Outfielder Byron Buxton of the Minnesota Twins has been chosen the American League Player of the Week presented by Chevrolet, and rookie starting pitcher Hunter Greene of the Cincinnati Reds has been named the National League Player of the Week presented by Chevrolet. The announcements were made earlier today on MLB Network.
Buxton earned his second career Player of the Week Award, previously doing so in August 2017, and is Minnesota’s first winner since All-Star Nelson Cruz in July 2020. Greene claimed his first career Player of the Week Award and is Cincinnati’s first winner since his teammate Tyler Naquin last season for the week ending August 22nd. Hunter is the third Major League rookie to take home his respective league’s weekly honor this year, joining Seiya Suzuki of the Chicago Cubs and Reid Detmers of the Los Angeles Angels.
Byron Buxton, Minnesota Twins (@buckdaddy103)
- Batted .333 (7-for-21) with eight runs scored, a double, five home runs, seven RBI and a 1.095 slugging percentage over six games played.
- The second overall pick in the 2012 Draft homered at least once in three straight games from Wednesday-Friday. Was the first Twins player to do so since his teammate Jorge Polanco last August.
- Delivered back-to-back multi-homer games across Thursday-Friday, becoming the fifth player in Twins/Senators history to accomplish the feat, joining Hall of Famers Harmon Killebrew (1959) and Kirby Puckett (1987), as well as Don Mincher (1963) and former teammate Eddie Rosario (2019).
- According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Buxton’s 17 home runs on the season were the most by a player in his first 43 games of a campaign in franchise history, surpassing the previous record of 16 held by Killebrew in 1959.
Hunter Greene, Cincinnati Reds (@therealhuntergreene)
- The 22-year-old made a pair of starts for the Reds, going 1-0 with 15 strikeouts, two walks, three hits allowed and a 0.75 ERA across 12.0 innings pitched.
- The second overall pick in the 2017 Draft tossed 7.0 shutout innings with eight punchouts while allowing just one walk and not permitting a free pass in last Monday’s outing against the Diamondbacks.
- Faced the minimum of 21 batters during the performance, becoming the first rookie to pitch at least 7.0 frames while facing the minimum since Baltimore’s Bob Milacki in 1989.
- The Los Angeles native pitched 5.0 innings of one-run ball in Saturday’s contest against the Cardinals, striking out seven while allowing two hits and two walks. Was the first hurler in franchise history to tally at least 15 punchouts while not permitting more than three hits or two walks across a two-game span.
Other noteworthy AL performances for the week included All-Star starting pitcher Justin Verlander (2-0, 0.64 ERA, 17 SO, 3 BB) of the Houston Astros; two-way All-Star Shohei Ohtani (.375, 4 XBH, 5 RBI; 1-0, 1.29 ERA, 7.0 IP) of the Los Angeles Angels; All-Star outfielder Aaron Judge (.360, 8 R, 3 HR, 6 RBI) of the New York Yankees; rookie third baseman Jake Burger of the Chicago White Sox (.417, 8 R, 3 HR, 6 RBI); backstop Christian Bethancourt (.500, 3 2B, 3 HR, 5 RBI) of the Oakland Athletics; All-Star infielder Marcus Semien (.385, 10 H, 3 HR, 5 RBI) of the Texas Rangers; and starter Cal Quantrill (2-0, 2.77 ERA, 7 SO, 13.0 IP) of the Cleveland Guardians.
Other noteworthy NL performances last week included outfielder Jurickson Profar (.346, 9 R, 4 XBH, 6 RBI) of the San Diego Padres; All-Star outfielder Bryan Reynolds (.478, 11 H, 2 HR, 5 RBI) of the Pittsburgh Pirates; second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. (7 R, 6 H, 4 HR, 9 RBI) of the Miami Marlins; All-Star closer Kenley Jansen (4 G, 4 SV, 0.00 ERA, 0 BB), shortstop Dansby Swanson (.417, 4 R, 10 H, 6 RBI) and starting pitcher Kyle Wright (2-0, 3.21 ERA, 14 SO, 2 BB) of the Atlanta Braves; All-Star starter Germán Márquez (2-0, 3.46 ERA, 13.0 IP, 13 SO) of the Colorado Rockies; and All-Star designated hitter Nelson Cruz (.421, 8 H, 2 HR, 7 RBI) of the Washington Nationals.
Electric Play of the Week presented by Chevrolet
Home Run-Robbing Catch by Alek Thomas of the Arizona Diamondbacks
June 8th at CIN – Watch It Here
Rookie outfielder Alek Thomas of the Arizona Diamondbacks earned his first career Play of the Week Award and is Arizona’s first winner since his teammate Josh Rojas last year for the period ending May 2nd. In the bottom of the first inning against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park on Wednesday, Thomas ranged to the outfield wall in left-center field to leap and rob Joey Votto of a two-run home run. Additional Play of the Week candidates included last week’s winner Eli White’s diving catch in deep right-center field; Amed Rosario’s diving, run-saving snag at shortstop; Rob Refsnyder’s diving catch in right field; Yonathan Daza’s home run-robbing catch; and Zach Plesac’s barehanded stop and jump-throw on a ground ball.