Well, the Phillies won’t get totally shut out of the postseason hardware.
This week, Bryce Harper won his fourth career Silver Slugger Award, given to one player in each league voted on as the best offensive player at his position. Among National League first basemen who had enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title, Harper led them all in OPS (.898) and slugging percentage (.525), was second in home runs (30), runs scored (85), and on-base percentage (.373).
Harper won the award in his first full season playing first, a position he learned on the fly last season as he made his way back from Tommy John elbow surgery and it is the third position at which he has taken home a Silver Slugger, previously winning as an outfielder with the Nationals in 2015 and Phillies in 2021, and at designated hitter last season. By doing so, he joins Miguel Cabrera (1B, 3B, OF), Albert Pujols (1B, 3B, OF) and Al Oliver (1B, DH, OF) in pulling off that feat.
The Phillies have had at least one player win a Silver Slugger each season since 2019, except for the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
- 2023: Harper (DH)
- 2022: J.T. Realmuto (C), Kyle Schwarber (DH)
- 2021: Harper (OF)
- 2020: None
- 2019: J.T. Realmuto (C)
Major League Baseball began handing out Silver Slugger Awards beginning in 1980. Unsurprisingly, Mike Schmidt holds the franchise record with six Silver Sluggers, with second baseman Chase Utley holding the second-most, with four. No Phillie won one between 2009 and Realmuto in ‘19.
Two other Phillies who were named finalists, Realmuto and third baseman Alec Bohm, did not take the hardware. Milwaukee catcher William Contreras had the superior offensive season and deservedly won, as did San Diego’s Manny Machado at third. Houston second baseman Jose Altuve and Dodgers’ outfielder Mookie Betts led this year’s field of winners by hauling in their seventh Silver Slugger Award each.
Breaking down Cy Young odds
Now we turn our attention to one final postseason award left for a Phillie to grab – the NL Cy Young Award. Zack Wheeler is a finalist, along with Atlanta’s Chris Sale and the Pirates’ rookie phenom Paul Skenes. Sale is the favorite to win, leading Wheeler in Wins Above Replacement (6.2 to 6.1), ERA (2.38 to 2.57), Wins (18 to 16), and strikeouts (225 to 224).
The case for Wheeler is that he was very close to Sale in most of these categories and was one of just two National League pitchers to throw 200 innings or more, hurling 23 more innings than Sale. He also posted a better WHIP (walks plus hits per inning pitched), but it’s likely not going to be enough.
In 2021, Wheeler finished second in the Cy Young voting to Milwaukee’s Corbin Burnes in similar circumstances. Burnes pitched far fewer innings than Wheeler but had better overall numbers in many important categories.
Will voters reward Wheeler for being nearly as good as Sale but having faced more batters and thrown more pitches and innings than the veteran Brave?
We’ll see when the results from the Baseball Writers Association of America are announced on November 20.
