Mariners' Randy Arozarena is on track to right a Silver Slugger wrong from 2025

We've often used the phrase "Randy being Randy" to encapsulate the whole whirlwind experience of having the mercurial Randy Arozarena on your team. A player who's extremely talented but doesn't always put his best foot forward, resulting in fans being equally likely to cheer him as they are to pull their hair out in frustration. Fortunately for the Mariners and their fanbase, this season they've mostly seen the best version of the three-time All-Star. And he's trending towards winning an award which has so far alluded him in his Major League career.

Last year was an excellent one for Arozarena who, among other things, set a new career-high of 27 home runs. He also stole 31 bases -- one off another career-high -- to complete a fifth consecutive 20-20 season and tie Mike Trout for the third-most in American League history. And yet he wasn't even a Silver Slugger finalist as an outfielder come season's end, with the Blue Jays' George Springer making the list despite playing 82 of his 140 games at designed hitter. (Springer was actually nominated at both outfielder and DH, to compound the snub.)

Well, at the risk of jinxing Arozarena, it's hard to imagine him being snubbed as a Silver Slugger finalist again this season. And that's at the very least, with the 31-year-old playing like a man possessed and having a better campaign overall, compared to 2025. For a start, he has already secured a sixth 20-20 season, to take him above Trout and tie for second-most all-time in the AL with Alex Rodriguez, one behind José Ramírez.

Randy Arozarena has added more consistency, to only enhance his overall offensive production for the Mariners

On the subject of Ramírez, he won six Silver Slugger Awards during his outstanding career; an award that goes to the best all around offensive players at each position. In this respect Arozarena has absolutely been an all around threat, including batting .272 after finishing at .238 last year, to represent one of the bigger batting average leaps over-over-year in the majors, at tied 11th-best. Overall he has just been an absolute menace at the plate, resulting in a new career-high 4.3 bWAR and ranking in the 95th percentile for Batting Run Value.

The talent has always been there with the enigmatic Arozarena, who has often shown a penchant for delivering in high-pressure moments. Look no further than when he helped the Rays make the World Series in 2020, being named 2020 ALCS MVP and setting a new Major League record which still stands to this day, with 10 home runs in a single postseason. (He also set the hits record, but this was surpassed by Ernie Clement last year.) However, what's really stood out to a lot of people is how consistent he has been this season.

There's a school of thought that the consistency has been motivated by this being a contract year for Arozarena, as he looks for a big payday. We wrote recently about the pros and cons of signing the 2021 AL Rookie of the Year, but overall there's no denying he's a big-time player who can help a team when he's on his game. And he deserves finally adding a Silver Slugger Award to an already impressive list of accolades, as he prepares to head into free agency.

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