Kansas City Royals
KANSAS CITY, Mo.—Major League Baseball announced today that Vinnie Pasquantino has been named the American League Player of the Week presented by Chevrolet for the period of June 2-8. This is Pasquantino’s second career weekly honor, and first since Aug. 8-14, 2022. He is the Royals first AL Player of the Week winner this season, and first since Bobby Witt Jr. won twice last year, from May 20-26 and July 15-21.
Vinnie tied for the Major League lead last week in batting average (.500) and hits (13) with Athletics shortstop Jacob Wilson. He also tied four others for the most go-ahead RBI (3) in the AL, while ranking 2nd in total bases (20), 3rd in on-base percentage (.536) and OPS (1.305), tied for 4th in RBI (7) and 5th in slugging percentage (.769).
Pasquantino hit safely in all 6 games last week, including 4 multi-hit efforts. He drove in at least 1 run in 5 consecutive games from Tuesday-Saturday, including 2 RBI in back-to-back games in St. Louis on Tuesday and Game 1 of Thursday’s doubleheader. He homered in consecutive games Friday and Saturday at Rate Field in Chicago, including back-to-back home runs with Maikel Garcia on Friday night that flipped a 0-1 deficit into a 2-1 lead. Entering play this week, he carries both a 9-game hitting streak and a career-long 24-game on-base streak that dates back to May 12. Only Cleveland’s José Ramírez’s active 34-game on-base streak is longer.
He also played error-free defense, converting 40 total chances in 5 games at first base, including this web gem in which he robbed former-Royal Andrew Benintendi of a base hit with a dive to his right, before spinning and firing a strike to Seth Lugo covering first base.