Miami Marlins Slugger Named NL Player of the Month

The Miami Marlins are surging, winners of five straight after a sweep of the New York Yankees over the weekend. Their win on Sunday not only completed the sweep, but got them back to the .500 mark on the year, with the Marlins now sitting at 55-55, 7.5 back in the NL East, and six back of the final Wild Card spot.

A big reason for the resurgent Marlins season is former Stanford Cardinal, Kyle Stowers. He was an All Star for the first time last month, and on either side of that break he was simply the best hitter in all of baseball in July. That includes the A's Nick Kurtz, who had a four-homer performance against the Houston Astros last month and landed himself the AL Player of the Month honors.

The Marlins acquired Stowers at last year's Trade Deadline, and after his tremendous first half, Miami said they were unwilling to move him at this year's deadline. That good too, because he looks like a building block for this club, and gives the fans someone to rally around.

Here is the full press release

MIAMI - Major League Baseball announced today that Miami Marlins outfielder Kyle Stowers has been named the National League Player of the Month presented by Chevrolet for July.
Stowers, 27, earns his first career MLB monthly honor and is the first Marlin to be named a National League Player of the Month since outfielder Giancarlo Stanton in August 2017.

He is the fifth different Marlin to win the award, joining Jeff Conine (June 1995), Hanley Ramírez (June 2008), Emilio Bonifacio (July 2011), and Stanton, who owns the club record with three NL Player of the Month awards (also, May 2012 and June 2015).

The left-handed hitter slashed .364/.451/.818 (28x77) with 16 runs, five doubles, 10 home runs, and 20 RBI in 24 games during July while leading National League qualified hitters with his 1.269 OPS and 239 wRC+ (per FanGraphs).

He also led all NL qualifiers in RBI and SLG while he was tied for first in fWAR (1.8), ranked second in AVG and OBP, and tied for second with 10 home runs. The El Cajon, Calif. native set club records in SLG and OPS for July, as both marks stand good for the third-best in any month in club history. Additionally, his 10 home runs were the most for a Marlins hitter in July since Giancarlo Stanton had 12 in 2017.

Highlighted by a career high five hits, three homers, and 14 total bases on July 13 at Baltimore, Stowers earned his second National League Player of the Week Award of the season on July 14. The honor made him the fourth player in Marlins history to win multiple NL Player of the Week Awards in a single season (also May 5).

In his next game on July 18, he hit two home runs for his fifth multi-homer game of the season and became the first player in Franchise history with five home runs in a two-game span. He also joined Ty Cobb, from May 5-6, 1925, as the only players to record at least eight hits, five home runs, and 11 RBI in a two-game span since RBI became an official stat in 1920.