The price on Randy Arozarena keeps going up.
Today Arozarena was named a finalist for the Silver Slugger award, an award given to the best hitter at each position in each league. This would be Arozarena’s first Silver Slugger award despite having been nominated three previous times: 2021, 2022 and 2023.
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The other outfielders who are nominated are Wilyer Abreu (Red Sox), Cody Bellinger (Yankees), Jac Caglianone (Royals), Chase DeLauter (Guardians), Riley Greene (Tigers), Tristan Peters (White Sox), Chandler Simpson (Rays) and Mike Trout (Angels). Three will win.
Unlike the Gold Gloves, which are awarded based on at least a partial sabermetric calculation despite defensive metrics being [waves hands], the Silver Slugger award is voted for by MLB managers and coaches. However, if they were to take into account a metric such as wRC+, none of the nominees come anywhere close to Arozarena’s 151 (!), which is 15 points higher than the next-closest competitor. When considering wOBA, Arozarena’s mark of .379 is over ten points higher than the next closest (Detroit’s Greene).
As far as traditional metrics, Arozarena leads in homers and is near the top in other categories like average (.281; DeLauter, Caglianone, and Simpson are all higher), slugging (.484, second to Caglianone), and OBP (.381 second to Trout). Arozarena also ranked first among all AL batters, not just outfielders, in runs scored.
Voters probably won’t have to think too hard to decide to tick the box next to Arozarena’s name, not when he spent the season putting on a coast to coast show in ballparks around MLB.
It was a spectacular season for Arozarena that will more than likely conclude in his first Silver Slugger award. It was a historic season for Arozarena, who recorded his sixth-consecutive 20-20 season in 2026, becoming just the eleventh player in MLB history with at least six such seasons. He also became the fifth player to do it in at least six consecutive seasons, joining an historic crew of some of baseball’s best: Barry Bonds (1990-98), Bobby Bonds (1969-75), Bobby Abreu (1999-2005) and Willie Mays (1955-1960).
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Winners will be announced on Saturday, November 17th. The announcement will be streamed exclusively on FanSided’s The Baseball Insiders podcast, which…okay. A complete list of the nominees can be found here.
