Awards season is close. The Detroit Tigers already had the likely AL Cy Young award returning to ace left-hander Tarik Skubal. Catcher Dillon Dingler has a solid shot at a Gold Glove. On Thursday, outfielder
Riley Greene and utilityman Zach McKinstry were named by Louisville Slugger as the Tigers’ Silver Slugger finalists at their respective positions.
The National League award winners will be announced on November 6, with the American League winners announced on November 7, both at 6 p.m. ET.
Each team gets four votes on both finalists and the ultimate winners of the award at each position. The manager gets one of the votes, with three more allocated to coaches of the team’s choosing.
Greene’s competition among AL outfielders includes Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger of the Yankees, George Springer of the Blue Jays, Julio Rodriguez of the Mariners, and Byron Buxton of the Twins. We could break the competition down, but suffice it to say that Greene’s collapse ended any chance of winning this award, but no one really had a shot anyway. Judge was the most valuable player in baseball if we leave out Shohei Ohtani’s work on the mound, and even with that included Judge comes out on top. He hit 53 homers and posteda a 204 wRC+ on the year.
McKinstry’s competition in the utilityman category is Ben Rice of the Yankees, and Maikel Garcia of the Royals.
Greene hit .284/.335/.544 in the first half with 24 home runs, 21 doubles, and a triple, good for a 141 wRC+. In the second half he fell apart, slashing just .218/.279/.415 for a 90 wRC+ with 12 home runs and 10 doubles. That second half killed his chances of winning the Silver Slugger, though his overall marks of .258/.313/.493 with 36 home runs was still very good.
McKinstry’s season went the same way as Greene’s did with a red hot first half and then a rough second half that saw his production crumble. Overall, he slashed .259/.333/.438 for a 114 wRC+ with 12 home runs over 144 games. It was an outstanding season all around for the 30-year-old as he posted a 3.2 fWAR mark on the year, his best season by 2.1 fWAR in his career.
Maikel Garcia hit .286/.351/.449 with 16 homers, playing 160 games. He posted a 121 wRC+ on the year. Garcia played five different positions, including about 10 games at shortstop, but nearly 90 percent of his innings on the field were spent at third base, where he was one of the most valuable defensive infielders in baseball.
Rice should be the favorite in this category after slashing .255/.337/.499 with 26 home runs in 138 games played. His 133 wRC+ puts him on another tier above McKinstry or Garcia for an offense only award.
