Bryce Harper Wins Hank Aaron Award
This Phillies season turned out to be a disappointment, but we thought some individual honors for Bryce Harper might add a little bit of shine to the rust bucket.
Sure enough, Harper is being recognized for his fantastic season, and was named the National League’s Hank Aaron Award winner, which is given annually to the best offensive performer in each league. He won it in 2015 with the Nationals and becomes the second Phillie to receive the honor, after 2006 Ryan Howard, who hit 58 homers with 149 RBI that year.
Here’s part of the MLB release:
The Hank Aaron Awards are officially sanctioned by MLB and recognize the most outstanding offensive performers in each League. Each Club nominated one player from its team to be considered for the Hank Aaron Award and a panel of MLB.com writers determined seven finalists for each league from the list of Club nominees. In addition to the fan vote, a special panel of Hall of Fame players voted on the winners of the award. New Hall of Fame panelists included Chipper Jones, Pedro Martínez and John Smoltz joining the returning voting panel that included Johnny Bench, Craig Biggio, Ken Griffey Jr., Eddie Murray and Robin Yount.
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Harper, 29, is the first National League player to win the Hank Aaron Award with two Clubs (also 2015 with Washington). In his 10th season and third with the Phillies, Harper led the Majors in OPS (1.044) and slugging percentage (.615), and tied for first in doubles (42). Harper became only the fourth outfielder in Major League history with at least 100 runs, 100 walks, 40 doubles and 35 home runs in a season, joining Babe Ruth (twice, 1921 & 1923); Stan Musial (1949); and Barry Bonds (1998). In addition, Harper was the first player in MLB history to post a .300/.400/.700 slash line after the All-Star break (min. 300 PA) since fellow Phillie Ryan Howard during his NL MVP-winning 2006 season and was the first outfielder to do so since Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa in 2001. Harper was the only player in the Majors this year to have two separate on-base streaks of at least 23 games, and he collected 300 total bases for the second time in his career.
MVP next? That’s the biggest honor, and will be announced next week, on the 18th. Bryce is up against Juan Soto and Fernando Tatis, Jr. in the National League.