The Washington Nationals had a great offensive season in 2026. They finished tied for 3rd in OPS, 6th in homers, 3rd in runs, 4th in doubles, 12th in average and 3rd in slugging percentage. That production did not go unnoticed. Stars James Wood and CJ Abrams were both nominated for Silver Sluggers. The Nationals were also nominated for the best offensive team in the National League.
While I am happy for Wood and Abrams, the team award is what has me most excited. For the Nats to be nominated alongside the Dodgers, Cubs and Brewers is a great achievement. Those teams have been developing into offensive machines for years now. In Paul Toboni’s first season running the Nats, they are now in that company.
Obviously the players deserve a lot of credit as well, but this is a huge player development win. The Nats have star players like Wood and Abrams, but it takes more than that. This award is due to guys like Keibert Ruiz, Jacob Young, Andres Chaparro, Curtis Mead and Luis Garcia Jr. all taking big steps in the right direction.
There are plenty of teams who had bigger names in their lineup. However, most of those teams could not match the Nats success at the plate. Based on the numbers, the Cubs will probably win this award, but to even be nominated is a huge win for the Nationals organization.
On to the players, I think both Wood and Abrams have strong Silver Slugger cases. Abrams filled up the statsheet in 2026. He led all NL shortstops in home runs, RBI and stolen bases. Abrams broke the Nats record for homers by a shortstop before July was even over.
For the season, Abrams hit .261 with 33 homers, 34 steals, 106 RBI and an .834 OPS. Doing that as a shortstop is wildly impressive. If you got those numbers from a first baseman or left fielder, they would still be in the Silver Slugger mix.
The race between Abrams, Elly De La Cruz and Otto Lopez will be hotly contested. In my opinion, Abrams and Elly are neck and neck for this award. De La Cruz’s red hot finish to the season might get him over the line, but both had tremendous seasons.
I also think James Wood has a decent chance of picking up hardware. Like Abrams, I think this one could go either way. He was the best offensive outfielder in the NL for the first half. However, he slowed down after the All-Star break and missed about a month.
Even with that context, Wood still had the second best OPS in the National League at .891. He hit 30 homers, scored 106 runs, stole 21 bases and drove in 77 runs. When Wood was at his best this season, he was an unstoppable force that pitchers had no answers for.
We will see if that elite first half is enough to get him silverware. When I look at the numbers, I tend to think it should. Besides Pete Crow-Armstrong, all the other candidates are pretty close together. Fernando Tatis Jr. had a great second half, but also went about two months without homering. Like Wood, Corbin Carroll and Jordan Walker had rough second half numbers, but were not as good as the Nats slugger in the first half.
The winners will be announced on November 17th, so that will be something to look forward to. It would be a real shame if no Nats got rewarded with a Silver Slugger given the offensive season the team had. I tend to think Wood will get over the line, but we will find out in a couple weeks.
