3 Royals players fans might’ve forgotten were Silver Slugger Award winners

The Kansas City Royals will surely hope to add to their Silver Slugger history in the coming weeks when the 2025 winners are revealed.

This week, on the morning of Oct. 23, the American League finalists will be revealed exclusively on FanSided with the winners being announced on Nov. 7 at 7 p.m. ET on FanSided as well as The Baseball Insiders YouTube channel.

The Royals have several names that could be among those recognized this season and also have a history of some of the most recognized winners since the awards inception in 1980, such as three-time winner George Brett and five-time winner Salvador Perez.

But amongst those who utterly dominated in their era, there have been some winners that very well may’ve have flown under the radar somewhat in the grand scheme of things.

3 Royals players fans might’ve forgotten were Silver Slugger Award winners

3B Dean Palmer – 1998

After their great stretch as a team in the early to mid-1980s, where they managed to take home their first World Series in franchise history in 1985, the Royals would enter some extremely lean years as a franchise in the decades to come, highlighted by a 29-year postseason drought.

Until they reached October baseball again in 2014, there was very few things to celebrate and their Silver Slugger winners are the perfect example of this. From 1988 to 2012, the Royals managed to capture just one Silver Slugger award. This was won by third baseman Dean Palmer.

A career .251 hitter with a .796 OPS, Palmer forged a solid 14-year stay in the majors but he wasn’t necessarily a household name.

He was likely better known for the parts of eight seasons he played with the Texas Rangers in the very late 1908s until the mid-to-late 1990s. However, statistically speaking, his best time in the majors happened during his year-and-a-half stint with the Royals, and his best individual year was the 1998 season.

In his only full season in Kansas City that year, Palmer took home the AL Silver Slugger award at third base after belting 34 homers, driving in 119 runs and slashing .278/.333/.510. This not only earned him his first of two career Silver Sluggers, but also his only All-Star nod.

DH Billy Butler – 2012

After Palmer, the Royals would have to wait another 14 seasons until the franchise saw their next Silver Slugger honoree. This came with Billy Butler’s win at the AL designated hitter position.

In his age 26 season, Butler was at the peak of his short-lived prime as not only did he win his one and only Silver Slugger that season, it also happened to be his only All-Star campaign of his 10-year big league career.

That season the man dubbed “Country Breakfast” posted career highs in home runs with 29, RBI at 107, SLG at .510, wRC+ at 139 and fWAR at 2.6. He also happened to be a .313 hitter that only struck out 16.3% of the time.

He was once considered a building block for the future, but quickly fizzled out after his peak year in 2012, as he’d be off the Royals’ roster after 2014 and out of Major League Baseball entirely after 2016. But at least he can say he’s a former All-Star with a Silver Slugger under his belt.

DH Kendrys Morales – 2015

Sticking with DHs, the first man to take over at the position after Butler left was the veteran Kendrys Morales.

In one of just two seasons in Kansas City, Morales opened his Royals tenure with a bang, taking home his first and only Silver Slugger Award on top of winning the World Series that winter.

He reigned supreme amongst designated hitters that year, as besides the Silver Slugger, he also captured 2015 Edgar Martinez Outstanding Designated Hitter of the Year honors.

He did all this by slashing .290/.362/.485 with 22 homers, 106 RBI, a 16.1% strikeout rate and a 131 wRC+.

His stay in Kansas City may not have been long, but he made his impact known on this championship roster in 2015 in award winning fashion.