With the regular season completed and the playoff picture set, Major League Baseball has announced its final Player of the Week and Player of the Month awards. With Gerrit Cole dominating in the American League and Jack Flaherty earning his team a division clinching victory, W.B. Mason presents the weekly awards.
On the Player of the Week award winners, Gerrit Cole of the Houston Astros was quite impressive and took home the honors. The Astros starter was lights out on the hill in his final start of the 2019 regular season, setting the tone of the Astros divisional series. In the National league, Ian Happ did his part in trying to elevate the Chicago Cubs back to a postseason run which was ultimately cut short. The Cubs failed to make the playoffs but that did not stop Happ from having an impressive week and putting up phenomenal numbers.
Ending 2019 on a high note.@GerritCole45 and @ihapp_1 are the Players of the Week.
(MLB x @wbmasonco) pic.twitter.com/YC2YRMyhkY
— MLB (@MLB) September 30, 2019
Moving into the monthly awards, the players of the month came in the form of an NL slugger and an AL dominant hitter. Eugenio Suarez of the Cincinnati Reds took home the NL Player of the Month honors after he was able to give power hitters a run for their money while mashing 49 home runs on the season with 18 of those coming this month. The AL Player of the Month nominee was Austin Meadows who helped the Rays capture their Wildcard berth where they will play the Oakland Athletics. Meadows mashed 9 home runs and 20 RBI for the Rays who were competing to earn a Wildcard berth with the Athletics and Indians.
These guys raked all September long.
Eugenio Suárez and @austin_meadows are your Players of the Month. pic.twitter.com/q6Teqmg7fZ
— MLB (@MLB) September 30, 2019
Already mentioned above, Astros ace Cole was electric, and not just this past week. Cole was able to take home the monthly award for best pitcher in the AL. Over the course of the last month, Cole only allowed 5 runs over 42 innings pitched in route to a 6-0 record. The NL counterpart for NL Pitcher of the Month was Jack Flaherty who helped elevate the St. Louis Cardinals find their way to a division title in the NL Central division. Flaherty was just as good as Cole, only allowing 4 earned runs over the course of 44 innings pitched for the Cardinals.
.@GerritCole45 and @Jack9Flaherty are on ? heading into the postseason. pic.twitter.com/s3z6K9hpsD
— MLB (@MLB) September 30, 2019
Besides these starters, there were some rookies who really kicked it into gear to close out the 2019 regular season. New York Mets rising star Pete Alonso managed to take home the honors for most home runs ever hit by a rokkie in a single-season after mashing his 53rd home run. This past month, Alonso hit 11 home runs to capture the league single-season rookie record finishing with 53 home runs and 120 RBI for the Mets who fell short of the 2019 postseason. In the AL, Eloy Jimenez put together quite the finish for the Chicago White Sox. Jimenez hit .340 with 9 home runs and had 20 RBI for the White Sox.
.@Pete_Alonso20 and @Lamantha21 put an exclamation point on their rookie campaigns. pic.twitter.com/qBxJwRxXIB
— MLB (@MLB) September 30, 2019
With the 2019 regular season wrapped up, these are the final monthly award winners for the regular season. The focus of fans will now shift into the playoff picture and postseason races for the teams still alive. All of the stats mentioned about these Player of the Week and Player of the Month award winners are from Baseball Reference.
