Twenty-four hours after Dodgers right fielder Yasiel Puig was unjustifiably snubbed by National League coaches and managers for the 2017 Rawlings Gold Glove Award, an award that he absolutely, positively and unequivocally deserved, those same coaches and managers got it right on Thursday afternoon when they named Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager as the recipient of the 2017 Louisville Slugger Silver Slugger Award from among all National League shortstops. It is the second consecutive year that the 23-year-old Charlotte, North Carolina native has won the prestigious award in his first two major league seasons.

Seager will now have a second Silver Slugger trophy to go along with this one that he won in 2016 … not to mention his 2016 NL Rookie of the Year trophy, of course. (Photo credit – Jill Weisleder)

What makes Seager’s accomplishment even more impressive is that the young Dodgers shortstop missed 11 straight games from August 29 through September 7 (except for five pinch-hit at-bats during that time) due to a back injury that manager Dave Roberts described as “muscular in nature.” He returned in time to play in the three National League Division Series games against the Arizona Diamondbacks but was held out of the five NLCS games against the Chicago Cubs. He then returned and played every inning of each of the seven World Series games against the Houston Astros, including extra innings in games two and five. That being said, postseason statistics are not taken into account for any of the annual MLB awards.

During the regular season, Seager posted a very impressive .295 batting average, .375 on-base percentage, and .479 slugging percentage for a very good .854 OPS in the 145 games in which he played . Along the way he slugged 33 doubles and 22 home runs, while driving in 77 runs and scoring 85. And even though it didn’t count towards his eventual Silver Slugger prize, his dramatic sixth-inning home run in game-2 of the World Series was arguably the biggest of his brief two-year MLB career and brought out an extremely rare (and well-deserved) show of emotions from the young shortstop that Dodger fans will long remember.

Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager with a rare show of emotion after slugging a two run home run in game-2 of the 2017 World Series to give the Dodgers a then 3-1 lead. Unfortunately, the Dodgers would eventually lose by a score of 7-6 in what many are calling the most exciting World Series game ever played.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

In addition to Seager’s second consecutive Silver Slugger Award, there were eight first-time recipients: Marcell Ozuna, Eric Hosmer, Aaron Judge, Francisco Lindor, Jose Ramirez, Gary Sanchez, World Series MVP George Springer and pitcher Adam Wainwright.

Charlie Blackmon, Nelson Cruz, Daniel Murphy, Giancarlo Stanton and Seager claimed their second sterling silver bats, while veterans Nolan Arenado, Paul Goldschmidt and Justin Upton each won for the third time. Topping this prestigious list are World Series star Jose Altuve and longtime Dodgers nemesis Buster Posey, who won their fourth such award.

Each of the 18 winning players takes home a beautifully crafted Silver Slugger Award from Louisville Slugger in honor of their achievements. The Silver Slugger Award is the top offensive award in Major League Baseball, with the top players at each position in each league selected in a vote by the aforementioned MLB coaches and managers, who cannot vote for players on their own respective teams.

Here is a complete list of the 2017 National League and American League Silver Slugger Award winners: