My first conscious memory of the Silver Slugger award was opening a pack of Upper Deck baseball cards and pulling out a Daryl Strawberry card (when he was on the Dodgers) with a Silver Slugger award logo
in the corner. I asked my dad, “What’s a Silver Slugger?” and he probably said something like “oh it’s an award for the best hitters in the league at every position.” Baseball card core memories are fun. Otherwise, how anyone ever remember that Strawberry played for the Dodgers?
- Cal Raleigh is a finalist (obviously) for catcher along Salvador Perez and Shea Langoliers.
- Julio Rodríguez is a finalist for outfielders alongside Cody Bellinger, Byron Buxton, Riley Greene, Aaron Judge (heard of him), and G**rge Spr*ng*r (disrespectfully).
- Jorge Polanco gets his well deserved props along with Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Brandon Lowe.
- The Seattle Mariners roster of bats as a whole are also nominated, which is a thing they started doing in 2023 apparently. Daaaaaa Jankees and Blue Jays are also nominated.
AL winners will be announced on Thursday, November 6. In case you were wondering how voting works, here’s the rundown:
Position finalists and winners are determined by a vote of managers and coaches who cast ballots for players at each position in their league. Each team receives four (4) votes; the manager and three coaches of the team’s choice. Votes are based on a combination of offensive statistics including OPS, OPS+, home runs, RBI, batting average, total bases and runs, as well as the managers’ and coaches’ general impressions of a player’s overall offensive value.
