The Silver Slugger awards were held tonight, with Andrew McCutchen and Pedro Alvarez winning awards at their respective positions. For the second year in a row and second time in his career, Andrew McCutchen won a Silver Slugger award in the outfield. Meanwhile, Alvarez won the first of his career, taking home the NL third base Silver Slugger.
McCutchen had a strong offensive season again this year, hitting for a .317/.404/.508 line in 674 plate appearances. Among NL outfielders, he ranked third in batting average, second in on-base percentage, fourth in slugging percentage, third in OPS (.911), 12th in home runs (21), and fourth in stolen bases (27). McCutchen also finished second among NL outfielders in wRC+ (155) and tied for third in wOBA (.393). The other two outfielders to win in the NL were Jay Bruce and Michael Cuddyer.
Alvarez led all NL third basemen in slugging percentage (.473) and home runs (36). The home runs weren’t close, as he hit ten more than second place Ryan Zimmerman. No other NL third baseman had more than 19. Using more traditional stats, Alvarez finished with 100 RBIs, and was the only NL third baseman to finish with more than 82 RBIs. Alvarez finished fifth in wRC+ (111) and tied for fourth in wOBA (.330). There were some better all-around hitters at the position, but Alvarez was clearly the best at the “slugging” aspect of the award this year.
