Aaron Judge, Gleyber Torres named Silver Slugger finalists

The MLB offseason is officially underway, and that means we have a few weeks of awards announcements to keep us occupied until “Hot Stove League” action takes over. The action started this morning, when Yankees Gleyber Torres and Aaron Judge were named nominees for this year’s Silver Slugger awards at second base and outfield, respectively.

Perhaps the team’s most consistent healthy hitter this past season, Torres slashed .273/.347/.453 at the keystone, good for a 123 wRC+ and 3.2 fWAR, his best numbers since his torrid 2019 campaign spent at shortstop. His 25 home runs and 68 runs driven in both ranked third among AL second basemen, trailing Marcus Semien (29, 100) and Brandon Drury (26, 83), both of whom were also nominated for the Silver Slugger.

The Yankees have a long history of offensive excellence at second base, and their nine Silver Sluggers at the position are the most of any franchise in either league. Willie Randolph won the inaugural award in 1980, Alfonso Soriano took home honors in 2002, and Robinson Canó was honored in 2006 and each year between 2010-13. Most recently, DJ LeMahieu was the back-to-back winner at the position in 2019 and 2020.

Even having only played in 106 games this year, Judge would appear in line for his fourth Silver Slugger in the outfield, and third in a row. Despite missing all that time, his 37 homers ranked third among AL outfielders, behind Adolis García (39) and Luis Robert Jr. (38), and his 174 wRC+ was once again tops in the league, with Yordan Alvarez (170) the only hitter within 30 points, and he spent more time at DH than in the outfield. Across big league history, only Mark McGwire managed a higher homer total (39) in the amount of time Judge saw on the field this year.

If named a winner, Judge would become the fifth Yankee to win at least four Silver Sluggers, joining Canó (5), Dave Winfield (5), Jorge Posada (4), and Derek Jeter (4). Other nominees in the outfield this season include García, Robert, Randy Arozarena, Kyle Tucker, Julio Rodríguez, and Anthony Santander. Winners will be announced at 6 p.m. ET on MLB Network on Thursday, November 9, one week from today.