Baseball's Best in May 2023

Issue #95

The second full month of the 2023 season ended recently, so I'm a few days late in getting this article out. But who were the all-stars for the month of May? Given the increased level of interleague play, unlike the real All-Star game in July I'm not going to separate selections by league. So for overall MLB, for the month of May, here is what I came up with:

Here are those players, along with some others who I considered and that deserve at least honorable mention:

C 

• Francisco Alvarez (NYM) - .292/.363/.667, 7 HR

• Salvador Perez (KCR) - .302/.337/.635, 9 HR

• Will Smith (LAD) - .318/.434/.529, 5 HR

• Sean Murphy (ATL) - .313/.400/.530, 5 HR

• Elias Diaz (COL) - .321/.372/.524, 4 HR

In May we saw Alvarez starting to fulfill his hitting-prospect promise. Several others here are good-hitting catchers that we'd expect to see in such a list, and Diaz is having a good year so far for Colorado.

1B

• Freddie Freeman (LAD) - .400/.462/.722, 6 HR, 17 D, 26 RBI, 28 Runs, 4 SB

• Yandy Diaz (TBR) - .300/.398/.575, 5 HR in only 21 games

• Spencer Steer (CIN) - .318/.372/.573, 6 HR

• Anthony Rizzo (NYY) - .327/.382/.535, 6 HR

• Pete Alonso (NYM) - .219/.339/.543, 10 HR

Freeman hit .400, stole 4 bases, and went bonkers with doubles (17) in the month of May—way ahead of second place Juan Soto who had 11. In fact, Freeman's 17 doubles during May are tied for the third most ever (back to 1901) for that particular month. Here are the others with 17 or more doubles in May:

• Paul Waner - 20 in 1932

• Joe Vosmik - 18 in 1937

• Frankie Frisch - 17 in 1930

• Mike Sweeney - 17 in 2001

Hitting 15+ doubles in the month of May has only happened 20 times since 1901... and interestingly, Freeman did it last year too!

2B

• Michael Massey (KCR) - .319/.412/.528, 4 HR

• Marcus Semien (TEX) - .322/.385/.513, 3 HR, 9 D, 3 SB

• Nolan Gorman (STL) - .277/.365/.590, 7 HR

Nice to see rising stars Massey and Gorman do well, and Semien continued to be a key part of the Rangers potent offense in May.

3B

• Josh Jung (TEX) - .318/.357/.561, 6 HR

• Nolan Arenado (STL) - .290/.342/.560, 7 HR

Not a lot of standout 3B offensively during May, but Jung and Arenado both did pretty well.

SS

• Bo Bichette (TOR) - .350/.386/.542, 5 HR

• Wander Franco (TBR) - .296/.361/.417, 14 SB

Bichette just keeps on hitting, while Franco is not hitting for much power yet (2 HR in May), but he is running the bases a lot.

RF

• Aaron Judge (NYY) - .342/.474/.882, 12 HR, 25 RBI in only 21 games

• Ronald Acuna Jr. (ATL) - .298/.372/.561, 7 HR, 10 SB, 25 Runs

• Anthony Santander (BAL) - .337/.422/.634, 7 HR

• Mookie Betts (LAD) - .269/.365/.593, 9 HR, 26 runs

• Lane Thomas (WSN) - .303/.352/.580, 8 HR

• Seiya Suzuki (CHC) - .319/.417/.560, 5 HR

Once Judge came off the injured list he got back to doing what he does. And Acuna continued his outstanding 2023 campaign and is a leading NL MVP candidate.

CF

• Esteury Ruiz (OAK) - .282/.333/.393, 8 D, 17 SB

• Luis Robert Jr. (CHW) - .310/.373/.640, 8 HR

• Kevin Kiermaier (TOR) - .366/.410/.634, 3 HR, 4 SB

• Riley Greene (DET) - .365/.435/.573, 3 HR, 4 SB

• Jose Siri (TBR) - .254/.317/.634, 8 HR, 4 SB in only 21 games

• Leody Taveras (TEX) - .368/.419/.516, 4 SB

Ruiz certainly ran wild in May, with his 17 SB three more than Wander Franco's 14. And Jose Siri didn't hit for a high average in May, but he finally is displaying a little power, which is better aligned to what he demonstrated in the minors several years ago.

LF 

• Juan Soto (SDP) - .333/.482/.632, 5 HR, 11 D, 5 SB

• Lourdes Gurriel Jr. (ARI) - .352/.416/.714, 8 HR

• Bryan De La Cruz (MIA) - .337/.398/.541, 5 HR

Great to see Soto come alive with a solid batting average, some dingers, and even 5 stolen bases—while still maintaining his elite OBP.

DH

• Jorge Soler (MIA) - .271/.355/.626, 12 HR, 25 RBI

• J.D. Martinez (LAD) - .311/.338/.703, 8 HR, 24 RBI

• Marcell Ozuna (ATL) - .297/.360/.626, 9 HR

• Yordan Alvarez (HOU) - .284/.395/.611, 8 HR

Soler has been really mashing in Miami lately, and veterans Martinez and Ozuna had a good May as well.

Utility

• Christopher Morel (CHC) - .282/.320/.704, 9 HR in 19 games

• Owen Miller (MIL) - .363/.395/.600, 4 HR, 3 SB in 21 games

Morel came up and went on a tear while playing a mix of CF, RF, LF, 2B, and DH. The only thing that tempered his results was his free-swinging approach, as in addition to the solid numbers listed above he also had 29 strikeouts in 71 at-bats.

SP

• Michael Wacha (SDP) - 0.84 ERA, 26 K in 32 IP, 0.719 WHIP

• Nathan Eovaldi (TEX) - 0.96 ERA, 31 K in 37.2 IP, 0.850 WHIP

• Logan Webb (SFG) - 1.30 ERA, 33 K in 34.2 IP, 0.981 WHIP

• Framber Valdez (HOU) - 2.18 ERA, 40 K in 33 IP, 0.909 WHIP

• Merrill Kelly (ARI) - 2.59 ERA, 39 K in 31.1 IP, 0.830 WHIP

• Miles Mikolas (STL) - 1.89 ERA, 29 K in 38 IP, 0.947 WHIP

• Tony Gonsolin (LAD) - 1.95 ERA, 24 K in 32.1 IP, 0.835 WHIP

• Jon Gray (TEX) - 1.95 ERA, 29 K in 32.1 IP, 0.928 WHIP

• Michael Lorenzen (DET) - 1.95 ERA, 20 K in 32.1 IP, 0.866 WHIP

• Zach Greinke (KCR) - 2.30 ERA, 25 K in 31.1 IP, 0.830 WHIP

• Christian Javier (HOU) - 2.40 ERA, 32 K in 30 IP, 0.833 WHIP

• Chris Sale (BOS) - 2.42 ERA, 30 K in 26 IP, 0.808 WHIP

• Bryce Elder (ATL) - 1.72 ERA, 30 K in 35.2 IP, 1.118 WHIP

• Shane McClanahan (TBR) - 2.02 ERA, 40 K in 35.2 IP, 1.206 WHIP

• Eduardo Rodriguez (DET) - 2.03 ERA, 37 K in 31 IP, 1.097 WHIP

• Mitch Keller (PIT) - 3.00 ERA, 53 K in 39 IP, 0.974 WHIP

• Spencer Strider (ATL) 4.01 ERA, 57 K in 33.2 IP, 1.129 WHIP

There are others that I could have included in the above list, and of course how you rank them depends on whether you more highly value ERA and WHIP, or striking out a lot of guys, or a nice mixture of the two. For instance, Spencer Strider had the most Ks in May with 57 in ony 33.2 IP, which makes for an impressive 15.24 SO/9 ratio. But he also had a 4.01 ERA over his six starts—compared to an ERA under 1.00 for Michael Wacha and Nathan Eovaldi.

RP

• Alexis Díaz (CIN) - 9 saves, 0.73 ERA, 22 K in 12.1 IP, 1.054 WHIP

• Camilo Duval (SFG) - 11 saves, 1.32 ERA, 23 K in 13.2 IP, 0.805 WHIP

• Alex Lange (DET) - 7 saves, 0.84 ERA, 17 K in 10.2 IP, 0.844 WHIP

• Félix Bautista (BAL) - 7 saves, 1.35 ERA, 29 K in 13.1 IP, 1.125 WHIP

• Carlos Estévez (LAA) - 7 saves, 1.74 ERA, 16 K in 10.1 IP, 1.161 WHIP

• Ryan Pressley (HOU) - 7 saves, 2.45 ERA, 15 K in 11 IP, 1.091 WHIP

• Kendall Graveman (CHW) - 4 saves, 0.00 ERA, 11 K in 11.1 IP, 0.618 WHIP

• Evan Phillips (LAD) - 4 saves 0.77 ERA, 14 K in 11.2 IP, 0.600 WHIP

• Devin Williams (MIN) - 4 saves, 1.08 ERA, 8 K in 8.1 IP, 0.840 WHIP

• David Robertson (NYM) - 5 saves, 2.08 ERA, 15 K in 13 IP, 1.154 WHIP

• Miguel Castro (ARI) - 4 saves, 2.13 ERA, 13 K in 12.2 IP, 1.026 WHIP

• Scott Barlow (KCR) - 2 saves, 1.69 ERA, 16 K in 10.2 IP, 0.656 WHIP

Wow, Bautista was a strikeout machine in the month of May, averaging more than two Ks per inning pitched.

For the above list I focused on late-inning, closer type relievers. But I want to recognize, in addition to Kendall Graveman of the White Sox, the other relievers who pitched more than 10 innings in May without giving up any earned runs (in order by IP):

• Dauri Moreta (PIT) - 0.00 ERA, 20 K in 13.1 IP, 0.450 WHIP

• Andrew Nardi (MIA) - 0.00 ERA, 15 K in 12.1 IP, 1.054 WHIP

• Kevnan Middleton (CHW) - 0.00 ERA, 14 K in 11.2 IP, 0.771 WHIP

• Steve Wilson (SDP) - 0.00 ERA, 13 K in 11.1 IP, 0.882 WHIP

• Jhoan Duran (MIN) - 0.00 ERA, 15 K in 10.2 IP, 0.750 WHIP

• Hector Neris (HOU) - 0.00 ERA, 14 K in 10.2 IP, 1.031 WHIP

And I’ll give a final shoutout to Steven Okert of the Marlins who pitched in 15 games in May (tied for the most), had 21 K in 13 IP, and posted a 0.69 ERA and 0.615 WHIP.

Did you know? I wrote a book with the same title as this Substack newsletter / blog: Now Taking the Field: Baseball’s All-Time Dream Teams for All 30 Franchises. It was published in early 2019, by ACTA Sports, the publisher of the annual Bill James Handbook and other popular titles. You can learn more about it at www.NowTakingTheField.com, or buy directly at Amazon and other booksellers.