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Yasiel Puig Named NL Player of the Month and NL Rookie of the Month
Congrats to Yasiel on an amazing start to his career!
LOS ANGELES – Major League Baseball announced today that Dodger rookie outfielder Yasiel Puig has been voted the Budweiser Presents National League Player of the Month for June as well as the National League Rookie of the Month. This is just the fifth time since the Rookie of the Month Award was introduced in 2001 that a Player or Pitcher of the Month Award winner has garnered Rookie honors in the same calendar month. Puig joins Dontrelle Willis (FLA, June 2003), Ryan Braun (MIL, July 2007), Jeremy Hellickson (TB, May 2011) and Mike Trout (LAA, July 2012) as the only players to accomplish the feat. Puig is the first to win a Player of the Month Award in his first month in the big leagues since the award was instituted in 1958.
The last Dodger to win Player of the Month honors was Matt Kemp (April 2012) and the last to win Rookie of the Month was Dee Gordon (Sept. 2011).
In 26 games last month, his first in the big leagues, Puig led the Majors with a .436 (44-for-101) batting average, 44 hits and a .713 slugging percentage. The Cuba native ranked among N.L. leaders with a .467 on-base percentage (1st), 72 total bases (2nd), 19 runs scored (T-3rd) and seven home runs (T-5th). Puig led all Major League rookies in home runs, RBI (16), runs scored, on-base percentage, slugging and total bases and placed second in stolen bases with four. His 44 hits ranked as the second-most all-time for a player in their debut calendar month, behind Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio’s 48 hits in May 1936. Puig joined DiMaggio as the only players in Major League history to record at least 40 hits while hitting at least four home runs in their first month in the Majors.
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