Colorado Rockies: Nolan Arenado’s case for NL Player of the Month for May

The month of May wrapped up on Friday as the Colorado Rockies won their sixth straight game to end with a 16-10 record in May. One of the biggest contributors to the Rockies having that record was Nolan Arenado.

After an awful 3-12 record, the Colorado Rockies seem to be back on the rails heading into the month of June as they started the first game of the new month just like they did in the final six games of the month: with a win.

The Rockies obviously have a few reasons for the success but, first and foremost, the Rockies got hot when Nolan Arenado did and for the month of May, he has a very strong chance to win the National League Player of the Month award.

Per Fangraphs, Arenado was first in the National League in a lot of different categories.

• 2.1 WAR, 1st (Josh Bell 2nd at 1.8)
• .425 AVG, 1st (Josh Bell 2nd at .390)
• .479 OBP, 1st (Carson Kelly 2nd at .467)
• 1.262 OPS, 1st (Derek Dietrich 2nd at 1.241)
• .510 wOBA, 1st (Josh Bell 2nd at .501)

He was also in the top five in the NL in these categories.

• 45 H, 2nd
• 29 RBI, 2nd
• .783 SLG, 3rd
• 25 R, T-3rd
• 9 2B, T-5th
• 9 HR, T-5th

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Also, according to the Rockies PR team, Arenado’s 45 hits in May are the most in a month for a Rockie since Todd Helton recorded 50 hits in August 2000. He also concluded the month with an active 11-game hitting streak (and continued it on Saturday with one hit).

As you see by the numbers, the only other player that really could be considered is Pittsburgh Pirates first baseman Josh Bell, who also had an excellent month of May. Our colleagues over at FanSided’s Pirates site, Rum Bunter, made the case for Josh Bell winning the NL Player of the Month award.

Bell did have some historic numbers in the month and some people may penalize Arenado for playing in Coors Field. By wRC+, it puts Bell’s numbers better than Arenado as Bell had the best wRC+ in the NL at 218 and Arenado was second in the NL at 206. However, some could look at how the teams did in the month and the Pirates went 15-14 compared to the Rockies 16-10.

If Arenado were to win, it would be his third time winning the award as he won the honor previously in September 2015 and July 2017.

The results will likely be announced early in the week so stay tuned to see if Arenado does, in fact, win the award for the third time in his career.