Toronto’s George Springer and Chicago’s Michael Busch put on an offensive showcase last week, while Zack Wheeler of the Philadelphia Phillies delivered a dominant two-start performance, earning them MLB Player of the Week honors presented by Chevrolet, the league announced Monday on MLB Network.
Springer claimed his sixth career Player of the Week award, while Busch secured his second and Wheeler notched his first.
Springer, 35, batted .429 with five home runs, 13 RBI, a .964 slugging percentage, and a .500 on-base clip. The Blue Jays slugger had back-to-back multi-homer games against the Yankees, including a career-high seven RBI performance on Tuesday. He became just the third Blue Jay with four homers and 10+ RBI in a four-game series, joining Edwin Encarnación and Carlos Delgado. He tallied five straight multi-hit games, the longest streak by a Toronto player since Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in April 2023.
Busch, 27, blistered through the week with a Major League-best .565 average (13-for-23), adding four homers, seven RBI, and a 1.789 OPS. His three-homer, five-RBI game against the Cardinals on Friday made him part of the first Cubs duo since 1972—alongside Pete Crow-Armstrong—with four hits and multiple home runs in a game. He also joined Hall of Famers Ryne Sandberg and Ripper Collins as the only Cubs with nine hits and six RBI in a three-game series.
Wheeler, also 35, was nearly untouchable across two starts, going 2-0 with a 0.53 ERA, allowing just one earned run and no walks over 17 innings. His 22 strikeouts led the Majors. He fired a complete game against the Reds, retiring 27 of 28 batters with 12 strikeouts and just one hit allowed. It was the first time in Phillies history a pitcher recorded 12+ strikeouts, no walks, and one or fewer hits in a complete game, a feat accomplished at Wheeler’s age only by Randy Johnson and R.A. Dickey.
Also honored was Jacob Young of the Nationals, whose leaping catch at the wall against Detroit earned him Play of the Week. It was the fifth time a Nationals player has received the award.
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