MLB Players of the Month: Top performers of April, 2018
Who were the top performers in the first month of the MLB season, earning our MLB Players of the Month awards?
We’ve reached May 1 and the first month of the MLB season is over, meaning it’s time give out our MLB Players of the Month awards. The season goes by quick, and if you can believe it, we’ve reached the beginning of a new month. We’ve seen a lot so far during the first month and change of the MLB season.
A no-hitter. A crazy amount of rainouts. Crazy catches. The longest at-bat in MLB history. It seems like every night there’s something crazy going on and that’s what makes it great.
We saw debuts of top prospects in Gleyber Torres, Ronald Acuna Jr, and Shohei Ohtani do things that haven’t been done in baseball since Babe Ruth was pitching and hitting for the Boston Red Sox last century.
We’ve also seen a ton of injuries and probably the biggest split between have and have nots in the MLB that we’ve ever seen before. Teams are finally realizing it’s pointless being in the middle. You either go for it or you don’t.
You can’t win pennants in April, but you can certainly lose them.No playoff team last season was under .500 going into May. Going into May this year, Minnesota, Washington, and the Los Angeles Dodgers find themselves under .500 and dealing with injuries to key pieces of those clubs.
The 2018 season has gotten off to a fun start. Let’s take a look back at our MLB Players of the Month. Can these players sustain it and have dream seasons, or will it all come crashing down? To start, let’s go with the guy who replaced Derek Jeter.
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.
MLB Players of the Month: Oakland A’s pitcher Sean Manaea
Anytime you can throw a no-hitter it’s quite a feat. To no-hit a team that was the hottest team in the game at the time is really impressive. That’s what lefty Sean Manaea did earlier this month by throwing the first no-hitter of the 2018 MLB season against the Boston Red Sox, a team that was on fire before getting to Oakland.
The 26-year-old former first-round pick has been pretty good outside of that no-hitter. All told, he’s 4-2 with a 1.03 ERA. He’s struck out 37 in 43.2 innings with a 0.62 WHIP. Opponents are hitting just .134 against him.
Sean Manaea’s velocity may be a tick down, but he’s getting more soft contact than ever before, with an increase from 14% last year to 19% this year. Ask CC Sabathia what that can do for a pitcher.
Sean Manaea seems to be healthy finally, and for a team that’s looking for pitching, maybe he can anchor their staff moving forward.
MLB Players of the Month: Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Patrick Corbin — A southpaw snake
The Arizona Diamondbacks would be in real trouble without the pitching of Patrick Corbin this season. Robbie Ray is hurt. Taijuan Walker needs Tommy John surgery, and he’s out until next year. Zack Greinke isn’t Zack Greinke quite yet.
Enter Patrick Corbin, who has gotten off to a great start during the 2018 MLB season. In six games, Patrick Corbin is 4-0 with a 2.25 ERA. In 40 innings, he’s struck out 55 batters.
The difference has been the slider, as Patrick Corbin has thrown that almost 40% of the time. Opponents are hitting just .095 against the pitch thus far this season. Teams are going more towards power breaking stuff and away from fastballs, and Patrick Corbin has turned into the poster boy for this being successful.
Patrick Corbin turns 29 in July, and if he continues to pitch as he has in April, he can find himself earning a nice payday this off-season as a free agent.
Baltimore Orioles Shortstop Manny Machado
He may be an Oriole for only a couple more months, but Manny Machado has gotten off to one heck of a start for the 2018 MLB season. The pending free agent is showing that he could earn a $400 million-plus contract.
Manny Machado is one behind the league lead in homers with nine. He’s tied for sixth in RBI with 22. He finds himself third in OBP and OPS and fourth in slugging. Oh yeah, he’s also hitting a major league-leading .361 while adjusting back to shortstop full time.
Manny Machado will be the other prize in the off-season free agent market besides Bryce Harper, but he’s going to be a game changer for someone, and if the Baltimore Orioles continue to struggle, he could be the prize of the MLB trade deadline this summer.
Manny Machado trade destinations.
There are of course other players off to a great start this season. Mike Trout continues to do his thing. Max Scherzer shows no signs of slowing down. Edwin Diaz already has 11 saves for the Seattle Mariners.
Next: MLB Mock Draft : Inaugural Version
The 2018 MLB season is off to a fun start, and these five guys have been a huge part of why — worthy of our MLB Players of the Month of hardware.