Jacoby Ellsbury and Adrian Gonzalez have another piece of hardware to display with their 2011 Gold Gloves as they, along with David Ortiz, received the American League Silver Slugger Award for their respective positions.
This means Ellsbury and Gonzalez have now been awarded highest honors for both their defense and offense in 2011. If you’re keeping score, this is six post-season awards given to the Red Sox so far.  Like the Gold Glove, the Silver Slugger is given to one player at each position in the American and National Leagues each year.  As with the Gold Glove Award, the Red Sox have three players rewarded for their excellent play this season, the most in all of MLB.
Both Ellsbury and Gonzalez are getting the award for the first time while the 2011 Slugger is Ortiz’s fifth in his career. Ortiz has won all five times with the Red Sox, winning it four seasons in a row from 2004 through 2007.
Ellsbury is on a bit of an awards tear this year, having already won the Comeback Player of the Year along with the Gold Glove and Silver Slugger and he is still in the running for American League MVP Award, which will be announced on November 21, 2011.
The awards must be especially satisfying for these three players. Â Ortiz is a free agent this year and, just a season ago, many fans and sports writers were calling him “toast” and saying his career was over. Â Ellsbury had a 2010 season full of injury and public speculation that he was “soft” and couldn’t handle playing in MLB and Gonzalez made the switch in 2011 from National League to American League amidst whispers of concern wondering if he’d be able to duplicate his National League success in the purportedly tougher American League.