Bryce Harper Still Deserves a Silver Slugger Award

Despite missing two months with injury, Philadelphia Phillies superstar Bryce Harper has still been the best designated hitter in the National League.

Author:
Leo Morgenstern
Aug 29, 2022 5:00 PM EDT

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Philadelphia Phillies

Before breaking his thumb, Bryce Harper was putting up MVP-caliber offense for the Philadelphia Phillies. With 15 home runs and a .318 batting average through 64 games, he was well on his way to finally playing in his first All-Star Game as a member of the Phillies.

Then life threw him a curveball. Or, technically, a fastball. A 97-mph fastball to his left thumb.

Fast forward two months, and Harper is back on the field, but his chances of competing for a second consecutive MVP have washed away. He did make the All-Star team, but was unable to play, and so he'll have to wait until next year to represent Philadelphia at the Midsummer Classic.

It’s especially disappointing that an errant pitch ruined what could have been another amazing season for the reigning MVP, considering he has already played through so many injuries during his Phillies tenure. He didn’t let a bad back, a torn UCL, or a baseball to face stop him, but in this case, he just had no choice but to shut it down.

On the bright side, while Harper was unable to play in the All-Star Game and won’t contend for the MVP, there is one major honor he could still win at season’s end – the Silver Slugger.

The Silver Slugger Award goes to the best offensive player at each position in each league. Harper, despite having missed two months, has still been the most valuable designated hitter in the National League. With 30 or so games remaining, he has plenty of time to cement his Silver Slugger case.

Bryson Stott pours a cup of ice water down Bryce Harper's back.
Kyle Ross-USA TODAY Sports

Although Harper has been fantastic this year, the real reason he might win the Silver Slugger despite missing so much time is that he does not have a lot of competition. There aren't many full-time designated hitters in the National League, and those that do play the position regularly haven't been very good.

Nelson Cruz leads the NL in games played at DH, but he has been dreadful this season, hitting just .234 with a .659 OPS. Other regular DHs like Andrew McCutchen and Marcell Ozuna are also struggling at the plate.

Only three NL players with above-average offensive numbers have made more appearances at DH than Bryce Harper: Daniel Vogelbach, Luke Voit, and Charlie Blackmon. All three are putting up good seasons, but none has a particularly award-worthy stat line.

While Harper trails those guys (and a few others) in most counting stats, including hits, runs, and RBI, he is greatly outpacing them in every major rate stat, including BA, OBP, SLG, and wRC+.

Moreover, the reigning NL MVP has been worth more Wins Above Replacement than Voit, Vogelbach, and Blackmon combined according to both Fangraphs and Baseball Reference. Thus, neither should give him too much competition come awards season.

In fact, only one NL hitter who has played at least a quarter of his games at DH has been worth more WAR than Harper: Willson Contreras. Yet a lot of that value comes not from his time at the plate, but from his time behind it. Most of the time, he’s a catcher.

And while Contreras is a talented hitter to be sure — better than Voit, Vogelbach, and Blackmon — he doesn't compare to Harper.

The Cubs backstop is batting .242/.349/.461 this season with 20 home runs and a 129 wRC+. The Phillies superstar is batting .317/.387/.587 with 15 home runs and a 163 wRC+.

Contreras has collected more hits, runs, and RBI than Harper, and he has been worth more total value to his team because he has played so many more games. The majority of those games, however, have come as a catcher.

Technically, there is no minimum qualification to be eligible for the Silver Slugger. It doesn’t actually matter how many games a hitter played at the position, or what his primary position was. In 2018, J.D. Martinez won the award twice — once as a DH and once as an outfielder — even though he only started 57 games in the outfield.

Therefore, there remains a solid chance Contreras could take home the Silver Slugger at designated hitter this season. He has the best combination of counting stats and rate stats out of any hitter with regular playing time at DH. Some voters might prefer to award his full season of good offense as opposed to Harper's partial season of great offense.

That being said, if Harper is going to be dinged for his lack of playing time, shouldn't Contreras be equally dinged for his lack of playing time at designated hitter? The Silver Slugger is a position-based award, and so actually playing the position should factor into the voting.

By the end of the year, Harper will have played somewhere between 95-100 games, most of those at designated hitter. Barring a major slump, he will have better numbers than every other regular DH.

Contreras looks to be his biggest competition. And when his biggest competition is a guy who mostly plays a completely different position? The award should be Harper's to lose.