With June's arrival, here are D-backs' May awards

This story was excerpted from Steve Gilbert’s D-backs Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox

Welcome to the D-backs Insider Newsletter. The D-backs are on a roll. They’ve won six straight games entering Saturday night’s battle with the Braves. It’s the first time they’ve won six in a__ row since 2020. You can feel the confidence around the team growing with each passing win. There’s still a long way to go, but they’ve served notice that this will be a fun team to watch over the next four months.

With May in the books, let’s hand out our monthly awards …

Most Valuable Player: Lourdes Gurriel Jr.

Gurriel, who was acquired along with Gabriel Moreno from the Blue Jays during the offseason, had a nice April but took things to another level in May.

Gurriel hit .352/.416/.714 with seven doubles and eight home runs and seemingly has come up with big hit after big hit. He’s been a positive force in the clubhouse and has become a favorite of manager Torey Lovullo.

“We love having him on the team,” D-backs GM Mike Hazen said recently. “He's our best hitter and he’s been really good and he’s worked his butt off. He’s a great guy and he’s a great guy to have in the clubhouse. So I’m happy we traded for him.”

Pitcher of the month: Merrill Kelly

As with most months when it comes to this award, it could have easily gone to Zac Gallen but Kelly’s numbers were just a bit better.

Kelly made five starts and was 4-0 with a 2.59 ERA with a 0.83 WHIP.

After Kelly struck out 10 Red Sox hitters last weekend, Boston manager Alex Cora dropped a Greg Maddux comparison on Kelly.

“That’s pitchability,” Cora said. “We put good at-bats [on him], we got to 3-2 counts and all that but he made pitches. He started mixing it up. He can pitch. In an era that people talk about overpowering stuff and all that, his command is perfect, similar to back in the day to like Maddux, he can put it wherever he wanted to. Like a little bit off the plate, a little bit off the plate, but then he’ll get back to the zone.”

Reliever of the month: Miguel Castro

The improved performance by the Arizona bullpen is a big reason why the D-backs have taken such a jump in the standings this year and Castro is a huge part of that.

He was 3-1 with a 2.13 ERA and four saves in five opportunities in May.

D-backs pitching coach Brent Strom said one of the reasons Castro is performing better this year than in years past is because the D-backs are being careful not to overuse him.

“He always took the ball even when he wasn't feeling right,” Strom said of Castro in the past. “I think that affected its effectiveness.”

Signing Castro as a free agent this offseason was important for the D-backs, so important that Strom took a break from his vacation in Scotland to appear on a Zoom call with the right-hander.

“I told him one of the things we're going to try and do is take care of you because I knew the numbers and I knew how he was quite a few appearances with multiple innings and things like that,” Strom said.

Defensive play of the month: Dominic Fletcher double play

Fletcher made at least three catches that could have won this award and shortstop Nick Ahmed’s diving snag of a line drive also was a finalist, but since Fletcher got two outs on his running catch on May 1 against the Giants, we decided to go with it.

Not only did Fletcher range far to make the catch, but after crashing into the wall he had the presence of mind to get the ball back in quickly to double the runner off first.