Major League Baseball announced tonight that Marlins' outfielder Giancarlo Stanton has been named the National League recipient of the 2017 Hank Aaron Award, which has annually recognized the most outstanding offensive performer in each league since 1999.
It is the second career Hank Aaron Award for Stanton, who set Franchise records and led the Majors with 59 home runs and 132 RBI this season. His 59 homers were the most in the Majors since Barry Bonds (73) and Sammy Sosa (64) in 2001, and were tied with Babe Ruth (1921) for the ninth-most in a season in MLB history. He also had 10 multi-homer games this year, one shy of tying the Major League record of 11, held by Hank Greenberg (1938) and Sosa (1998).
His performance was most impressive during July and August, when he combined for 30 home runs (12 & 18, respectively) and fell one shy of tying Albert Belle's all-time record for homers in consecutive months. His August showing tied Rudy York (August, 1937) for the second-most homers in any month in MLB history, behind Sammy Sosa's 20 in June of 1998. Stanton's 33 homers in the second half of the season nearly doubled the previous Club record for that span, which he set back in 2012 with 18.
Stanton has 267 home runs since making his Major League debut in 2010, the eighth-most through a player's first eight seasons in MLB history, two ahead of Ted Williams (265) and two behind Ernie Banks (269). His first Hank Aaron Award came after the 2014 season, when his 37 home runs led the NL and his 105 RBI ranked second. Stanton joins Bonds (2001-02, '04) and Albert Pujols (2003, '09) as the only National League players to win the Aaron Award in multiple years. He is the only Marlins' player ever to win the award.