Nolan Arenado, Charlie Blackmon Earn Silver Slugger Awards
Nolan Arenado and Charlie Blackmon both had incredible seasons for the Colorado Rockies at the plate. On Thursday night, they were recognized for their offensive output as they were named winners of the 2016 Silver Slugger Award at their respective positions.
For Arenado, it’s his second career Silver Slugger Award, following up on his 2015 award. He is the eighth Rockies player to win multiple Silver Slugger Awards, joining Vinny Castilla, Carlos Gonzalez, Mike Hampton, Todd Helton, Matt Holliday, Troy Tulowitzki and Larry Walker.
Arenado led the Major Leagues with 133 RBI and his 41 home runs were tied for most in the National League. He is the first player since Mike Schmidt (1980-81) to lead the league in homers and RBI in consecutive seasons.
With his proficiency at the plate, Arenado became the third player in MLB history to post consecutive 40-homer, 130-RBI seasons before turning 26 years of age, joining Chuck Klein and Jimmie Foxx. He is the third primary third baseman (joining Miguel Cabrera (2012-13) and Alex Rodriguez (2005 and 2007)) in MLB history to record multiple 40-130 seasons.
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Arenado also led the National League in total bases (352), ranked second in runs (116), extra-base hits (82) and slugging percentage (.570) and tied for second with 57 multi-hit games.
For Blackmon, this is his first career Silver Slugger Award. He’s also the 14th Rockies player to win the award.
The 30-year-old leadoff hitter set career highs in hits (187), runs (111), doubles (35), home runs (29), RBI (82), batting average (.324), on-base percentage (.381) and slugging percentage (.552).
He ranked third in the National League in runs, fourth in batting average and hits and fifth in slugging percentage and total bases (319). Blackmon paced all National League outfielders in batting average, slugging percentage, hits and runs.
Blackmon hit 29 home runs from the leadoff spot, which were the most in MLB and the most in the National League since Alfonso Soriano and Hanley Ramirez hit 29 and 32 home runs, respectively, in 2008. The 29 home runs are tied for the seventh-most by a leadoff hitter in National League history.
He batted .313 (94-for-300) with 17 home runs on the road. The road batting average was the 10th-highest in the National League and the seventh-highest for a single season in Rockies history. It was also the highest for the Rockies since Todd Helton batted .326 (88-for-270) on the road in 2004.
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This marks the 25th and 26th time the Silver Slugger has been awarded to a Rockies player and the eighth time that multiple Rockies have won the award in the same season (2015, 2010, 2002, 2001, 1997, 1996, 1995).