Daylen Lile’s red-hot finish to the season earned him a pair of impressive honors: National League Player of the Month and NL Rookie of the Month.
Those joint awards were announced this morning by Major League Baseball, which handed out all of the sport’s monthly honors for September and declared a double-winner for the Nationals.
Lile closed out his rookie season on an absolute tear, batting .391 with three doubles, seven triples, six homers, 19 RBIs and a 1.212 OPS. The 22-year-old outfielder led the majors in slugging percentage (.772), hits (36), triples (seven) and total bases (71). His seven triples were the most in a single month in franchise history, and he was the first major leaguer with at least seven triples and six homers in a calendar month since Willie Mays in 1957.
Lile is the first Nationals player to win NL Player of the Month honors since Kyle Schwarber in June 2021. Prior to Schwarber, the last National to win the honor was Ryan Zimmerman in April 2017.
Because he won Player of the Month, Lile was a shoo-in for Rookie of the Month as well. The question now is how he’ll finish in voting for NL Rookie of the Year.
Though he played in only 91 games, Lile led all NL rookies with at least 300 plate appearances in batting average (.299), slugging percentage (.498) and OPS (.845). In addition to his lesser counting stats compared to Braves catcher Drake Baldwin (19 homers, 80 RBIs), Lile’s case is diminished by his poor defensive metrics (minus-8 Outs Above Average). Cubs right-hander Cade Horton (11-4, 2.67 ERA over 118 innings) is another top contender for the award, which will be revealed in mid-November.