Carlos Correa and Luis Arraez Named 2022 Silver Slugger Finalists

[Cody Christie]

Carlos Correa and Luis Arraez had terrific offensive seasons. Now, MLB is recognizing their tremendous prowess at the plate. How do they stack up in the competition for the 2022 Silver Slugger awards?

Image courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

 

On Thursday, MLB named the finalist for the Rawlings Silver Slugger Awards, which honors the top offensive players at each position. The winners are scheduled to be announced on Thursday, November 10th. While the BBWAA votes for many end-of-season awards, MLB managers and coaches select the finalists. Rocco Baldelli and three other Twins coaches served as the team's voting members this season. 

According to MLB.com, "MLB managers and coaches vote for the Silver Sluggers, which go to one player apiece in each league at catcher, DH, and each infield position, plus three outfielders. Like the Gold Glove Awards, the Silver Sluggers also added a utility category in 2022." Carlos Correa was named an AL shortstop finalist, and Luis Arraez finished in the top 3 at the utility spot. Both players face a challenging field, so let's see if either has a shot at the award. 

Correa is one of four AL shortstop finalists, along with Bo Bichette, Xander Bogaerts, and Corey Seager. According to fWAR, Bogaerts accumulated 8.7 more offensive runs above average than the other top-four shortstops. Correa played over 13 games fewer than the other candidates but ranked as the best AL shortstop in wRC+. Bichette had the most hits in the AL, and Seager hit over 30 home runs in his first AL season. Only Bichette ranked higher than Correa in Win Probability Added among the finalists. Correa's slow start and games missed likely means he finishes behind the other candidates. 

Arraez faces a competitive field in the utility spot because two of his competitors are finalists at other positions. Shohei Ohtani is a former Silver Slugger winner at DH and is in the conversation for AL MVP. He is a Silver Slugger finalist at DH and utility. DJ LeMahieu has two Silver Sluggers at second base while being a finalist at that spot again this season. Arraez will get consideration for this award since he won the AL batting title and kept Aaron Judge from winning the Triple Crown. 

Ohtani had better offensive numbers than Arraez, but it's hard to know if coaches viewed him as a utility player. During the 2022 season, he didn't play an inning at any defensive position other than pitcher. Arraez made defensive starts at first base, second base, and third base, which helped his case to be considered a utility player. There is no precedent for voting history at this position since the utility spot is new for 2022. 

Minnesota is looking for its first Silver Slugger winner since Nelson Cruz (DH) took home the award in 2020. Back in 2019, Mitch Garver (Catcher) and Cruz (DH) won the honors as part of the Bomba Squad team. Before that, the Twins hadn't won a Silver Slugger since Joe Mauer in 2013. Congratulations to Arraez and Correa on their nomination.  

Just eight days ago, Arraez and Correa, along with Max Kepler were named nominees for the Rawlings Gold Glove Award. 

Do you think Correa or Arraez will win the Silver Slugger? Leave a COMMENT and start the discussion.

 

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[rwilfong86]

Nice to see their names but I doubt either wins. 

[tarheeltwinsfan]

Arraez will win the Silver Slugger for utility player.

[Shobae]

One quick correction with regards to fangraphs offensive runs. Without going into too much detail those are basically batting runs (based on woba but meant to represent runs created at the plate) and base running runs (BsR) added together. Which to my knowledge isn't applicable to the award given that we are focused here on batting not base running. So using it in the context of the silver slugger isn't quite correct as you're taking into account base running as well. This is outlined in more detail in the war article in the fangraphs glossary, for those interested.
On the subject of Shortstop I think that Correa is the clear winner, we can see that Correa leads not only in wRC+ but also batting runs with 26.7. The reason this isn't as close as ops would have it is that fenway is a hitters park while Target Field is a neutral slightly pitcher favored park. He's also second in BB%, iso and BA showing that he is the most well rounded batter at the position.
With regards to Arraez I fear that with Ohtani being nominated he is the clear cut winner of the award, given the 11% difference in wRC+ and Ohtani's lead in every category except for obp and those to do with striking out less and getting more hits. I would be very surprised if they nominated him for utility and then didn't consider him a utility player (which to be clear he isn't). My theory is that they wanted to make sure Ohtani got an award for his singularly historic season, since he is very unlikely to win MVP, Cy Young (though he has a deeply sabermetric case for it) or Hank Aaron. Because at DH there is no question the hardware goes to Alvarez.
 

[Mark G]

I am chuckling a little as I write this, because I marvel at baseball for their ability to include as many categories and individual players as the law allows, so to speak.  They have Arraez slotted at 1b for the gold glove category, but utility for the silver slugger.  They have no idea what to do with the only 2 way player (pitcher/DH) in the game today, as he is the only one who has even picked up a bat, much less hit regularly.  So they slot him in at..........utility??  On what planet is Ohtani a utility player?  But, again, where do you slot a pitcher for the silver slugger award?  DH?  Or "utility"?  And they create enough metrics in the batting category to be able to point to something to justify whoever they decide to pick for each position.  But, just like the Oscars, it is an honor just to be nominated, right guys?    

This should be fun to watch.  

[Minny505]

I expect Arraez to be the favorite for UT. Ohtani will win DH.

At SS, I see it as a coin flip between Bogaerts and Correa...with Bogaerts calling tails on that flip.

Would be fun to have them both win.