Brent Rooker, Shea Langeliers nominated for Silver Slugger Awards

Very well deserved recognition for both of them

It’s award season and we found out today that a pair of Athletics have been nominated for the Silver Slugger at their positions. Designated Hitter Brent Rooker and catcher Shea Langeliers will be among the finalists for the awards this year:

Both players more than deserved the nomination after stellar seasons with the bats. Rooker, who earns his first Silver Slugger nomination, was once again awesome with the bat this year, slashing .293/.365/.562 with 39 home runs, cementing himself as one of the top hitters in all of baseball. The 29-year old improved on his All-Star 2023 but was snubbed from the Midsummer Classic here in ‘24 even with better numbers. He showed that was a mistake as he kept up the production through the end of the year. and the right-handed slugging Rooker did damage against both left-handed and right-handed pitchers, with similar numbers against both. Considering Rooker will get some down-ballot MVP votes, as well as the fact that Shohei Ohtani is now in the National League, he has an excellent shot to win the Silver Slugger. His competition for the award is Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez and Yankees star Giancarlo Stanton, with Alvarez probably representing the tougher competition for it.

The other Athletic to be nominated for the Silver Slugger is starting catcher Shea Langeliers. The 3rd-year backstop was second in home runs among all catchers in baseball after swatting 29 long balls on the year, the most by an A’s catcher since Terry Steinbach’s 35 homers in 1996. He paired that with a less-than-stellar .224/.288/.450 slash line with a 145/41 K/BB ratio but the name of his game is the longball. He improved across every statistical category in his second full season as the A’s starting catcher and showed lots of encouraging growth as a hitter. The power was never in question but he took a step forward in that department and got better as a hitter all around. He still has lots of room to grow but among catchers, he’s already among the best hitters of them all. His competition for the Silver Slugger Award is a bit stiffer than Rooker’s path. Along with Langeliers the Astros’ Yanier Diaz, the Royals’ Salvador Perez, and the Mariner’s Cal Raleigh are finalists for the award, and just looking at the stats the favorite is likely Raleigh, who had better stats across the board. You never know though!

The awards will be announced next Tuesday, November 12th at 3 P.M. P.T. Fingers crossed!