While baseball fans turn their attention to the World Series, award season is gaining some traction in the background. For Milwaukee fans, it might be some solace to see their players take home some well-deserved
personal hardware. Three Brewers players made their way on to the ballots this season.
The award is 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,” per MLB.com.
Christian Yelich
One of the keystone pieces of the roster over the past few years, Yelich found his power stroke again in 2025. After dealing with injury last year, he returned with 29 home runs, his personal best since 2019 when he hit 44. Yelich finished 11th best among all qualified batters with 103 RBIs, another personal high-water mark since 2018.
Yelich will face off in the designated hitter category for this Silver Slugger award, meaning he’s paired against Shohei Ohtani and Kyle Schwarber. While Yelich’s season was impressive, his 121 wRC+ likely won’t be good enough to carry him over Ohtani (172 wRC+) and Schwarber (145 wRC+). Likewise, Ohtani and Schwarber both cracked over 50 home runs this year, with Yelich’s total of 29 lagging behind.
Brice Turang
If most Brewers fans were polled at the end of last season, would anyone have predicted Turang to be a Silver Slugger finalist? It seems he’s capable of taking more than one quantum leap. Turang’s career year finished with a .288/.359/.435 slash line and a 124 wRC+. His 18 home runs and 24 stolen bases proved his versatility and well-rounded skillset.
Turang led all second basemen with 97 runs scored, finished second in RBIs with 83, and seventh with his 18 home runs. His competition will be the Cubs’ Nico Hoerner and the Diamondbacks’ Ketel Marte. Arizona’s second baseman could prove to be Turang’s biggest obstacle, with Marte’s 145 wRC+ standing far above the rest of the pack.
William Contreras
Finally, the third member of the Brewers to push for the Silver Slugger award, is catcher William Contreras. For all the struggles he went through with injury this year, his nomination is reflective of his resilience and remarkable skillset. It was a downturn from his 132 wRC+ last year to a 113 wRC+ mark this year, but that still was good enough to place fifth among NL catchers with at least 400 plate appearances.
Playing time could be a significant part of this voting process. There were only eight catchers to hit that 400 PA mark, so the competition is thin. The Dodgers’ Will Smith (153 wRC+) might be the forerunner, but with only 436 PA, he had drastically fewer opportunities than Contreras, who made 659 appearances at the plate. Is that enough to consider Contreras over Smith, despite the disparity in their performance?
The third contender is the Rockies’ Hunter Goodman, who had 31 home runs, the best among NL catchers by a large margin, and a 118 wRC+. Goodman’s 91 RBIs also bested Contreras’ tally of 76.
One of the categories where Contreras led was with 89 runs, compared to Goodman’s 73 and Smith’s 64. It seems like a longshot for Contreras to overtake the other two finalists based on that alone. Contreras finished behind both Goodman and Smith in batting average, wRC+, and OPS.
