On Monday afternoon, Major League Baseball announced finalists for the 2021 Louisville Slugger Silver Slugger Award honoring baseball’s top offensive players. The list included Dodgers Max Muncy, Trea Turner, Will Smith, and Justin Turner. Baseball’s most prestigious offensive award is decided by a vote from each team’s manager and three coaches of the team’s choosing.

Muncy and Smith are finalists at first base and catcher respectively, with Trea Turner nominated at shortstop and Justin Turner at second base; this even though Trea spent most of his time as the Dodgers second baseman and Justin all of his time as their third baseman. The (apparent) reason for this is that, because of the ever-popular shift (at least among managers and coaches, not necessarily among old-school baseball purists), Trea was frequently positioned on the shortstop side of second base and Justin on the right side of the bag, often in short right field.

Muncy slugged a career-high (and team-leading) 36 home runs, finishing his injury-shortened 2021 season with a slash line of .249/.368/.527/.895. He also led the team with his 94 RBI and owned an outstanding 1.144 OPS with runners in scoring position.

Smith established himself as one of the top defensive catchers in the game while slashing .258/.365/.495/.860 with 25 home runs and 76 RBI. Thirteen of his home runs gave the Dodgers the lead, with nine coming in tied games and seven in “late and close” situations, as they are officially called.

Trea Turner became the first Dodger to win the NL batting title since Tommy Davis did so in 1963. He finished the regular season with an MLB-best .328 batting average (195 hits), a .385 on-base percentage, a .565 slugging percentage, and a .950 OPS. He also hit a career-high 28 home runs and had a National League-best 32 stolen bases to become the first Dodger to win a batting title and lead the league in steals since Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson did so in 1949. The Dodgers acquired Trea at the trade deadline and immediately made him their everyday second baseman.

Justin Turner tied his career-high of 27 home runs while slashing .278/.361/.471/1.005, with 87 RBI. He was also hit by pitches 12 times during the 2021 regular season.

Here are the 2021 Louisville Slugger Award finalists from both leagues:

National League

• 1B: Freddie Freeman (ATL), Joey Votto (CIN), Paul Goldschmidt (STL), Max Muncy (LAD)
• 2B: Ozzie Albies (ATL), Jonathan India (CIN), Jake Cronenworth (SD), Justin Turner (LAD)
• 3B: Austin Riley (ATL), Manny Machado (SD), Nolan Arenado (STL), Patrick Wisdom (CHC)
• SS: Fernando Tatis Jr. (SD), Brandon Crawford (SF), Trea Turner (LAD), Willy Adames (MIL)
• OF: Juan Soto (WAS), Nick Castellanos (CIN), Bryce Harper (PHI), Bryan Reynolds (PIT),
• Adam Duvall (ATL), Jesse Winker (CIN), Tyler O’Neill (STL)
• C: Buster Posey (SF), Will Smith (LAD), J.T. Realmuto (PHI), Omar Narváez (MIL)
• P: German Marquez (COL), Max Fried (ATL), Jacob DeGrom (NYM), Madison Bumgarner (AZ)

American League

• 1B: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (TOR), Yuli Gurriel (HOU), Matt Olson (OAK)
• 2B: Marcus Semien (TOR), Jose Altuve (HOU), DJ LeMahieu (NYY), Jorge Polanco (MIN)
• 3B: Rafael Devers (BOS), Jose Ramirez (CLE), Kyle Seager (SEA)
• SS: Carlos Correa (HOU), Xander Bogaerts (BOS), Tim Anderson (CWS), Bo Bichette (TOR)
• OF: Cedric Mullins (BAL), Teoscar Hernández (TOR), Aaron Judge (NYY), Kyle Tucker (HOU),
• Mitch Haniger (SEA), Lourdes Gurriel Jr. (TOR), Hunter Renfroe (BOS), Randy Arozarena (TB)
• C: Salvador Perez (KC), Mike Zunino (TB), Gary Sánchez (NYY)
• DH: Shohei Ohtani (LAA), Yordan Álvarez (HOU), Giancarlo Stanton (NYY), Joey Gallo (NYY), Nelson Cruz (TB)

Winners will be announced on Thursday, November 11 at 3 p.m. PT on MLB Network.

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