Bobby

Witt Jr.

There was never any doubt on this one, as the 32-year-old slugger was a unanimous selection — capturing all 30 first-place votes for the award. It’s the second time in his career that Judge has won the award, as he captured the honor in 2022 as well. He was certainly deserving — slashing a monstrous .322/.458/.701 while leading the league with 58 home runs, 144 RBI and 133 walks. Bobby Witt Jr. finished as the runner-up, garnering all 30 of the second-place votes. Juan Soto, Gunnar Henderson and José Ramírez rounded out the top five in the voting.

It’s the fourth Silver Slugger Award for Judge following a 58-homer, 144-RBI campaign where he finished with a surreal 1.159 OPS over 158 games. The other big takeaways here are Juan Soto tying Mike Trout for the most Silver Sluggers (five) before turning 26 and Brent Rooker becoming the first Athletics player to take home the hardware since 2002. Here are the rest of the American League winners: Salvador Perez (C), Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (1B), Jose Altuve (2B), José Ramírez (3B), Bobby Witt Jr. (SS), Anthony Santander (OF), Juan Soto (OF), Aaron Judge (OF), Brent Rooker (DH) and Josh Smith (UTIL).

No surprises here as Judge is considered the heavy favorite to take home the hardware, which would be his second in the last three seasons, on the heels of a stellar 58-homer, 144-RBI campaign where he led the majors in both on-base percentage (.458) and slugging percentage (.701). Meanwhile, Soto is on the precipice of landing a lucrative multi-year contract on the open market after a stellar New York debut where he slugged a career-best 41 round-trippers. It’ll be the first top-three finish for Kansas City’s franchise cornerstone after Witt led the majors last season with an astonishing 211 hits, leading to a stratospheric .332 batting average.

Giménez is widely known as one of the best defenders in all of baseball and it wouldn’t be surprising to see him also add a Platinum Glove to his mantle before all is said and done. Here’s the full list of Gold Glove winners in the American League (along with how many times they have won the award): C: Cal Raleigh (1), 1B: Carlos Santana (1), 2B: Andres Gimenez (3), SS: Bobby Witt Jr. (1), 3B Alex Bregman (1), P: Seth Lugo (1), LF: Steven Kwan (3), CF: Daulton Varsho (1), RF: Wilyer Abreu (1), UT: Dylan Moore (1).

The winner won’t have to make a special trip to pick up his hardware, since both Judge and Ohtani will be in attendance, of course. We imagine Judge will be the pick here, but we’ll see. Other so-called “finalists” for the awards are Judge, Witt and José Ramírez for AL Outstanding Player; Ohtani, Francisco Lindor and Marcell Ozuna for NL Outstanding Player; Emmanuel Clase, Logan Gilbert and Tarik Skubal for AL Outstanding Pitcher; Chris Sale, Paul Skenes and Zack Wheeler for NL Outstanding Pitcher; Wilyer Abreu, Colton Cowser and Austin Wells for AL Outstanding Rookie and Jackson Chourio, Jackson Merrill and Skenes for NL Outstanding Rookie.

The go-ahead hit was a grounder up the middle that Jordan Westburg got to, but Witt beat it out. If Gunnar Henderson had been closer to second on the play, he could have gotten the inning-ending out there, but Westburg was really left with only the one play. The Orioles generally had the better contact today, including a Ramón Urías flyout to left that would have been a homer in 27 ballparks, but the Royals played very good defense and had a little luck on their side. They’ll move on to face the Yankees in the ALDS, with the Tigers going to Cleveland.

Witt Jr.'s two-out RBI single off Corbin Burnes in the sixth inning was the only run scored in the Royals’ 1-0 victory in Game 1. It was old school playoff baseball as Kansas City took the lead in the series without an extra-base hit.

The Nationals and Royals needed more than nine innings to get a run on the board, but in the top of the 10th inning, Witt singled to score Kyle Isbel from second, driving in the only run of the game for either team in the 1-0 victory. Witt has now hit safely in six straight games as he continues to challenge Aaron Judge for the AL MVP crown. He’s slashing .282/.373/.493 on the month and has five more games to bad his already gaudy totals.

The Royals are falling apart and their lethargic offense is the key reason why. They’ve scored more than three runs just once in during their active seven game losing streak and practically no one besides Witt is even remotely contributing. His on-base percentage is .500 during the skid as he tries to will his team over the line to the playoffs.

Witt Jr. accounted for 60 percent of the hits for the Royals on Friday in a game where the Giants pitching held Kansas City to five knocks and just one run. The three-hit game sees the 24-year-old star increase his average to .334, and he’s swinging the bat much better after a shaky beginning to the month of September.