Elephant Rumblings: AL Silver Sluggers announced today

SB Nation

Happy Friday everyone!

Later today the league will announce the Silver Slugger winners for the American League, one day after announcing the NL winners. This year the A’s are one of a handful of teams to have

multiple nominees, with the Royals and Yankees leading the AL with four apiece. Catcher Shea Langeliers, designated hitter Brent Rooker, and first baseman Nick Kurtz all one of the three finalists at their respective positions representing the Green & Gold. All are deserving, but only one looks likely to win their award.

Starting with the backstop, Langeliers sadly has little chance of taking home the award. The division rival Seattle Mariners have an MVP candidate in Cal Raleigh, which in a sense is just bad luck. The A’s starting catcher hit an amazing .277/.325/.536 with a career-high 31 long balls, and that’s in just 123 games thanks to a mid-season injury that cost him a month. If he hadn’t missed that time he’d have likely broken the A’s single-season homer record from a catcher (35). In almost any other year that would be more than enough for the 27-year-old to win the Silver Slugger but he just happened to have a career year at the same time as Raleigh’s epic season. So goes baseball, but it’s still nice to be recognized. Maybe next year?

Then we have the case of Rooker. The two-time All-Star (should have been three) had another strong season at the plate, though it was a step back from his output in ‘24. The heart of the A’s lineup crossed the 30-homer threshold for the third straight season, the first Athletic to accomplish the feat since Khris Davis hit over 40 homers between 2016-2018. He also played in all 162 games, nothing to scoff at even for a DH/part-time outfielder. Baseball is a taxing sport.

To be nominated is just, but it’d take a lot of convincing to get the voters to Rook’s side. Toronto DH and former A’s nemesis George Springer looks like the favorite for the award based on a pure numbers standpoint. He’s got two more home runs in 22 less games, an overall better slash line and almost as many RBI’s from the leadoff spot as Rooker had from the middle of the A’s lineup. The only thing going for our DH is that the Blue Jays have a much better offense, play in a hitter-friendly division, and Springer played over a third of his games in the outfield and is seemingly somehow nominated for the outfield Silver Slugger as well… Anything can happen and Rooker could very well end up winning his second straight Silver Slugger award, but don’t be let down if Springer gets it this year.

What we should all be hoping for is that our beloved first baseman Nick Kurtz isn’t deprived of the prestigious award just for being a rookie. The lefty slugger started slow but once he got to swinging, oh boy, was he swinging. Even with a head start the American League’s first basemen couldn’t keep up with Kurtz’s power surge as he led all AL first basemen in homers with 36… as a rookie! In less games! It wasn’t just power in the former 1st-rounder’s bat though. He arrived already a well-rounded hitter in almost every sense of the sport. He slashed an amazing .290/.383/.619, and of course we can’t forget his historic night in Houston:

It’d be a genuine shock and major disappointment if Kurtz doesn’t win the award. It doesn’t affect us fans in any way personally. Still, we all want the cornerstone of our rebuild to get his roses for his historic rookie season, one in which he should be easily taking home the American League Rookie of the Year award. Him, teammate Jacob Wilson, and Red Sox outfielder Roman Anthony are the three finalists for the Rookie of the Year award, but as far as tonight goes Kurtz’ biggest competition for the Silver Slugger has got to be the Blue Jays’ superstar Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who himself had a terrific season but is also surrounded by stars and hitting in a friendly environment. Plus, Kurtz’s stats are just better.

The awards will be announced at 3 p.m. PST this afternoon. We’ll just have to wait until then. Have an excellent weekend A’s fans.

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