SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. _ Two days after claiming his fourth Gold Glove, Royals catcher Salvador Perez added another piece of hardware, winning his first Silver Slugger Award on Thursday afternoon.
Voted on by major-league coaches and managers, the Silver Slugger Awards are reserved for the best offensive player at each position. Perez took home the honor after batting .247 with a .288 on-base percentage and a career-high 22 homers. He also recorded 28 doubles while finishing with 127 hits in 139 games.
Perez, 26, also finished with a career-high 119 strikeouts while walking 22 times. His OPS-plus, a metric that accounts for ballpark and league, was 89, 11 percent below league average.
But his power numbers have continued to increase as he has aged into his mid-20s. For Perez, the 2015 World Series MVP, the award caps a season that also featured his fourth All-Star Game appearance.
