These 3 Cardinals should be 2025 Silver Slugger finalists

While the St. Louis Cardinals offense ended up being pretty mediocre this year, the club still had a trio of standout bats that deserve Silver Slugger award consideration this year.

In case you haven't heard, the Silver Slugger Award nominees winners will be announced exclusively on FanSided this year. National League finalists wiill be shared on October 22nd at 11 am, while American League finalists will be shared the following day. Winners will announced on both FanSided and on the Baseball Insiders live stream with FanSided MLB Insider Robert Murray and Adam Weinrib on November 6 at 6 P.M. EST this year.

The award, which is sponsored by Louisville Slugger, is voted on by a combination of managers and coaches across Major League Baseball who use statistics and analysis to determine winners. Louisville Slugger doesn't determine the winners; rather, coaches and managers do. Here are the full details of exactly how voting works, straight from Louisville Slugger:

"A vote of MLB managers and coaches decides the Silver Slugger Award winners. They cast ballots for the players they determine to be the best offensive producers at each position in their respective league. Each team receives four votes: the manager and three coaches of their choice. Votes are based on a combination of offensive statistics including OBP, OPS, OPS+, home runs, hits, RBI and batting average as well as the managers’ and coaches’ general impressions of a player’s overall offensive value. The accounting firm of Deming, Malone, Livesay & Ostroff verifies the tabulation of ballots."

With that being said, here are the three Cardinals who should be Silver Slugger finalists this year

Ivan Herrera

While Ivan Herrera battled injuries this year that limited him to just 107 games, it's hard to argue against the fact that he was a top three designated hitter in the National League this year.

Among all National League designated hitters with at least 450 plate appearances this year, Herrera ranked first in AVG (.284), second in OBP (.373), third in wRC+ (137), wOBA (.365), xwOBA (.380), fourth in fWAR (2.7), and fifth in SLG (.464).

With the incredible seasons that both Shohei Ohtani and Kyle Schwarber had, there is no shot that Herrera will be taking home the award, but I do believe he is fully deserving of the nomination for his efforts this year. Cardinals fans should be circling him as a strong candidate to take home the National League Silver Slugger award as a catcher next year, since the Cardinals plan to play him there again in 2026.