Kansas City Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr. & Salvador Perez are Silver Slugger finalists
Bobby Witt Jr. could soon add a touch of silver to the golden hardware he’s already won this offseason.
And teammate Salvador Perez could further cement his Hall of Fame candidacy with another top honor of his own.
Both Kansas City Royals stars have claimed some impressive hardware in recent days. Witt won the American League Gold Glove Award as a shortstop, while Perez, KC’s team captain who played catcher, first base and designated hitter this year, won the 2024 Roberto Clemente Award.
Now, Witt and Perez are finalists for the 2024 American League Silver Slugger Awards — Perez as a catcher.
“I think they are definitely deserving,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “They were two of the best offensive performers all year, not only for us, but league wide. (It’s) definitely deserving. I think they are the kind of guys that we are going to build around and they are great on the field and off the field.”
Witt, 24, enjoyed a career season. He won the AL batting title with a .332 average, 211 hits, 32 home runs and 109 RBIs. He registered a 9.4 WAR (wins above replacement) and finished the year with an array of defensive highlights.
This season, Witt became the first shortstop with consecutive 30-30 campaigns. He made his first All-Star Game and appeared in the T-Mobile Home Run Derby.
He also ranked first among qualified AL shortstops in multiple statistical categories, including runs, RBIs, slugging percentage and on-base percentage.
Per Baseball Reference, Witt is the first player in Major League Baseball history to finish a season with 10 (or more) triples, 30 (or more) stolen bases, 30 (or more) home runs and 40 (or more) doubles in a season.
Now Witt — nominated for the second year in a row — is vying to become the first Royals shortstop to win the Silver Slugger Award. Gunnar Henderson (Baltimore Orioles) and Corey Seager (Texas Rangers) are also nominated.
If Witt wins, he’ll become the 13th shortstop to take both honors — Silver Slugger and Gold Glove — in a single season.
The Royals have had 16 AL Silver Slugger honorees in club history. Perez has taken home the award four times and is the most recent KC player to do so (2021).
Perez is a finalist this time alongside Yainer Diaz (Houston Astros), Cal Raleigh (Seattle Mariners) and Shea Langeliers (Oakland Athletics).
It’s Perez’s 10th Silver Slugger nomination in the past 11 seasons, and the Royals relied on him for a significant portion of their offense in 2024. He batted .271 with 160 hits, 27 home runs and 104 RBIs.
He also made his ninth All-Star Game appearance and KC returned to the playoffs for the first time since 2015, when Perez was MVP of the 2015 World Series.
Should Perez win his fifth Silver Slugger, he’d join an exclusive list of MLB catchers.
Just eight big-league catchers won at least five times: Mike Piazza (10), Iván Rodríguez (7), Brian McCann (6), Lance Parrish (6), Gary Carter (5), Joe Mauer (5), Jorge Posada (5) and Buster Posey (5).
Ten Royals have claimed Silver Slugger awards, but KC has had multiple winners in the same season just twice: 1980 (George Brett and Willie Wilson) and 1982 (Wilson and Hal McRae).
This story was originally published November 4, 2024 at 10:06 AM.
