AL Silver Slugger voting proves Mariners playoff hero earned respect long before October

The Seattle Mariners' offense mostly ran on the energy of Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodríguez in 2025. The former achieved a historic 60-homer season and the latter also made history with a 30-30 campaign, and it was all in service of the franchise's best offensive season in nearly a decade.

Yet as unsurprising as it is that Raleigh and Rodríguez were revealed — exclusively on FanSided, we might add — as Silver Slugger finalists for the American League, the third Mariner to get a nod only recently got the attention he already deserved: Jorge Polanco.

After what he did in the ALDS and ALCS, it's out there now that Polanco has a clutch gene like few hitters in Major League Baseball today. Yet before he was elevating the Mariners in the playoffs, he was very much there to help Raleigh and Rodríguez carry the offense in the regular season, too.

Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodríguez and Jorge Polanco earn nods as AL Silver Slugger finalists for 2025

With no disrespect to Shea Langeliers of the Athletics and Salvador Perez of the Kansas City Royals, Raleigh is absolutely going to beat his fellow AL catcher finalists and win what will be his first Silver Slugger.

"Big Dumper" had a season for the ages in 2025, becoming only the seventh player to reach 60 home runs and breaking records held by Perez (home runs by a catcher), Mickey Mantle (home runs as a switch-hitter) and Ken Griffey Jr. (home runs as a Mariner). Raleigh also led the American League with 125 RBI and was fourth with a .948 OPS — his 169 OPS+ was second, trailing only Aaron Judge.

Already a two-time Silver Slugger in his own right, Rodríguez faces stiffer competition among AL outfielders, with the other finalists consisting of Judge and Cody Bellinger of the New York Yankees, Byron Buxton of the Minnesota Twins, Riley Greene of the Detroit Tigers and George Springer of the Toronto Blue Jays. Judge, at least, figures to be one of the winners after hitting 53 homers and leading all of MLB in all three triple-slash categories, OPS and OPS+.

However, Julio did finish behind only Judge in oWAR among AL outfielders. He got off to his traditional slow start, but a dominant series in Detroit kicked off a 68-game finish in which he had a .954 OPS with 21 home runs and 15 stolen bases. Overall, he posted a 128 OPS+ with 32 homers and 30 steals.

If Polanco is a surprise inclusion among the Silver Slugger finalists at second base, it is only because he made 87 starts at DH and just 34 at the keystone. To this end, Jazz Chisholm Jr. of the Yankees or Brandon Lowe of the Tampa Bay Rays is arguably more deserving of the AL Silver Slugger for second base.

Polanco did, however, top both of them with a 134 OPS+ for the season — a mark that also easily led AL players who logged at least 30 games at second base. He sandwiched a dominant beginning and end around a cold middle, posting a 1.226 OPS in April and finishing with an .899 OPS in July, August and September.

Through it all, Polanco was the most clutch hitter in baseball. This is at least according to FanGraphs' clutch stat, which weighs how a hitter does in high-leverage spots compared to a context-neutral environment. Polanco had a 1.146 OPS in high-leverage, compared to an .821 OPS overall.

The Mariners' playoff run allowed Polanco to take his clutch talents mainstream. He homered twice off Tarik Skubal in Game 2 of the ALDS, and then recorded game-winning RBIs in ALDS Game 5 and Games 1 and 2 of the ALCS.

Assuming Polanco declines his $6 million player option for 2026, he's set to become a free agent for the second time in as many offseasons. He has never won a Silver Slugger despite past seasons that include 33 home runs in 2021 and 40 doubles and 22 home runs in 2019. If he wins this one, it wouldn't exactly hurt his negotiating leverage.