The 10 best MLB players in June

June’s Five Best Hitters

With wRC+ as our measuring stick, these five hitters have risen above the rest in the leaderboards (we’ve included a few other statistics for good measure).

Charlie Blackmon‘s 2.1 fWAR so far this season is close to surpassing what he did in a “down” performance last year (2.8 fWAR). That’s because he completely went off this past month. Entering the month of June, he had 10 homers and 31 RBI through 219 plate appearances. So he basically doubled both of those season-long numbers in about half the time.

Fernando Tatis Jr. is making a strong first impression. Among shortstops with at least 200 plate appearances, his 2.7 fWAR is ranked eighth. When looking at this top-10, he’s the only one with fewer than 319 plate appearances. It hasn’t mattered where he’s played, either — he owns a 155 wRC+ at home and a 172 mark on the road.

Another month, and another appearance for Christian Yelich on this list. His current three-year power progression is just ridiculous: he hit 18 dingers in 2017, 36 in 2018, and currently has 29 with the All-Star Game around the corner. His season-long slugging percentage has shot up nearly 300 points during this time (.439 in ’17, .598 in ’18, .704 in ’19). The key lies in his batted-ball profile. Yelich is on track to easily post new career-best marks in ground-ball rate (43.2%), fly-ball rate (38.8%), and hard-hit rate (53.7%).

So much for DJ LeMahieu being product of Coors Field, right? It’s not as if Yankee Stadium is a pitcher-friendly park, but what he’s done in the Bronx is still rather impressive. The veteran infielder is on track to set new personal bests in home runs (12), RBI (61), slugging percentage (.534), wRC+ (145), and fWAR (3.6). The Yankees are paying him an average of $12 million per year, and his 2019 performance has already been worth $28.4 million, according to FanGraphs.

Pete Alonso and Mike Trout were actually deadlocked in wRC+, but the nod goes to Alonso because he slightly has an edge with wOBA and OPS. Plus, Trout is always on this list, so he can stand just barely missing. The young first baseman already owns the Mets’ single-season rookie homer record, and the franchise record of 41 is well within grasp. He’s used a mixture of many fly balls (40.9% rate), not too many infield flies (7.9% clip), and a healthy amount of hard contact for this batted-ball event (58.4%) to post a 358 wRC+ and 1.057 ISO on fly balls.