The New York Yankees’ lineup may have been muted during the postseason, but during the full 162-game slate, they cracked the code. After losing Juan Soto, Brian Cashman pivoted, bringing in Cody Bellinger to fill the outfield gap. In Year 1 in the Bronx, he earned a Silver Slugger finalist nod. So did Aaron Judge, the likely AL MVP, as well as Jazz Chisholm Jr. at second base, Ben Rice in the utility role, and the … entire damned batting order, combining forces to rival the Mariners and Blue Jays as the AL’s Team of the Year.
All the league’s coaches and managers who weighed in saw their votes tallied, and the Yankees took home three honors this week live on the Baseball Insiders stream. Judge won – naturally – and, while Bellinger came up short to Riley Greene and Byron Buxton, his campaign was undoubtedly gilded. Chisholm was also victorious, as was the full roster in the team category.
Stunningly empty-handed, though, was Rice, who was nominated in the utility slot for playing 29 games at catcher and 46 at first base.
He bashed 26 homers on the year with a 131 OPS+, but clearly the voters took the more standard definition of utility to heart. Zach McKinstry of the Tigers came out on top – with far inferior offensive numbers (113 OPS+, 12 homers), but much more aligned with the textbook’s interpretation of “utility”. They wanted a gutty, gritty grinder and glue guy, not a traditional masher and quasi-first baseman. Sorry, Benny.
Yankees win 2025 American League Team Silver Slugger Award (and Aaron Judge earns hardware, too)
Rice will remain a centerpiece of the thumping Yankees lineup next year, in all likelihood, and he and Judge will return to form the core of the group that’ll attempt to turn the Team of the Year Award into a dynastic surge. Laugh all you want about this cementing the Yankees as regular-season darlings, but just because October was a struggle doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea to build a group that can dominate the full campaign. Now what they need is a strategic couple of grinders to deploy mid-lineup who won’t fluff their numbers against the league’s also-rans. They can’t all be Judge and Rice, but they can all be valuable. They can all refuse to relent.
This likely won’t be the last time you hear from Judge this Awards Season. But he let the rest of his teammates have their flowers this time, too. Even the individual Yankees Silver Slugger snubs were a part of the award-winning collective. Not half bad.
