Rockies pull off stunner, defeat Dodgers and Brewers with homegrown Silver Slugger

Whoever's next in line to run the Colorado Rockies' baseball operations department has one heck of a centerpiece at his disposal: Hunter Goodman behind the dish, the type of slugging catcher scouting departments dream of (and, let's face it, some are content to move on without ever finding a bat that can match the glove).

As if Goodman's 2025 All-Star campaign couldn't get any more promising, he just defeated both Will Smith of the Los Angeles Dodgers and William Contreras of the Milwaukee Brewers to earn a stunning upset in the 2025 NL Silver Slugger award race. Sometimes, in the eyes of the NL's managers and their coaches, it doesn't pay to play in the NLCS. They were able to look past the glitzy prestige and bigger names to hand the hardware over to Goodman, confirming once and for all that his efforts weren't anonymous this season.

Rockies' Hunter Goodman wins 2025 NL Silver Slugger Award over Dodgers' Will Smith, Brewers' William Contreras

Goodman's third full season will begin in 2026 at the age of 26, and he's currently under team control through 2029. If he's willing to consider an extension, the Rockies would be wise to circulate those conversations now rather than delay them any further.

After all, he's officially a dragon slayer after taking down Smith (.296/17 homers/152 OPS+) and Contreras (.260/17 homers/111 OPS+). Both players are closer to being household names than Goodman, but only Smith was a real challenge this time around; after all, the Rockies backstop's 31 homers and .278 average distinguished his season. If he'd been a member of America's darlings in Milwaukee, this victory would've been less of a surprise.

Still, his 120 OPS+ held up - somehow - against Smith, the gilded catcher on the back-to-back World Series champions who won Game 7 of the World Series with a powerful fly ball that landed in the Blue Jays' bullpen. Give the voting body credit: they went above and beyond to recognize semi-buried greatness in this particular vote.

Now, it's the Rockies' responsibility to build around their star rather than shuttle him somewhere else.