The Atlanta Braves have been blessed with a lot of great hitters over the years, with Chipper Jones, Freddie Freeman, and Ronald Acuña Jr. basically guaranteeing there would be someone who repped the A would be considered to be among the league's best hitters in any given season.
Unsurprisingly, the club has also taken home a lot of Silver Slugger awards in the last two decades — 22 to be exact. However, even with the Braves accounting for over 12% of all National League Silver Slugger winners, the club has still had quite a few snubs over the last couple of decades.
Braves who should have won the Silver Slugger over the last two decades
Chipper Jones, 2007, 2008
Despite being one of the greatest hitting third basemen in major league baseball history, Chipper Jones had a track record of being snubbed for Silver Slugger awards.
In what seems like an impossibility, the Hall of Famer only won two during his 19-year career, none of which came after 2000. From 2001 through the end of his career, Jones was the best hitting third baseman by OPS+, yet took home zero Silver Sluggers.
In 2005 and 2006, Jones missed a combined 105 games, which makes Morgan Ensberg and Miguel Cabrera winning understandable, but Jones compiled enough plate appearances in 2007 and 2008 to be a qualified hitter.
Despite having an OPS+ of 165 in 2007 and an OPS+ of 176 in 2008, which was at least 16 points higher than the Silver Slugger recepient in both years, David Wright, the voters felt that the Mets third baseman was more deserving.
Freddie Freeman, 2016
2016 ended up being one of Freddie Freeman's most productive seasons in a Braves uniform. His .968 OPS was his third-best in Atlanta, but it was his best over a full 162 game season, with only his 2020 MVP season and his broken wrist-shortened 2017 besting it.
His 152 wRC+ was seventh in the majors that season, but somehow Freeman did not take home the Silver Slugger award. Interestingly, Freeman did not have the highest wRC+ by a National League first baseman, but Joey Votto, who's wRC+ was six points higher than Freeman, lost out on the award as well.
Instead, Anthony Rizzo, who had a 145 wRC+, took home the award. Rizzo had homer homers than Votto and more RBIs than Votto and Freeman, but he had a lower average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage than both Votto and Freeman, and also had fewer hits.
Austin Riley, 2022
🚨 AUSTIN RILEY WALKS IT OFF 🚨 pic.twitter.com/B0KNVfeQvK
— Braves On FanDuel Sports Network (@FanDuelSNBraves) July 31, 2022
Austin Riley won a Silver Slugger in 2021 and 2023, but 2022 might have been arguably his best season as a hitter. That season, he slashed .273/.349/.528 with a 144 wRC+, which was 12th in MLB, but in a very Chipper Jones-esque way, the current third baseman didn't take home the Silver Slugger.
Riley did lose out to Nolan Arenado, who did have a better wRC+ than Riley by five points, but Riley had eight more homers than Arenado, and had a a ten game advantage over Arenado, which gave Riley the advantage in hits and walks.
While this is certainly more of a toss up, Riley's performance in 2022 is enough for us to call it a snub.