Corey Seager wins National League Silver Slugger Award

LOS ANGELES — Among the many accomplishments achieved by Corey Seager in his fantastic rookie season of 2016 was becoming the first Dodgers shortstop to win a Silver Slugger Award, given annually to the top offensive players at each position in each league.

Seager was the National League Silver Slugger Award winner at shortstop, announced on MLB Network on Thursday night.

The Silver Slugger Awards are voted on by managers and coaches in each league, with the caveat that they can’t vote for players on their own team. The Silver Slugger Awards have been around since 1980.

Seager hit .308/.365/.512 with 26 home runs and a .372 OBA in 2016, and led all National League shortstops in batting average, hits (193), runs scored (105), doubles (40) and total bases (321). Seager finished second in on-base percentage to Jonathan Villar of the Brewers (.369), and finished second to Trevor Story of the Rockies in home runs (27), slugging percentage (.567), OPS (.909) and wOBA (.380).

But adjusted for park and league, Seager was tops in the majors among shortstops in both OPS+ (137) and wRC+ (137).

Seager is the third Dodgers rookie to win a Silver Slugger Award, joining pitcher Fernando Valenzuela (1981) and Mike Piazza (1993).

A pair of other Dodgers had cases for Silver Slugger Awards, but fell just short.

Yasmani Grandal hit .228/.339/.477 and led all major league catchers in home runs (27) and walks (64) while driving in 72 runs. He lost out to Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos, who had a great year in his own right, hitting .307/.354/.496 with 22 home runs and 80 RBI.

Ramos had narrow leads over Grandal in both OPS+ (123 to 121) and wRC+ (124 to 122), and also had 66 more plate appearances.

Justin Turner hit .275/.339/.493 with career highs in doubles (34), home runs (27) and RBI (90). His 124 wRC+ equaled that of Nolan Arenado of the Rockies, who led the league in home runs (41) and RBI (133) for a second straight season and captured his second straight Silver Slugger Award.

Another hot corner candidate was MVP favorite Kris Bryant, who hit .292/.385/.554 with 39 home runs, 35 doubles, 75 walks and a league-best 121 runs scored for the Cubs. His 149 OPS+ and 149 wRC+ far outpaced everyone else at third base in the National League.

Bryant started 100 games at third base in 2016 plus 48 more in the outfield and six games at first base in 2016.

Eight of the nine National League winners are first-time Silver Sluggers.