The Milwaukee Brewers had three finalists for this year’s Silver Slugger awards as the best hitters at their respective positions, but when the awards were announced Thursday, they were left out.
It wasn’t particularly surprising considering the players Milwaukee’s three finalists were up against. The first of the Brewers’ finalists was second baseman Brice Turang, who leveled up offensively to the point of winning the National League Player of the Month award for August. He finished the season with career highs across the board, hitting .288/.359/.435 for a 121 OPS+. That was probably enough to beat one of the other finalists, Chicago’s Nico Hoerner, but it wasn’t enough to compete with Arizona superstar Ketel Marte, who hit .283/.376/.517 (145 OPS+) with 28 home runs in just 126 games this season.
William Contreras was also a finalist, coming into this season having won the award twice in a row. But Contreras’ well-publicized issues with a broken finger got him off to a slow start, and while his overall numbers were still good enough to make him a Silver Slugger finalist (.260/.355/.399, 111 OPS+, 17 HR, 28 2B), he lagged behind the other two in this category. Will Smith of the Dodgers battled injuries and played in only 110 games, but he hit .296/.404/.497 in those 110 games and matched Contreras’ home run total despite playing 40 fewer games. But the award went not to Smith but to Colorado’s Hunter Goodman, who was a bright spot in a bleak season. Goodman, just 25 and in his first full season, hit .278/.323/.520, led the Rockies with 31 home runs and made his first All-Star Game.
The Brewers’ final finalist was Christian Yelich, in the designated hitter category. Yelich had a solid campaign, posting a 121 OPS+ while hitting more home runs (29) than he had hit in a season since 2019. But Yelich had no chance in this category: his competition consisted of two of the top MVP candidates in the NL, Kyle Schwarber and Shohei Ohtani. Schwarber led the NL with 56 home runs and the majors with 132 RBI, and, as usual, walked more than 100 times. But even Schwarber didn’t win, as the presumptive MVP, Ohtani, took this one: He led the NL in slugging (.622), OPS (1.014) and OPS+ (179), and he led the majors in runs scored (146) and total bases (380), a number he achieved by hitting 55 home runs and 9 triples.
The full list of winners can be found below (the winners are in bold, the other finalists are next to them):
Catcher: Hunter Goodman, COL; William Contreras, Military; Will Smith, LAD
First base: Pete Alonso, NYM; Freddie Freeman, LAD; Matt Olson, ATL
Second base: Marte Ketel, ARI; Nico Hoerner, CHC; Brice Turang, soldier
Third base: Manny Machado, SDP; Matt Chapman, SFG; Max Muncy, LAD; Austin Riley, ATL
Short stop: Geraldo Perdomo, ARI; Francisco Lindor, NOT; Turner Turner
Outfield: John Soto, Nym; Corbin Carroll, op; Kyle Tucker, CHC; Pete Crow-Armstrong, CHC; Kyle Stowers, MIA; James Wood, WSN
Designated hitter: Shohei Ohtani, LAD; Kyle Schwarber, PHI; Christian Yelich, MIL
Utility: Alec Burleson, STL; Jake Cronenworth, SDP; Brendan Donovan, STL
Team: Los Angeles Dodgers; Arizona Diamondbacks; Chicago Cubs
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