The Minnesota Twins have had no shortage of Silver Slugger winners over the years, from Kirby Puckett’s six awards to Byron Buxton’s most recent honor last season. With the 2026 winners set to be announced on the Baseball Insiders Podcast in November, the Twins’ history with the Louisville Silver Slugger Award offers a neat bookend: the youngest winner in franchise history and the oldest.
Joe Mauer holds the distinction on the younger end. The catcher picked up his first of five Silver Slugger Awards in 2006 at age 23, coming off a monster season at the plate.
He led MLB with a .347 batting average and added a .429 on-base percentage, .507 slugging percentage, 13 home runs, 36 doubles, four triples and 84 RBI across 140 games. Mauer finished with 5.8 bWAR, struck out only 54 times and walked 79 times.
That same year, he earned his first All-Star selection and placed sixth in AL MVP voting.
Mauer’s run didn’t stop there. He went on to win the award again in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2013, all at catcher.
Over a 15-year MLB career, he hit .306/.388/.439 and piled up 55.6 bWAR. Injuries likely kept the total from climbing even higher, and they also helped push him from catcher to first base late in his career.
On the other end of the list is Paul Molitor. Nelson Cruz won the Silver Slugger as a designated hitter at age 39 in 2020, but Molitor beat him to the title of oldest Twins winner by a hair, taking home the award shortly after turning 40 in 1996. He had joined his hometown club before that season after 15 years with the Milwaukee Brewers and three with the Toronto Blue Jays.
Molitor was already a Hall of Famer when he delivered one of the best seasons of his career in Minnesota. In 161 games, he slashed .341/.390/.468 with nine home runs, 41 doubles and eight triples.
He also reached 3,000 career hits that year. Before arriving in Minnesota, Molitor had already won three Silver Slugger Awards.
Across 21 MLB seasons, he posted 75.7 bWAR and hit .306/.369/.448. He now works as an analyst on the Twins’ TV and radio broadcasts.
In Other News...
Twins Have A Byron Buxton Decision That Could Reshape Center Field
Byron Buxton has made his preference clear: he wants to stay in center field, the spot where he has been one of the games most electric defenders and a two-time All-Star. For the Twins, that creates more than a simple lineup note. It ties directly into how they want to structure their outfield in the years ahead, especially with Buxtons health now part of every conversation after the recurring hip issue that will need surgery.
Minnesota is also looking at a changing roster around him, with Walker Jenkins, Emmanuel Rodriguez and Luke Keaschall all adding to the sense that the clubs outfield picture is getting crowded in a hurry. The challenge for the Twins is figuring out how much longer Buxton can stay in the middle while still giving the team the best chance to compete, and whether the answer for 2027 means keeping the defense anchored around him or making room for the next wave. [Read more 🡒]
Twins Deadline Deal Looks Worse As Playoff Race Slips Away
When the Twins went shopping at the deadline, adding Jeff Hoffman from Toronto was supposed to help stabilize the bullpen for a push in the stretch run. Hoffman has done his part since arriving in Minnesota, giving the club the kind of relief work it hoped to buy, while the front office parted with prospects including Dasan Hill to make the deal happen.
The problem is the larger picture around the trade keeps getting less favorable for Minnesota. The Twins are now trailing in the playoff race, while the Blue Jays remain alive, which adds a layer of hindsight to a move that already carried some risk. If Toronto keeps playing into October, the swap could end up feeling even sharper for the Twins, with the added sting of watching a traded arm contribute to a contender while the prospects head the other way. [Read more 🡒]
Joe Ryan Trade Buzz Leaves Twins With One Huge Problem
Joe Ryan has been living in the rumor mill for more than a year, and the talk only picked up after the Twins started moving established players in 2025. Even with all that speculation, Minnesota kept him, and he is now headed into the final year of team control in 2027, which usually means the phone keeps ringing. For a club trying to thread the needle between competing and reworking the roster, Ryan remains one of the most obvious names to monitor.
The problem for the Twins is that a trade path is not nearly as clean as the buzz suggests. Ryans second-half performance has raised questions, his injury status is still unclear, and the possibility of a baseball lockout could change the market in ways that make an offseason deal harder to justify. So while he may keep popping up in conversations, Minnesota has to decide whether the timing is right to move a pitcher who still brings real value, or whether the risk is too high to cash in now. [Read more 🡒]