J.T. Realmuto's stellar opening week of 2017 has earned him the first National League Player of the Week honors of the season, Major League Baseball announced Monday. It's the first time in his career that he's won the award.
The Marlins catcher led the NL in all three slash line categories through the season's first week, with a .500 batting average (11-for-22), a .542 on-base percentage and a .909 slugging percentage. Realmuto was tied for second in the NL in hits and total bases (20), and he was tied for fourth in runs scored with six. Entering play Monday, his 11 base hits led all Major League catchers.
Realmuto homered twice during the week, hit safely in all five games and recorded multiple hits in four consecutive games to start the season. That tied him with Jeff Conine (1993) for the second-longest such streak in franchise history, one behind Emilio Bonifacio's five straight multihit games in 2009.
• Athletic Realmuto keeping runners on alert
The last Marlins player to win a Player of the Week Award was Ichiro, who did so for the week of Aug. 7 last season.