Tampa Bay Rays OF Austin Meadows named American League Player of the Week

Austin Meadows has been named the American League Player of the Week.

Meadows, whom the Rays acquired as part of the return in the Chris Archer deal last July, has been exceptional as of late for the Rays. Over the past week, Meadows has hit .545/.630/1.182 with four home runs over 27 plate appearances. During Friday night’s game in Toronto, Meadows had two blasts (his first career multi-homer game), including one of the only home runs to ever land in the 500 level at Rogers Centre.

Austin Meadows currently leads the Rays in most offensive categories: fWAR, wRC+, AVG, OBP, SLG, and HR.

Overall this season, Meadows has hit .357/.438/.732 with six home runs over 64 plate appearances, accruing a total of 1.1 fWAR. His fWAR total has him ranked fourth in the majors among qualifying players.

Meadows career had been a struggle thus far. He is a former top-100 prospect, but injuries and a logjam of players created playing time issues for him in Pittsburgh. Once he was traded to Tampa Bay, he rediscovered his power stroke in the minors and has transitioned that to the big leagues thus far in 2019.

Ronald Acuna Jr was named the National League Player of the Week.