Three A’s Standouts Up for Silver Slugger Honors

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A’s designated hitter Brent Rooker, catcher Shea Langeliers, and first baseman Nick Kurtz have been named 2025 Louisville Slugger Silver Slugger Award finalists. Rooker won the award last season and became the first A’s player to win since third baseman Eric Chavez in 2002. The A’s have not had back-to-back Silver Slugger Award winners since first baseman Jason Giambi in 2001 and Chavez in 2002.

Rooker, 30, batted .262 with 30 home runs, 89 RBI, and a .814 OPS in a career-high 162 games this season, including 135 games at designated hitter. Rooker also collected 40 doubles and was the only American League player to hit 30 home runs and 40 doubles this season.

He is just the fifth player in A’s history to record 30 home runs and 40 doubles in a season, joining Marcus Semien (2019), Eric Chavez and Jason Giambi (2001), and Al Simmons (1929 & 1930). 

Langeliers, 27, batted .277 with 31 home runs, 72 RBI, and a .861 OPS in 123 games this season, including 108 games at catcher. Among American League catchers, Langeliers ranked second in batting average, home runs, doubles (32), and slugging percentage (.536), and third in RBI, on-base percentage (.325), and extra-base hits (63). He joined Terry Steinbach in 1996 as the only catchers in A’s history with 30 home runs in a season.

Kurtz, 22, batted .290 with 36 home runs, 86 RBI, and a 1.002 OPS in 117 games played, including 112 games at first base. He led American League first basemen in home runs, OPS, ranked second in extra-base hits (64), and runs scored (90), and third in RBI and walks (63).

His 36 home runs were the second most in a season by an A’s rookie, trailing only Mark McGwire’s 49 home runs in 1987. On July 25 at Houston, Kurtz went a perfect 6-for-6, tying the MLB record for home runs (4), extra-base hits (5), and total bases in a game (19). He won both American League Rookie of the Month as well as American League Player of the Month for July.

The Silver Slugger Award is the top offensive award in Major League Baseball, with the season’s best players at each position selected in a vote by MLB coaches and managers in their respective leagues.

Each team receives four votes: the manager and three coaches of their choice. Votes are based on a combination of offensive statistics including OBP, OPS, OPS+, home runs, hits, RBI and batting average as well as the managers’ and coaches’ general impressions of a player’s overall offensive value. Louisville Slugger has presented the Silver Slugger Awards annually since 1980.