Friday newsletter time: Silver Slugger voters get Semien, Seager right, but miss on Garcia

(AP photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

No one in baseball was surprised to see second baseman Marcus Semien and shortstop Corey Seager named Thursday night as Silver Slugger winners. They are two of the three American League MVP finalists, after all.

They collected a combined 62 homers and 82 doubles in the regular season while driving in 196 runs. That definitely rates as award-worthy production.

Adolis Garcia collected 39 homers, 29 doubles and 107 RBIs. For that, he received nothing.

Luis Robert Jr., Julio Rodriguez and Kyle Tucker were the Silver Slugger winners in the AL outfield. Neither had as many home runs as Garcia, and Tucker edged him by five RBIs for the league lead. Each hit for a better average, so maybe that’s what cost Garcia.

He will just have to be happy with being named the MVP of the American League Championship Series and winning the World Series. Oh, and the team Silver Slugger Award, which the Rangers won.

The winners of the marquee individual awards, given annually by the Baseball Writers Association of America, are scheduled to be handed out next week.

The two Rangers fans will be eying are Manager of the Year and MVP. Bruce Bochy’s fate will be announced Tuesday, and Seager and Semien will learn Thursday how they fared. The guess here is not well, considering Shohei Ohtani is the other finalist.

Orioles manager Brandon Hyde might be the favorite to be named top manager.

All votes were due on the final day of the regular season, so nothing that happened in the postseason mattered. If it had, Bochy would be a shoo-in and Seager might have changed some voters’ minds.

Follow the money

Agent Scott Boras, never one to miss the spotlight at the GM Meetings, held court Wednesday afternoon and was quick to note that the Rangers went from 102 losses in 2021 to world champs in 2023 because they spent lavishly in free agency.

He would know first-hand, with Seager and Semien his clients.

That willingness to spend and the desire to repeat as the last team standing is going to lead to the Rangers being in many offseason rumors.

The Rangers are going to sign free agents this offseason, just not all of them.

They have already been linked to Ohtani and, more recently, right-hander Aaron Nolan and left-handed reliever Josh Hader. Jordan Montgomery is also a free agent, and the Rangers are planning to talk to him about coming back after being acquired at the trade deadline and pitching particularly well in the postseason.

With so many teams seeking pitching, the Rangers might be better off trading for Milwaukee’s Corbin Burnes or Cleveland’s Shane Beiber and then throwing them an extension to not test the free-agent market after next season.

The Rangers have prospects they can part with for a top-tier arm.

Card of the Week

Rangers Today has already published Ron Washington’s rookie card, the 1982 Topps Traded, as a card of the week. Long ago, I believe.

But he’s back in the news, back in the AL West and back in the manager’s seat after being hired Wednesday by the Angels.

He’s once again deserving of one of the highest honors that Rangers Today can bestow up on a player or coach.

I So, we did some searching, looking through years of cards, and decided that Washington’s 1984 Donruss is the Card of the Week.

He just seems pretty happy in this one, no doubt shot in spring training and no doubt after he just returned from winter ball.

Washington once said that he knew he would have to win a job each spring, so he went to winter ball so that he would be game-ready at the start camp and could turn heads with his early performances.

Hey, it worked out pretty well for him once he got out of the Dodgers organization, where he was blocked. The Twins weren’t very good in the early ’80s, and he got his chance to stick around the majors.

Now, he has another chance to manage.

Doggy video!

Doing his very best to not swallow the puppy whole. Enjoy.

Puppies are cute troublemakers 😂. So adorable pic.twitter.com/GWaluGcPuz

— Puppies 🐶 (@PuppiesIover) November 6, 2023

Jeff Wilson, jeff@rangerstoday.com