3 Cubs Players Named Finalists For NL Silver Slugger Award

Representing the Cubs are second baseman Nico Hoerner, center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong and right fielder Kyle Tucker.

Out of the three, it feels as if Hoerner has the best chance at taking home one of the individual awards. He is going up against Arizona’s Ketel Marte and Brice Turang of the Brewers.

While the Chicago star doesn’t have the power output of his peers, he was incredibly productive with the bat this season. He produced a .297/.345/.394 slash line with seven home runs, 29 doubles, four triples and 61 RBI.

His elite contact and bat-to-ball skills were on display all season. Hoerner had a minuscule strikeout rate of 7.6%, the best single-season number of his career.

Crow-Armstrong and Tucker being named finalists for the award speaks volumes to just how productive they were early in the season. But summer swoons sapped both of their overall numbers.

Tucker at least had a plausible reason why. He suffered a fractured bone in his hand and kept playing through it. Once Craig Counsell gave him a few days of rest to reset, he came back looking like a star once again.

Crow-Armstrong, Tucker likely vying for one Silver Slugger Award

He had a .333/.424/.647 slash line across 14 games and 59 plate appearances with four home runs, four doubles and 11 RBI.

Alas, that multi-week drought and missing 3+ weeks in September with an injury likely takes him out of the running. His numbers are certainly worthy with a .266/.377/.464 slash line across 136 games and 597 plate appearances. The stat sheet was stuffed with 22 home runs, 25 doubles, four triples and 73 RBI.

Crow-Armstrong’s tale of two halves was hard to fathom. He looked like a legitimate NL MVP candidate early in the season. An all-world defender, a clean sweep of awards looked within reason.

But his numbers took a nosedive after the All-Star break. His aggressive approach at the plate caught up to him, chasing a ton of pitches out of the zone and not finding anywhere near as much positive production.

It was still an incredibly productive campaign for Crow-Armstrong. He finished with 31 home runs, 37 doubles, four triples and 91 RBI. It will be interesting to see how the selection process shakes out.

The two Chicago sluggers are likely vying for one spot, along with James Wood of the Washington Nationals and Kyle Stowers of the Miami Marlins. Corbin Carroll of the Diamondbacks and Juan Soto of the New York Mets feel like shoo-ins for two of the spots.