Red Sox’s Lone Silver Slugger Finalist Revealed
The Boston Red Sox had one of the best lineups in baseball this year, ranking seventh in MLB in scoring and ninth in OPS. However, they relied more on depth and platooning than star power, as nobody on the team hit more than 25 home runs or drove in 100 runs.
Accordingly, it’s not too surprising that the Red Sox only have one Silver Slugger finalist this year, especially since two of their best hitters — Rafael Devers and Roman Anthony — only played half a season for them before getting traded and hurt, respectively.
On Thursday, Boston’s lone Silver Slugger finalist was revealed, and it was third baseman Alex Bregman.
Bregman was the team’s lone All-Star position player as well. Despite missing 48 games this season, he still batted .273/.360/.462 (128 OPS+) with 18 homers, 28 doubles, 62 RBI, 3.5 WAR and his highest OPS since 2019 — the year he won his only Silver Slugger award.
The three-time All-Star was one of three American League finalists for the award along with Tampa Bay Rays slugger Junior Caminero and Cleveland Guardians star Jose Ramirez, both of whom have much stronger cases.
Caminero ranked third in the AL in home runs (45) and fifth in RBI (110), making him the league’s top slugger at the position. Meanwhile, Ramirez turned in another stellar season at the hot corner with 30 homers, 85 RBI, an .863 OPS and 5.8 WAR.
Caminero will likely win, but being a finalist is still impressive. Finalists are determined by a vote of managers and coaches who cast ballots for players at each position in their league. Each team gets to cast four votes between the manager and three coaches of the team’s choice.
National League winners will be announced on Thursday, Nov. 6, at 6 p.m. ET, while AL winners will be announced the following night at the same time.