2026 Silver Slugger Predictions: Chase DeLauter will have his hands full with stacked AL outfield class

On Thursday night, The Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong and the Astros’ Yordan Alvarez took home their respective league MVPs, putting an (almost) final bow on this year’s awards season. 

But there’s one more award to go out, and the results could be appointment viewing for Guardians fans. Next Tuesday, the MLB world will find out which players won the 2026 Louisville Slugger Silver Slugger Awards at their respective positions when Adam Weinrib and FanSided MLB insider Robert Murray announce the winners on The Baseball Insiders podcast. 

Although José Ramírez’s dismal season means the Guardians don’t have their usual representative among the list of the finalists, rookie outfielder Chase DeLauter broke through the pack as a finalist in the outfield. A great honor, sure, but a DeLauter win isn’t guaranteed given he’s going to be going against a pack of powerful (and much more established) sluggers. 

Chase DeLauter has some strong Gold Glove competition

DeLauter’s nomination puts a final bow on his stellar rookie season that ended with him recording a .287/.363/.457 slashline with 16 homers and 67 RBI. While DeLauter’s prestigious power was always there in the minors, his journey to the big leagues always seemed to be halted by some kind of fluke injury. 

But he managed to stay healthy in 2026 outside of a short stint on the injured list and made it into 133 games, the third-most on the Guardians. 

That performance was enough to solidify him as a solid middle-of-the-order bat for the Guardians, but it remains to be seen if it’ll be enough to beat out Wilyer Abreu, Randy Arozarena, Cody Bellinger, Jac Caglianone, Riley Greene, Tristan Peters, Chandler Simpson and Mike Trout for one of the American League’s three outfield Silver Slugger spots. 

It’s a stacked lineup that features plenty of intriguing profiles. Although Trout only had 57 RBI, he hit 22 homers and is looking to become the third player in MLB history to win 10 Silver Sluggers. Peters is another rookie who burst onto the scene in 2026 (albeit with worse overall numbers than DeLauter), while Greene, Caglianone, Arozarena and Abreu all finished the year 24+ homers and 75+ RBI. 

Bellinger fell just short of both those statistical numbers, but he just filled the AL’s left field Gold Glove vacuum vacated by Steven Kwan, so a win from him would sting even more than the other players listed. 

The one with the most intriguing profile is Chandler Simpson, who hit .306 with an AL-leading 46 steals, but hit zero home runs and had just 22 extra-base hits. 

Part of the reason why the Guardians stayed away from adding a big league option to their outfield last season was their trust that DeLauter would stay healthy and mash against MLB pitching. Both of things came true, and now he could pick up a Louisville Silver Slugger win for his troubles.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow