Mariners have 3 finalists named for AL Silver Slugger Awards

Cal Raleigh, Jorge Polanco and Julio Rodríguez are representing the Mariners, with Raleigh and Polanco looking for their first such awards.

Even as the Seattle Mariners continue to process the painful fallout from losing Game Seven of the AL Championship Series, the wheels of Major League Baseball continue to turn relentlessly. And we don’t just mean the build-up to the World Series they could have been a part of, which begins on Friday evening in Toronto.

As per MLB.com, the AL finalists for the Silver Slugger Awards were announced on Thursday and included three Mariners players. Jorge Polanco and Cal Raleigh are both among three finalists at second base and catcher respectively, while Julio Rodríguez is one of six outfielder nominees.

Redemption with the Mariners

This is the first time Polanco has been a finalist since 2021, when he incidentally set career-highs with a 5.0 bWAR, 33 home runs, 98 RBI and a .503 slugging percentage. This year represented redemption for him after last season’s struggles, with his 26 home runs, 78 RBI and .495 slugging percentage all being his highest since the aforementioned 2021 campaign and his 134 OPS+ being his best since his rookie year in 2014, when he only played five games.

The 2019 All-Star ranked second among all qualifying second basemen this season in slugging (.495), OPS (.821) and wRC+ (132) and back in April he won the first Player of the Week award of his Major League career. In September he tied a Mariners record by hitting a double in seven consecutive games and also had a nine-game run of extra-base hits, which tied for the second-longest streak in franchise history.

MLB home run hitting king

This is the fourth consecutive year Raleigh has been nominated as a Silver Slugger Award finalist and it really is no surprise after a special season which could yet see him named AL MVP. He led the Majors with 60 home runs and set a new AL record with 65 homers in the regular season and playoffs combined.

On the way to hitting 60 home runs, Raleigh surpassed previous records held by Salvador Perez (catcher), Mickey Mantle (switch-hitter) and Ken Griffey Jr. (Mariners). There was more to his game than just homers though, as he finished first in the AL in RBI, second in walks, slugging and runs, as well as third in OPS.

Mariners’ underrated superstar

As for Rodríguez, he is the only one of the trio to have previously won a Silver Slugger Award, having been a recipient in 2022 and 2023. He’s also the only Major League player to win the award in each of his first two career seasons, since it was first given out in 1980.

The 24-year-old had a tremendous campaign as he set a new career-high with a 6.8 bWAR, earned his third All-Star selection and became the first player to begin his Major League career with four consecutive 20–20 seasons. He also became the first player in Mariners history to record multiple 30+ home run and 30+ stolen base seasons and joined Bobby Witt Jr-KC as the only players in Major League history to accomplish this feat at age 24-or-younger.

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Previous M’s Silver Slugger Award winners

The AL winners will be announced on Friday, Nov. 7, at 3 p.m. PT on The Baseball Insiders stream on YouTube. Here is the all-time list for Mariners who have previously won Silver Slugger Awards:

• Ken Griffey Jr. = 7 times (1991, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999)
• Edgar Martínez = 5 times (1992, 1995, 1997, 2001, 2003)
• Alex Rodriguez = 4 times (1996, 1998, 1999, 2000)
• Ichiro Suzuki = 3 times (2001, 2007, 2009)
• Bret Boone = 2 times (2001, 2003)
• Julio Rodríguez = 2 times (2022, 2023)
• Nelson Cruz = 1 time (2017)

Mariners fans will be hoping a couple of announcements on Thursday by The Sporting News will prove to be good omens. Raleigh and Rodríguez have been selected for their AL All-Star team, while Dan Wilson has been named AL Manager of the Year as voted for by his peers.

Photos court​‌esy of Tim Rogers Photography

Which of the three Mariners finalists do you predict will end up winning a Silver Slugger Award? And is there anyone in Seattle who missed out on being a finalist, who you believe deserved to be one? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.