On Thursday, the Texas Rangers announced that utility man Ezequiel Duran was named a finalist for the Silver Slugger Award. 

Duran, 27, was effective at the plate in the 2026 season. He appeared in 153 games, a career high, and posted a .260 batting average, a .320 on-base percentage, a .419 slugging percentage, and a .739 OPS. He also hit a career-high 17 home runs and notched 83 RBIs, also a career-best mark. 

For Duran, the 2026 campaign was a year of redemption. 

The 2025 season was a tough one as Duran bounced back and forth between the Rangers' minor-league system and the major-league roster. By the time the season was all said and done, Duran had appeared in just 90 games and taken 205 at-bats. 

He struggled across the board, posting a .224 batting average, a .266 on-base percentage, a .293 slugging percentage and a .559 OPS with no home runs and only 14 RBIs.

Each of these marks demonstrated career lows for Duran, and they followed a 2024 season in which his struggles were also evident. In 2024. He appeared in just 92 games while posting a .246/.288/.321 slash line and a .609 OPS in 268 at-bats.

It was quite a shift from Duran's 2023 season. Even though he did not play in the playoffs and the Rangers captured their first World Series title, he still appeared in 122 regular-season games and notched a .276/.324/.443 slash line with a .767 OPS and 14 home runs.

Duran demonstrated that he could do a little bit of everything in 2026 as he also logged a career high in doubles (27) and triples (4). He still struggled in away games, in which his OPS fell to .642, while his batting average (.238), on-base percentage (.296), and slugging percentage (.346) also suffered.

However, at Globe Life Field, Duran was a force to be reckoned with as he hit .285 with a .348 on-base percentage, a .502 slugging percentage and an .850 OPS with 12 home runs over 76 games and 253 at-bats.

For Duran, a Silver Slugger Award would be a monumental achievement. 

Over the course of his five-year career, Duran's biggest accomplishment was that he received a World Series ring. While that is the ultimate dream for players in Major League Baseball, it is important to remember that Duran was not an active contributor on the roster when the Rangers won it all. 

He has never been an All-Star and has never received any other accolades of note at the MLB level. Therefore, being a Silver Slugger would be something of his own and something that he earned solely because of his production.