Slugging Sensations: Dodgers Historic Sliver Slugger Wins

The Los Angeles Dodgers continue to reign in the accolades since winning a World Series title over the New York Yankees and solidifying themselves among the best teams in franchise history.

With the 2024 Silver Slugger Award winners announced this week, the Dodgers and San Diego Padres tied for the MLB lead with three each.

 

Meanwhile, the Yankees won Offensive Team of the Year in the American League and had two Silver Sluggers, which tied the Kansas City Royals for most in their league.

Since the award’s inception in 1981, the Dodgers have five prior instances in which they had two Silver Slugger winners on the same team (1981, 1988, 1993, 1995, 2009). This season, they batted .258/.335/.446 with 845 runs scored, leading the National League in wRC+ (118), slugging percentage, home runs (233) and on-base plus slugging (.781).

The Dodgers were honored with the Team Silver Slugger Award, beating out the Arizona Diamondbacks. Most importantly, the performance of Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani and Teoscar Hernández were recognized, as they each earned individual Silver Slugger honors.

Ohtani, Betts and Hernández left their collective mark in franchise history as the first time three Dodgers won a Silver Slugger in the same year.

Dodgers make franchise history with Silver Slugger Awards

Shohei Ohtani

Becoming the first member of the 50/50 club with a career high in home runs with 54 and stolen bases with 59, Ohtani surpassed expectations in his first season with the Dodgers.

Ohtani’s 159 games played this past season were the most of his big league career. Ohtani tallied his third career Silver Slugger, first in the NL, with his prior two coming in the AL with the Los Angeles Angels.

Ohtani is the favorite for NL MVP, after leading the league in several impact categories. Since being moved to the leadoff spot of the Dodgers lineup, he stayed there for a majority of the season, creating unbelievable scoring potential and offensive versatility.

Mookie Betts

Edging out three others, Betts won a seventh career Silver Slugger, and his sixth in the past seven seasons.

Betts batted .289/.372/.491 with 24 doubles, five triples, 19 home runs and 75 RBI in 116 games this year. Missing nearly two months of the season, he earned qualified hitter status by a mere 14 plate appearances.

Logging time at multiple positions, Betts appeared at second base (18 games) and shortstop (65 games) before ultimately landing in right field (43 games) for the remainder of the season because of team needs. The 32-year-old complied the 11th-best fWAR in the NL, despite missing so much time.

Teoscar Hernández

Hernández nabbed his third career Silver Slugger and first since the 2021 season.

Appearing in 154 games, Hernández batted .272/.339/.501 with 32 doubles, two triples, 33 home runs, 99 RBI and 12 stolen bases. Hernández led NL outfielders in homers, slugging percentage and RBI.

His 4.3 bWAR in 2024 was his best mark during a full 162-game season.