Five Yankees named Silver Slugger finalists

A disappointing end to the season doesn’t keep the Yankees from individual recognition. 

On Monday evening the finalists for the 2021 Silver Slugger Awards were named, and the New York Yankees are well represented.

The Yankees have five finalists for the awards this season.

• DJ LeMahieu, 2B
• Gary Sánchez, C
• Aaron Judge, OF
• Giancarlo Stanton, DH
• Joey Gallo, DH*
  * – Gallo split the 2021 season between the Rangers and Yankees. 

What’s perhaps the most surprising is that at least two of the five names didn’t have good offensive seasons for the Yankees in 2021.

How’d they do it?

LeMahieu has won an American League Silver Slugger Award in each of his first two years with the Yankees, making this his third consecutive AL nomination. However, he didn’t have a great year. LeMahieu’s .711 OPS was his lowest since 2014 and he had an OPS+ of only 97 this season.

Sánchez won a Silver Slugger Award in 2017 when he posted a career-high 250 total bases with 90 RBI. He slashed an incredibly mediocre .204/.307/.423 this season with 23 homers and 54 RBI.

Judge won a Silver Slugger when he also took home AL Rookie of the Year honors in 2017. This year, Judge slashed .287/.373/.544 with 299 total bases, the second highest total of his career.

Stanton has previously won two Silver Slugger awards, but both came with the Marlins in the National League (2014 and 2017). He hit 35 home runs and drove in 97 this year, his best production since his first year with the Yankees in 2018.

And Gallo, who was acquired in a six-player trade before the deadline this summer, is seeking his first career Silver Slugger Award. He finished the season with a 122 OPS+ in spite of a .199 batting average. Gallo hit 13 home runs and drove in 22 runs while slashing .160/.303/.404 in 58 games after being acquired by the Yankees.