Since 1980, the Silver Slugger Award has been given to the best offensive players at each position in both the American and National Leagues, as determined by MLB coaches and managers. But while that sounds fine and dandy in theory, in practice ... well, things have had a tendency to get a little bit messy.
The 1980s and 1990s were not exactly a high-information age around baseball; we were all mostly just sorting by the home run column and winging it from there when it became to determining a hitter's value. And even in the (relatively) more enlightened 21st century, sometimes stuff just falls through the cracks. The result: While Silver Sluggers do have a pretty good hit rate overall, there have still been some downright egregious snubs over the last 45 years.
We've decided to document eight of the very worst below. Will any of this year's recipients get added to the list? We'll just have to wait to find out: Louisville Slugger and FanSided will partner to announce the NL finalists on Wednesday, Oct. 22, and the AL finalists on Thursday, Oct. 23, with the winners revealed on Nov. 6 and Nov. 7 respectively.
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2022: Albert Pujols, DH, St. Louis Cardinals
Actual winner: Josh Bell, Washington Nationals/San Diego Padres
By every statistical measure, Pujols outperformed Bell — and every other National League DH — in what wound up being his final Major League season in 2022. His 148 wRC+ was tops at the position, far better than Bell's 124 mark, and he slugged .550 to Bell's .422.
The problem, at least in the eyes of voters, is that Pujols did it in 109 games, while Bell played 156 between the Nationals and Padres. Never mind that the difference in playing time didn't even result in a difference in counting stats (Pujols outpaced Bell in homers, 24 to 17), or that Bell spent the extra games being downright awful in San Diego (he posted a .587 OPS in 53 games after a deadline trade, good for a negative WAR). Just being on the field more often was enough to carry a clearly inferior case.
2019: Juan Soto, OF, Washington Nationals; Ketel Marte, OF, Arizona Diamondbacks
Actual winner: Ronald Acuña Jr., Atlanta Braves
After winning Rookie of the Year honors the year prior, Acuña became a full-fledged star in 2019, posting a 125 wRC+ while missing a 40/40 season by just three stolen bases. He was still just 21, and he was already one of the most exciting players in the sport.
Unfortunately, as electric as he was, both Soto and Marte were simply better. Marte's 150 wRC+ may not have come with quite as many dingers or steals, but that shouldn't have been enough to close what was a very sizable gap in offensive production. Soto wasn't far behind with a 143 mark, including an OBP north of .400 while leading the Nationals to the World Series. Acuña may have been the most electric player to watch, but he was not one of the three best hitting outfielders in baseball that season.
2011: Miguel Cabrera, 1B, Detroit Tigers
Actual winner: Adrian Gonzalez, Boston Red Sox
The year before his Triple Crown campaign in 2012, Miggy somehow didn't even manage to take home Silver Slugger honors at his own position. Gonzalez was sensational for the Red Sox, driving in 117 runs and slashing a cool .338/.410/.548 — sensational numbers. But Cabrera was somehow even better: He slashed .344/.448/.586 that year for Detroit, outdoing Gonzalez in all three categories while posting a 177 wRC+ to Gonzalez's 155. In fact, outside of RBI, you'd be hard-pressed to find a meaningful way in which Cabrera didn't outhit his counterpart in Boston, making this a truly baffling result.
1996: Jeff Bagwell, 1B, Houston Astros
Actual winner: Andres Galarraga, Colorado Rockies
Baseball was still very much in the dark ages in the mid-1990s, statistically speaking, and the novelty of mile-high dingers at Coors Field did a number on everybody. That's the only way I can explain how Bagwell (1.021 OPS, 173 wRC+) didn't win this award over Galarraga (.958, 123). The Big Cat's wRC+ ranked sixth among NL first basemen that season; but he did hit a league-leading 47 homers with an MLB-leading 150 RBI, and we didn't really know about context-adjusted metrics yet, so that was enough to hand him the hardware.
1996: Edgar Martinez, DH, Seattle Mariners
Actual winner: Paul Molitor, Minnesota Twins
And yet, somehow, that wasn't even the most egregious snub of the 1996 season. (I told you baseball was in the dark ages.) This mishap can be summed up by two simple words, ones that mean a whole lot less now than they did back then: batting average.
That's the only edge that Molitor, who hit .341 for Minnesota in 1996, had over Martinez, who by then had already established himself as one of the best pure hitters in the sport. Martinez posted a still-preposterous .464 OBP (!) and .595 slugging percentage, good for a 163 wRC+ that easily paced AL DHs that year. Molitor, by contrast, sat at just 114, hitting nine homers and 58 extra-base hits all season. Martinez, on the other hand, had 52 doubles, not to mention 26 dingers.
1995: Jim Thome, 3B, Cleveland
Actual winner: Gary Gaetti, Kansas City Royals
Yes, seriously: Thome first came up with Cleveland as a third baseman, and he managed to fight the position to a draw for a while before age and size took their toll. Nonetheless, this is an offense-only award, and offensively, there was nobody at the hot corner like Thome in 1995.
He was one of the most balanced hitters in MLB, slashing .314/.438/.558 and ending up with a position-best 158 wRC+. In fact, he may have been a bit too balanced, because while he "only" hit 25 homers, Gaetti led all third basemen with 35. Of course, that came with a markedly worse OBP (.329) and SLG (.518), but hey: That's just where we were at in the mid-90s.
1994: Paul O'Neill, OF, New York Yankees
Actual winner: Kirby Puckett, Minnesota Twins
How good was Paul O'Neill in the strike-shortened 1994 season? He hit 21 homers in just 103 games, and he managed the ridiculous feat of clearing a .450 OBP while slugging over .600. His wRC+ of 171 was second among all qualified AL outfielders, even ahead of some guy named Ken Griffey Jr.
Puckett, on the other hand, was way down at 124. To be honest, I can't even begin to understand what the voters were thinking here: Puckett drove in more runs, but in literally every other category he was significantly behind O'Neill. Granted, driving in 112 runs in just 108 games is impressive, but come on.
1991: Danny Tartabull, OF, Kansas City Royals
Actual winner: Joe Carter, Toronto Blue Jays
He'd yet to become a star on Seinfeld, but Tartabull was still darn good in 1991, leading all AL outfielders in slugging (.593) and wRC+ (168, 16 points ahead of second-place Jose Canseco). Heck, he was third in OBP behind only Griffey Jr. and Rickey Henderson. It was a truly dominant season.
And yet, the award went to Carter, who hit two more homers and drove in eight more runs and was in every other respect a significantly less dominant hitter. His 123 wRC+ ranked 12th at his position in the AL, and despite that homer total, he slugged nearly 100 points lower than Tartabull did. If you think the discourse is bad now, just imagine what it was like 35 years ago.