Alvarez, Schwarber named top players for June
Two slugging outfielders are June’s Players of the Month presented by Chevrolet.
Astros star Yordan Alvarez was named the American League Player of the Month on Saturday, and Phillies outfielder Kyle Schwarber was named National League Player of the Month.
Alvarez, who leads baseball with a 1.070 OPS, batted .418 in June with nine home runs and 28 RBIs with the same number of walks (13) as strikeouts. On the season, Alvarez is second in baseball in home runs (23), fifth in RBIs (56) and first in slugging (.658).
Alvarez was named June’s first AL Player of the Week when he slashed .565/.630/1.217 with four home runs, eight RBIs, two walks and only one strikeout in the first week of June.
His signature moment of the month came on June 22, when he slugged a pair of 400-plus-foot home runs against the Mets.
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With Phillies star Bryce Harper out indefinitely with a broken thumb, Schwarber has picked up the slack for the Phillies offense. The first-year Phillie batted .272 in June, slugging 12 home runs (the most any batter hit in June) while driving in 27. He had an OPS+ of 189 and finished the month with two multi-home run games.
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Schwarber helped lead Philadelphia to an 18-9 record in June that has shot them into playoff contention. He’s batting .221 with a National League-leading 23 home runs and 51 RBIs.
This is Schwarber’s second straight year winning June’s National League Player of the Month award. Last year, Schwarber (then with the Nationals) slugged 17 home runs in June to win the award. He’s the first Phillie to win the award for any month since Dominic Brown won it in May 2013.
A three-time Rookie of the Month award winner, this marks Alvarez’s first time winning Player of the Month. The last Astro to win the award was Kyle Tucker in October 2021.