KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Two Kansas City Royals players are finalists for 2023 Louisville Silver Slugger Awards at their positions.
Shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., who became the club’s first member of the 30-30 club in his second season, and veteran catcher Salvador Perez, who already owns four Silver Slugger Awards, made the cut.
Witt, who slashed .276/.319/.495 with 30 home runs and 49 stolen bases, is a finalist for the AL shortstop award along with Seattle’s J.P. Crawford and Texas’ Corey Seager, who was chosen Wednesday as World Series MVP after the Rangers claimed their first championship.
Crawford led the AL in walks and posted a .818 OPS, while Seager led the AL with 42 doubles and also socked 33 home runs with 96 RBIs and 1.013 OPS.
Only four players besides Witt have ever hit at least 30 home runs with at least 49 stolen bases — Eric Davis (1987), Barry Bonds (1990), Mike Trout (2012) and Ronald Acuna Jr. (2023).
Witt also led MLB with 11 triples.
Only five other AL players have hit at least 30 home runs with at least 10 triples in a season — Joe DiMaggio (1950), Mickey Mantle (1955), Jim Rice (1977, 1978), Nomar Garciaparra (1997) and Curtis Granderson (2011).
Witt finished in the top 10 in the AL in hits (177), triples, stolen bases, total bases (317), runs scored (97), extra-base hits (69) and batting average.
Seattle’s Cal Raleigh, who hit 30 home runs with a .762 OPS, and Baltimore’s Adley Rutschman, who finished with 52 extra-base hits and a .809 OPS, are the other finalists along with Perez for the AL catcher award.
Perez slashed .255/.292/.422 with 23 home runs and 80 RBIs — his seventh career 20-home run season, which is the second-most in Royals history behind George Brett’s eight, and sixth with at least 75 RBIs.
His 246 career home runs rank fourth in MLB history for home runs by a primary catcher with a single team behind only Johnny Bench (389), Yogi Berra (358) and Jorge Posada (275).
Perez previously won the Silver Slugger Award in 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2021.
The Silver Slugger Award winners, who are voted on by managers and coaches across MLB, will be announced during an hour-long show at 5 p.m. on Nov. 9 on the MLB Network.
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