MLB Players of the Month: New York Yankees SS Didi Gregorius
Coming into the 2018 MLB season, when you heard about the New York Yankees it was all about Aaron Judge, the acquisition of Giancarlo Stanton and Gary Sanchez offensively. Staying quietly in the background was their cleanup hitter for a good part of the end of last year was shortstop Didi Gregorius. With Stanton and Sanchez off to slow starts, Gregorius has saved the Yankees with his hot bat.
Didi is fourth in the league in hitting, tied for the major league lead in homers with 10, the major league leader in RBI with 30 and the MLB leader in OPS and slugging. He also has more walks than strikeouts, which in this era, you don’t see a whole bunch.
The move back up in the lineup between Judge and Stanton has helped kickstart a lineup and a team that has won its last nine games.
Stanton won the NL MVP last year, and Judge finished second in the AL, but if Gregorius keeps this going, he could find himself in that conversation.
MLB Players of the Month: Atlanta Braves Second Baseman Ozzie Albies
Didi Gregorius isn’t the only native of Curacao off to a flying start. The talk of the Atlanta Braves farm system on the hitting side has been Dansby Swanson since he came over in the Shelby Miller fleecing, er, I mean, trade and of course Ronald Acuna. Ozzie Albies moved to second once Swanson came into the fold and had a cup of coffee in the bigs last year.
This year, he’s gotten off a big start for a man who stands just 5’8″ and weighs in at 165 and delivered one of the top performances of the first month of the 2018 MLB season.
Ozzie Albies is tied for the NL lead in homers with Colorado Rockies outfielder Charlie Blackmon with nine. He’s tied for fourth in the NL with 20 RBI. Only Javier Baez has a higher slugging percentage than Albies .647, and he’s sixth in the NL in OPS with .988.
Like Didi Gregorius, Ozzie Albies may fly under the radar on his own club with Ronald Acuna, Dansby Swanson, and Freddie Freeman. Like Didi Gregorius, Ozzie Albies may find himself earning some hardware at the end of the year if he keeps this going.