When FanSided and MLB announced the 2025 National League Silver Sluggers finalists on Wednesday, Atlanta Braves fans weren't surprised by the inclusion of one of their cornerstone position players. After all, despite the disappointing performance from the club this past season, Matt Olson certainly was not part of the team's failings.
What did surprise Braves fans was that he was not the only Silver Slugger finalist on the team. But the second Braves finalist wasn't the NL Rookie of the Year favorite, Drake Baldwin, or superstar outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr, who was excellent despite missing a good chunk of the season, but rather Austin Riley, the team's third baseman who turned in his worst season since 2020.
Austin Riley's appearance as a Silver Slugger finalist truly came out of nowhere
Riley has been a cornerstone of the Braves since 2021. The 28-year-old is a two-time All-Star and a two-time Silver Slugger winner. If a fan was told prior to the beginning of the season that Austin Riley would be one of the four NL Silver Slugger finalists at third base, fans would certainly not be shocked.
But Riley's 2025 was certainly disappointing. In the 102 games that he did play, Riley was far from the player he was from 2021 to 2023, where he put up three straight seasons with an OPS+ above 130. Even his 2024, which was injury-riddled was more compelling than his 2025, where he had a 115 OPS+.
In 2025, Riley slashed .260/.309/.428. It was his lowest on-base percentage since 2020, where he reached base 30.1% of the time, as well as his lowest SLG, nearly 40 points lower than any SLG he put up from 2021 through 2024. Overall, he still had a 105 OPS+, which was technically above-average but far short of what fans would expect of a perennial All-Star.
Additionally, Riley missed 60 games this season thanks to multiple IL stints thanks to an abdominal injury that eventually knocked him out for the final two months of the season. In total, Riley only compiled 447 plate appearances, which is 55 plate appearances shy of a qualified hitter.
Despite this, the National League appears to have been starved for adequate hitting third basemen. Riley's wRC+ was the seventh-best in the National League, but Eugenio Suarez, who was traded at the deadline, was the only third baseman with a wRC+ above 125.
Interestingly, Max Muncy, who only played 100 games, was also among the third base nominees.
While Austin Riley has virtually no chance of actually taking home the Silver Slugger this year, he'll at least get to say that he was a finalist in a season he'll certainly look to put behind him.