Oh-so-close or snubbed. Whatever you call it, Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman has experienced the feeling a few times this year, including Wednesday, when he finished behind the Diamondbacks’ Paul Goldschmidt for the Silver Slugger award for National League first basemen.
No Braves were among nine NL winners of Silver Slugger awards presented to the league’s best hitter at each position, as voted by managers and coaches. Five-time winner Brian McCann was among three finalists who finished behind Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina, who won his first Silver Slugger award.
McCann won a handful of Silver Slugger awards from 2006-11, the only Brave to win the award since center fielder Andruw Jones in 2005.
The Braves’ Chris Johnson, who led the league in batting average for much of the season before finishing second at .321, was among four Silver Slugger candidates at third base. The award went to Pirates slugger Pedro Alvarez, who hit just .233 with a .296 on-base percentage and 186 strikeouts, but had 36 home runs and 100 RBIs.
Johnson, who had a .358 OBP, hit only 12 homers and 68 RBIs while playing what is a traditional power-hitting position.
On Tuesday, Freeman wasn’t among three finalists announced for the NL MVP award presented by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. The finalists — Molina, Goldschmidt, Pirates center fielder Andrew McCutchen — were announced during a special show on MLB Network, and host Harold Reynolds said on-air that Freeman got snubbed and that Reynolds would have voted for Freeman to win the MVP award.
Freeman also was initially left off the NL All-Star team in July, although he eventually was added to the team when he beat out Yasiel Puig and others in the NL “Final Vote” balloting among fans.
Freeman was the best hitter on a Braves team that won 96 games and the NL East title. He had a career-best season in his third season in the majors, batting .319 with a .396 OBP and a .501 slugging percentage, with 23 homers and 109 RBIs.
However, in this case it was hard to disagree with managers and coaches voting for Goldschmidt, who hit .302 with a .401 OBP, .551 slugging percentage, 36 homers and 125 RBIs.
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