3:11 PM UTC
Outfielder Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees has been named the American League Player of the Month presented by Chevrolet for May, and first baseman Bryce Harper of the Philadelphia Phillies has been voted the National League Player of the Month presented by Chevrolet for May. The announcements were made earlier today on MLB Network.
Judge claimed his seventh career monthly honor after previously winning in May 2023; May, July and September/October 2022 in his AL MVP winning season; and June and September 2017. The award marks the third straight season in which Judge has won AL Player of the Month in May and he has now won each of the Yankees’ last five monthly awards. Harper earned his first monthly award as a member of the Phillies, taking home his third honor overall after winning twice as a member of the Washington Nationals in April 2016 and May 2015 in his first NL MVP winning season. It is the first Player of the Month award for Philadelphia since Harper’s teammate Kyle Schwarber won in June 2022.
Aaron Judge, New York Yankees (@thejudge44)
• The 32-year-old hit .371 (36-for-97) with 14 homers, 27 RBI, 12 doubles, 22 walks, 28 runs scored, a stolen base, a .928 slugging percentage and a .488 on-base percentage in 28 games last month.
• The California native led the Majors in home runs, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS (1.397), doubles, extra-base hits (26), total bases (89), and runs scored; ranked second in the Majors in batting average and RBI; tied for second in walks; and tied for fifth in hits.
• The 2022 AL MVP’s 26 extra-base hits, marked the most extra-base hits in the month of May ever by a Yankee, surpassing the previous record of 24 extra-base hits, held by Hall of Famers Babe Ruth (1928) and Lou Gehrig (1927). Judge is just the seventh player in MLB since 2000 to record at least 25 extra-base hits within a calendar month and just the fourth player since 2000 with at least 26 extra-base hits in a single month.
• The 2017 AL Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year had four extra-base hits on May 15th at Minnesota, hitting three doubles and a homer, marking the second four extra-base hit game of his career (also: 9/22/2023). Judge became the fourth Yankee with at least two games with four-or-more extra base hits, joining Hall of Famers Joe DiMaggio (5 G); Gehrig (5 games); and Ruth (2 G).
• The five-time All-Star went deep in four straight games from May 22nd-25th, tying the second-longest streak of his career behind a five-game streak during the 2020 season. His 14 homers in May were his second-most in a single calendar month of his career, behind his 15 home runs in September 2017. Judge recorded his first multi-homer game of the season on Friday at San Francisco and now has 35 career multi-homer games, the most of any big league player since his debut in 2016.
• The 32nd overall pick of the 2013 MLB Draft reached base safely in 27 of his 28 games, with hits in 22 of his games. He has reached base safely in each of his last 29 games since May 2nd, marking the third-longest on-base streak of his career, over which he is boasting a .516 OBP.
Bryce Harper, Philadelphia Phillies (@bryceharper3)
• The 31-year-old hit .313 (30-for-96) with seven homers, 24 RBI, five doubles, 16 walks, 19 runs scored, two stolen bases, a .583 slugging percentage and a .407 on-base percentage in 26 games last month.
• The Nevada native led NL hitters in RBI and OPS (.990); tied for the NL lead in home runs; ranked second in slugging and total bases (56); tied for third in runs scored; ranked fourth in batting average and on-base percentage; ranked fifth in walks; and tied for seventh in hits (30).
• The 2015 and 2021 NL MVP homered in three straight games from May 5th-7th, driving home 10 runs over the three-game stretch. Harper capped off the span with a grand slam on May 7th against Toronto, marking his eighth career grand slam and second of the season (also: 4/2 vs. CIN). The stretch included three of his nine multi-hit games in May.
• The 2012 NL Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year recorded five games with at least three RBI, including four-RBI performances on May 7th against Toronto and May 25th at Colorado. Harper’s seven games with at least three RBI are tied with Willy Adames of the Milwaukee Brewers for the second-most in Baseball this season, behind Juan Soto of the Yankees and Marcell Ozuna of the Atlanta Braves, who have each had eight such games.
• The seven-time All-Star drew three walks on May 3rd against San Francisco, marking his 43rd career game with at least three walks. Since he entered the league in 2012, his 43 career games with at least three walks are second-most in the Majors behind only Joey Votto, who has 57 such games.
• The first overall pick of the 2010 MLB Draft reached safely in 21 of his 27 games in May and reached safely at least twice in 16 of his May contests, tied for third-most in the Majors. Overall, he has reached base at least twice in 30 of his 54 games this season.
Designated hitter Brent Rooker (.330, 6 HR, 22 RBI, 8 2B, 12 BB, 16 R, 1 SB, .590 SLG, .407 OBP) of the Oakland Athletics was the only player besides Judge to receiver votes for AL Player of the Month presented by Chevrolet.
Others receiving votes for NL Player of the Month presented by Chevrolet included designated hitter Luis Arraez (.389, 1 HR, 11 RBI, 5 2B, 3 BB, 16 R, 3 SB, .415 OBP) and outfielder Jurickson Profar (.344, 4 HR, 18 RBI, 2 2B, 14 BB, 18 R, 2 SB, .438 OBP) of the San Diego Padres; designated hitter Shohei Ohtani (.312, 7 HR, 19 RBI, 3 2B, 1 3B, 10 BB, 16 R, 8 SB, .591 SLG, .385 OBP) of the Los Angeles Dodgers; designated hitter Marcell Ozuna (.292, 7 HR, 18 RBI, 5 2B, 13 BB, 11 R, .563 SLG) of the Braves; and shortstop Kevin Newman (.312, 3 RBI, 6 2B, 1 3B, 4 BB, 12 R, 1 SB, .346 OBP) of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
