Another Cub will take home some hardware this fall.
Thursday, Cubs catcher Willson Contreras was named a National League Silver Slugger Award winner. Contreras’ honor comes after first baseman Anthony Rizzo was named an NL Gold Glove Award winner on Sunday.
Contreras enjoyed a successful 2019 season, one where he was voted the NL’s starting catcher in the All-Star Game for the second-straight season. He finished this season with a .272/.355/.533 slash line, hitting a career-high 24 home runs in just 105 games. He also knocked in 64 runs, his second-highest total in his four-season career. Those final numbers were somewhat suppressed, too, due to a hamstring strain Contreras suffered in August, which kept him out for a month.
MLB managers and coaches fill in their Silver Slugger ballots at the end of the regular season, though they can't vote for players on their own team. Besides Contreras, other NL catcher candidates for the award include Yasmani Grandal (Brewers) and J.T. Realmuto (Phillies). Grandal slashed .246/.380/.468 with 28 homers and 77 RBIs in 2019; Realmuto hit .275/.328/.493 with 25 homers and 83 RBIs. Both players were in their first seasons with their respective clubs.
Although he was an All-Star in 2018, Contreras had a woeful second half in which he slashed .200/.291/.294 in 56 games. This March, 27-year-old admitted to NBC Sports Chicago that he came out of his routine completely in 2018, adding that he learned how he has to keep working hard to maintain success.
"I used to get to the ballpark, like I did in 2017, and I'd usually get on the elliptical or bike or stretch or lift," Contreras said. "To be honest, I didn't lift at all [as 2018 went on]. I came out of my routine completely. I didn't deserve to have a good year last year. That's what I told myself. I've learned from it, I took it as inspiration and now I'm here.
"This game taught me that you have to keep working hard like you did the last year and don't get too comfortable because you're gonna fail and fail and fail. We learn and we move on."
MLB
Contreras’ 2019 season certainly shows that he’s learned from his 2018 struggles.
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