The award is shared with Rays 3B Junior Caminero
Cal Raleigh has been named the American League Player of the Week by MLB, with Raleigh sharing the honor with Tampa Bay Rays 3B Junior Caminero. Christian Yelich of the Milwaukee Brewers took the award home for the National League.
Cal earned the honor on a week where he went 8-for-23 (.348) with six homers and 10 RBI, scoring six runs, getting on base at a .444 clip and slugging 1.130 (1.575 OPS). He also, memorably, stole a base. The home run he hit on Sunday against the Twins gave him sole possession of the MLB lead for homers, with 23.
During the last week of the month, Raleigh also achieved a history-making milestone: the first catcher in MLB history to record 20+ home runs before June. (It is also just the 29th time in MLB history a player has reached that mark—appropriate, for number 29.)
Caminero, a former top prospect enjoying a breakout season for the Rays after struggling with quad injuries last season, went 11-for-29 (.379) with four homers and 13 RBI, including eight extra-base hits. His weekly resume was padded by the best game of his professional career, a 16-3 romp of the Rays over the Astros (thank you comrade Rays) where he hit two home runs and became the first Rays player ever to record four extra-base hits in a game.
This is the first time Raleigh has earned the Player of the Week nod. He’s the third Mariners player to win Player of the Week this season, joining teammates Jorge Polanco (April 21-27) and Dylan Moore (April 14-20), who became the first Mariners to win back-to-back AL Player of the Week awards since Alex Rodriguez and Ken Griffey Jr. on June 27 and July 4, 1998.
It’s a high, and well-deserved honor for Cal, but it’s also somewhat frustrating. In a season where he should be preeminent in the MVP conversation except for Aaron Judge strapping rocket boosters to his feet, Wile E. Coyote-style, and ascending into stratospheric heights for a player, he now has to share his first-ever weekly award.
Tomorrow MLB will announce the Player of the Month awards; Raleigh and Judge are reportedly both in the conversation for that award, as well.