
Nominee Position-By-Position Breakdown (for Yankees):
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First Base (Finalists):
Nathaniel Lowe (TEX) - .302/.358/.492/.851 (141 OPS+), 179 Hits, 27 HR's, 56 XBH
Vladimir Guerrero Jr (TOR) - .274/.339/.480/.818 (132 OPS+), 175 Hits, 32 HR's, 67 XBH
Jose Abreu (CWS) - .304/.378/.446/.824 (133 OPS+), 183 Hits, 15 HR's, 55 XBH
Anthony Rizzo (NYY) - .224/.338/.480/.817 (131 OPS+), 104 Hits, 32 HR's, 54 XBH
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A relatively close competition amongst the first base finalists in the American League, each nominee had at least one stat that they led (or co-led in the case of Anthony Rizzo) for their position. Ultimately, for our purposes Anthony Rizzo was outshined across the board and the nomination is the cap on a nice, but not amazing, season.
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Second Base (Finalists):
Jose Altuve (HOU) - .300/.387/.533/.921 (160 OPS+), 158 Hits, 28 HRs, 67 XBH
Andres Gimenez (CLE) - .297/.371/.466/.837 (141 OPS+), 146 Hits, 17 HR's, 46 XBH
Marcus Semien (TEX) - .248/.304/.429/.733 (108 OPS+), 163 Hits, 26 HR's, 62 XBH
DJ LeMahieu (NYY) - .261/.357/.377/.734 (111 OPS+), 122 Hits, 12 HR's, 30 XBH
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An award in which one player (Jose Altuve) is the run-away favorite, it would be embarrassing for the MLB to award it to any of the other finalists. Interesting, this will be Jose Altuve's (or, I should say, we should expect it to be his) first silver slugger since 2018. Huh. He also won it in 2017. Interesting...it's almost like while we can expect a win for him this year, during those years he could also expect what pitch was coming. Strange...
(He also won the Silver Slugger from 2014-2016 as well, but that doesn't quite work for the joke.)
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Outfield (Finalists): 3 Winners, so Top-3 Bolded
Aaron Judge (NYY) - .311/.425/.686/1.111 (211 OPS+), 177 Hits, 62 HR's, 90 XBH
Julio Rodriguez (SEA) - .284/.345/.509/.853 (147 OPS+), 145 Hits, 28 HR's, 56 XBH
Kyle Tucker (HOU) - .257/.330/.478/.808 (128 OPS+), 140 Hits, 30 HR's, 59 XBH
Mike Trout (LAA) - .283/.369/.630/.999 (178 OPS+), 124 Hits, 40 HR's, 70 XBH
Randy Arozarena (TB) - .263/.327/.445/.773 (124 OPS+), 154 Hits, 20 HR's, 64 XBH
George Springer (TOR) - .267/.342/.472/.814 (131 OPS+), 137 Hits, 25 HR's, 51 XBH
Taylor Ward (LAA) - .281/.360/.473/.833 (135 OPS+), 139 Hits, 23 HR's, 47 XBH
Anthony Santander (BAL) - .240/.318/.455/.773 (117 OPS+), 139 Hits, 33 HR's, 57 XBH
Adolis Garcia (TEX) - .250/.300/.456/.756 (113 OPS+), 151 Hits, 27 HR's, 66 XBH
Teoscar Hernandez (TOR) - .267/.316/.491/.807 (127 OPS+), 133 Hits, 25 HR's, 61 XBH
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Looking at the bold text, there are a few clear 3 players from this massive list of outfielders. The Louisville Slugger company is much nicer to Aaron Judge by assigning all outfielders the same role (as opposed to the differing Gold Glove awards this past season), which ultimately doesn't really matter as he was the best hitter in all of baseball anyway. After Judge comes Mike Trout who even in a bit of an injured season still put up 40 home runs and hit to a .999 OPS. The injuries are annoying (because everybody wants him to be so good) but when he's on the field, he's on. Finally, Julio Rodriguez had an incredible season, rookie or not. While some players outside of Judge and Trout were able to find some bold text above, Rodriguez was quite easily taking the cake on most metrics. Credit due where credit is deserved. Those 3 were nuts this year.
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Designated Hitter (Finalists):
Shohei Ohtani (LAA) - .273/.356/.519/.875 (145 OPS+), 160 Hits, 34 HR's, 70 XBH Yordan Alvarez (HOU) - .306/.406/.613/1.019 (187 OPS+), 144 Hits, 37 HR's, 68 XBH
Giancarlo Stanton (NYY) - .211/.297/.462/.759 (113 OPS+), 84 Hits, 31 HR's, 38 XBH
George Springer (TOR) - .267/.342/.472/.814 (131 OPS+), 137 Hits, 25 HR's, 51 XBH
Adolis Garica (TEX) - .250/.300/.456/.756 (113 OPS+), 151 Hits, 27 HR's, 66 XBH
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A closer race than some would think, but Yordan Alvarez's injury could negatively affect his way towards winning the Silver Slugger for DH's this year. That being said, if the voters are willing to forgive his 30 fewer games than Ohtani, this is Alvarez's award to lose. He's miles ahead of the competition by rate stats and home runs and nearly on XBH's. There's no point to considering Stanton's case for winning- whose 31 home runs got him his nomination- as his numbers are near the worst on the list.
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Utility (Finalists):
Luis Arraez (MIN) - .316/.375/.420/.795 (130 OPS+), 173 Hits, 8 HR's, 40 XBH
Shohei Ohtani (LAA) - .273/.356/.519/.875 (145 OPS+), 160 Hits, 34 HR's, 70 XBH
DJ LeMahieu (NYY) - .261/.357/.377/.734 (111 OPS+), 122 Hits, 12 HR's, 30 XBH
Luis Rengifo (LAA) - .264/.294/.429/.724 (103 OPS+), 129 Hits, 17 HR's, 43 XBH
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And speaking again for above, I think Shohei Ohtani is could get split votes between the DH and Utility spots for the Silver Slugger. This could leave a place for Luis Arraez- who led the American League in batting average- a place to take the crown here. Like with the DH spot, it's a battle between two obvious favorites while the Yankee (in this case, DJ LeMahieu) just didn't produce enough to even be a serious candidate.
Position-By-Position Winners:
Being announced today a 6:00 PM (EST) on MLB Network, here are the winners of each of the 20 Silver Slugger Awards. Below you can find my quick thoughts as the announcement goes on!
Catchers:
American League: Alejandro Kirk (Toronto Blue Jays) - 1st in Career
National League: J.T. Realmtuo (Philadelphia Phillies) - 3rd in Career
First Basemen:
American League: Nathanial Lowe (Texas Rangers) - 1st in Career
National League: Paul Goldschmidt (St. Louis Cardinals) - 5th in Career
Second Basemen:
American League: Jose Altuve (Houston Astros) - 6th in Career
National League: Jeff McNeil (New York Mets) - 1st in Career
Third Basemen:
American League: Jose Ramirez (Cleveland Guardians) - 4th in Career
National League: Nolan Arenado (St. Louis Cardinals) - 5th in Career
Shortstops:
American League: Xander Bogaerts (Boston Red Sox) - 5th in Career
National League: Trea Turner (Los Angeles Dodgers) - 1st in Career
Outfielders (3):
American League: Aaron Judge (New York Yankees) - 3rd in Career
American League: Julio Rodriguez (Seattle Mariners) - 1st in Career
American League: Mike Trout (Los Angeles Angels) - 9th in Career
National League: Mookie Betts (Los Angeles Dodgers) - 5th in Career
National League: Kyle Schwarber (Philadelphia Phillies) - 1st in Career
National League: Juan Soto (Washington Nationals) - 3rd in Career
Designated Hitters:
American League: Yordan Alvarez (Houston Astros) - 1st in Career
National League: Josh Bell (Washington Nationals/San Diego Padres) - 1st in Career
Utility:
American League: Luis Arraez (Minnesota Twins) - 1st in Career
National League: Brandon Drury (Cincinnati Reds/San Diego Padres) - 1st in Career
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Ethan's Thoughts:
Running out to get dinner, here are some quick thoughts on the winners so far.
It was obvious that Judge, Trout, and J-Rod were going to win the AL outfield. As I addressed above, nobody else was near those 3.
Finally back from dinner and I missed most of the show. Huh.
So far, no major surprises to me.
Interesting that Schwarber hadn't won an Silver Slugger before.
Well, they just announced Arraez as the final Silver Slugger winner. I just caught up with adding players to the list. That's a shame.
Truthfully though, there definitely wasn't as much excitement here. Offensive statistics are much more telling than defensive statistics (which still uses the eye test for many evaluations). The gold glove announcements lead to more stories to follow. We all (for the most part) knew who were going to win there awards.
No Yankees got robbed. Besides Judge, nobody else was deserving.
That's about it.
