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Will 2 KC Royals stars win their Silver Slugger battles?

Salvador Perez and Bobby Witt Jr. have stiff competition.

By Patrick Glancy |
/ Ed Zurga/GettyImages
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To say the 2023 major league season was a rough one for the KC Royals would be a massive understatement, but a bright spot appeared on the horizon earlier this week when shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. and catcher Salvador Perez were named Silver Slugger finalists at their respective positions.

Are the 2 stars' nominations a silver lining for the 2023 KC Royals?

Silver Sluggers have been awarded to the best offensive players at each position in both the American and National Leagues for almost 45 years. There are no strict statistical criteria for the award — instead, managers and coaches vote for players they feel made the biggest impacts with their bats. Naturally, the subjective nature of the voting process means projecting winners is often as difficult and controversial as it is with its defensive cousin, the Gold Glove.

This has not prevented several Royals from winning the award in the past, however. Nine Kansas City players have won Silver Sluggers (a good tidbit for Immaculate Grid players to keep in mind) and three have won it multiple times. Past Kansas City winners include Perez (four times), George Brett (three times), Willie Wilson (twice), Frank White, Gary Gaetti, Dean Palmer, Billy Butler, Kendrys Morales, and Eric Hosmer.

Perez's four Sluggers lead the franchise. His most recent win came with his 48-home run season in 2021. What are the chances that Witt and Perez can bring home some hardware for their 2023 performances at the plate?

Let's take a look at their respective opponents and battles.

A changing of the Silver Slugger guard at catcher?

First up, who is Perez's competition? Here are the candidates and some of their offensive highlights.

Cal Raleigh (Seattle): .232/.306/.456, 30 home runs, 75 RBIs, 23 doubles, 234 total bases.
Adley Rutschman (Baltimore): .277/.374/.435, 20 home runs, 80 RBIs, 31 doubles, 256 total bases
Salvador Perez (KC): .255/.292/.422, 23 home runs, 80 RBIs, 21 doubles, 227 total bases

If I were comparing this race to the Best Actor nominations for the Academy Awards, Raleigh would be the obscure young actor recognized for his role in an independent film. He had the most pop of the finalists with 30 dingers, but also the most strikeouts with 158. Only 26, he still has the potential to accomplish great things, but in 2023, it feels like it should be an honor just to be nominated.

Perez, on the other hand, is the esteemed veteran. Think of him as Robert De Niro. The 2023 season was not even close to his finest offensive year, but with 12 years of major league experience under his belt, he deserves recognition for even his B-level performances. He had the lowest walk percentage among qualified AL hitters, and his .714 OPS was his lowest since 2018. He matched his 2022 home run total, but it took him 26 more games to do it.

That's not to say there weren't highlights. The Royals named the franchise's fourth-ever captain in March and he hit his 200th career homer to become just the 10th player in MLB history to hit that many as a catcher. Overall, however, Perez was streaky in 2023, which made the holes in his game all the more visible and opened the door for Rutschman to pass him by.

If Perez is De Niro, and MLB is Martin Scorcese in this scenario, Rutschman is Leonardo DiCaprio swooping in to steal all the best lead roles. Rutschman was voted the AL's starting catcher in the All-Star Game, and he feels like a shoo-in to beat out Raleigh and Perez for the Silver Slugger. One of the leaders of a young Orioles team that won 101 games, he has the best all-around numbers.

Kansas City fans won't want to hear it, but at this stage of their careers, Rutschman is a better catcher than Perez. That doesn't mean Salvy is through and can't still do great things, but he's not bringing home the Silver Slugger this time.

What about Witt's chances?

For Bobby Witt Jr., it's a sterling example of bad timing

These are the shortstop finalists:

J.P. Crawford (Seattle): .266/.380/.438, 19 homeruns, 65 RBIs, .818 OPS, 131 OPS+
Corey Seager (Texas): .327/.390/.623, 33 home runs, 96 RBIs, 1.013 OPS, 170 OPS+
Bobby Witt Jr. (KC): .276/.319/.495, 30 home runs, 96 RBIs, .813 OPS, 120 OPS+

Like his Seattle teammate Raleigh, Crawford had a fine season, but he's not going to win the award, so let's get straight to Witt and Seager.

Witt got off to a slow start, and at least some Royals fans spent the first two months of the season wondering why none of the club's top prospects ever seem to hit the ground running. At the end of June, he was slashing .244/.287/.415.

And then something clicked.

He hit over .300 over the last three months of the season, learned how to draw walks, and posted the first 30-30 season in Royals history. In short, Witt took his first big step toward becoming the superstar most expect him to be. In almost any other year, he'd have a strong chance of taking home his first Silver Slugger.

But let's be honest. He doesn't stand a chance. Seager played too well this season. Despite missing roughly four weeks with a hamstring injury suffered against KC in April, he has a legitimate case for AL MVP. He already won his second World Series MVP a few days ago, and he'll need to make even more space in his trophy case soon.

None of that takes away from what Witt accomplished this season. His own trophy case will overflow soon enough, but the timing isn't quite right for 2023.

The Silver Slugger Award winners will be announced November 9.

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