Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports
Jeff McNeil has won the National League Silver Slugger award at second base.
McNeil deserving won the award after having one of the best bounce-back seasons of all time. After batting.251 with an 87 OPS+ in 2021, McNeil led the NL with a .326 batting average and finished with a 140 OPS+.
The other candidates nominated for the award were Ketel Marte, Jake Cronenworth, Brendan Rodgers, and Kolten Wong. Compared to the other nominees, McNeil had a far superior offensive season. The closest candidate to McNeil’s season was Cronenworth, but he had 1.7 less fWAR and a 110 wRC+ compared to McNeil’s 143 wRC+.
McNeil joined Edgardo Alfonzo as the only other Met to win a Silver Slugger at second base. Alfonzo won his award in 1999 when the Mets made an NLCS appearance against the Braves. McNeil also became the first Met to win a Silver Slugger award since Yoenis Céspedes won in 2016.
Pete Alonso, Francisco Lindor, Starling Marte, and Brandon Nimmo were also nominated for the Silver Slugger awards. None of them won at their respective positions. McNeil was also nominated for the utility Silver Slugger award but a player can only win one Silver Slugger per year.
The Silver Slugger award is yet another milestone that McNeil obtained in the 2022 season. He also became the first Mets player in team history to lead the majors in average.
