Alec Burleson turned in the kind of season that should put him on the awards radar. The St.
Louis Cardinals first baseman finished 2026 with a .279/.343/.473 slash line, 26 home runs, and a 125 wRC+ - all career highs. Even more eye-catching was his league-leading 116 RBIs, which made him the first Cardinal in 55 years to win that crown.
That production sounds like a strong Silver Slugger pitch on its face. But Burleson’s path gets trickier now that he’s locked into first base.
Last year’s Silver Slugger came as a National League utility player, when he split time between the outfield corners and first. This season, he played 156 games at first base and not one in the outfield.
That matters because first base is loaded with offense. Burleson did finish with a strong second half, and voters will have that stretch fresh in mind.
After the All-Star break, he posted a 130 wRC+ and an .833 OPS. He also led all National League first basemen with 40 runs scored and 49 RBIs in the second half, reinforcing his status as the Cardinals’ top run producer.
Even so, the field around him is deep. Among NL first basemen, Burleson ranked sixth in OPS, tied for fifth in home runs, and fourth in wRC+.
That leaves him in the conversation, but maybe not at the front of it. Matt Olson’s 41 homers, Rafael Devers’ .525 slugging percentage, and Jake Bauers’ 143 wRC+ all give him serious competition.
So Burleson’s case mostly comes back to RBIs, a stat that has lost some of its shine outside of triple-crown races. There’s still value in driving in runners instead of collecting hollow hits, but that argument gets thinner when a player is less effective in high-leverage situations than in context-neutral ones. If RBIs are going to carry the case, those RBIs need to mean a little more.
That likely leaves a second straight Silver Slugger out of reach for Burleson. Still, he showed he can hold his own at one of the most offense-rich positions in baseball, and that’s a promising sign for the Cardinals’ lineup moving forward.
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