American League Players of the Month: August 2025

Gold Medal Hitter of the Month: Nick Kurtz, ATH

August Stats: 104 PA, 4 HR, 23 R, 11 RBI, .329/.471/.537, 0 SB, 180 wRC+, 1.1 fWAR

Kurtz is an absolute beast, and is well on his way to bringing home the AL Rookie of the Year Award this season. The 22-year-old had a 149 wRC+ in June, 279 in July, and wrapped up August at 180, so his tear has gone on for far longer than a single month. Simply put, we’re looking at one of the best rookie seasons in MLB history.

Through this past month, Kurtz saw his power dip, hitting just four home runs with a .207 ISO, but he was an on-base machine, leading the AL in OBP by just about 50 points while also having a comfortable lead in OPS – finishing the month as the AL’s only qualified hitter with an OPS north of 1.000.

There were a bunch of hitters that had strong Augusts, but picking anyone other than Kurtz for our top spot just felt silly.

Silver Medal Hitter of the Month: Bo Bichette, TOR

August Stats: 120 PA, 3 HR, 20 R, 19 RBI, .367/.425/.523, 0 SB, 167 wRC+, 1.2 fWAR

Kurtz may have been the AL’s best overall player, but Bichette led the league in base hits this past month. The soon-to-be free agent is going to be a hot commodity in the coming months, and the performance he had in August went a long way to boosting that upcoming contract.

Bichette also had a down month in the power department, but he hasn’t hit more than four home runs in a month since May when he hit seven of them. Even still, he struck out at a 10.8% clip in August, which is the third-lowest rate amongst all qualifying AL hitters.

Bichette found a way to be a menace for the opposing pitchers all throughout the month, while simultaneously leading the league in hits and batting average. Only Kurtz was good enough to keep Bichette from the gold medal.

Bronze Medal Hitter of the Month: Giancarlo Stanton, NYY

August Stats: 73 PA, 9 HR, 13 R, 23 RBI, .339/.431/.823, 0 SB, 237 wRC+, 1.2 fWAR

Against all odds, Stanton is healthy and absolutely annihilating baseballs again. We are so back.

Stanton, 35, is putting together an incredible run, and was one of the premier power hitters throughout the game in August. The only issue? He didn’t have enough plate appearances to qualify for the monthly leaderboards.

Even still, that’s not quite enough to keep one of the best sluggers of his generation off of our podium. Qualified or not, it’s impossible to deny how electric he was throughout the entire month. The tweet above speaks for itself and says all you really need to know.

Just Missed the Podium: Wyatt Langford, TEX

August Stats: 118 PA, 5 HR, 21 R, 14 RBI, .287/.424/.521, 3 SB, 165 wRC+, 1.5 fWAR

Langford did everything right in August, but he faced some stiff competition. While he was one of the most valuable players in the AL this past month, it was difficult to prove that he deserved a spot on the podium above the best all-around hitter in the league, the current hits leader, and everyone’s favorite resurgent uncle who discovered the fountain of youth.

Still, Langford deserves to be commended. His 165 wRC+ was fourth in the AL, while he finished second in the league in fWAR (behind Bobby Witt Jr., who also deserves a shoutout), third in OBP, tied for third in runs scored, and fifth in walk-percentage. So close, but no dice this time around.

AL Pitchers of the Month

Gold Medal Pitcher of the Month: Trevor Rogers, BAL

August Stats: 4-1 (6 GS), 1.29 ERA, 42.0 IP, 41 K, 6 BB, 1.9 fWAR

Just like Kurtz on the offensive side of things, there’s no surprise here with Rogers taking our top spot for pitchers. The southpaw has been on an all-time heater over the past few months, and the highest ERA he’s had in a single month is 2.87 back in June.

Rogers has been pounding the strike zone and relying primarily on a fastball-changeup mix to keep batters off balance and it’s been working like never before. Not only did he lead the AL in ERA by a wide margin in August, but he also threw the most innings, had the lowest HR/9 (one in 42 innings), FIP, and fWAR in the league.

Silver Medal Pitcher of the Month: Hunter Brown, HOU

August Stats: 1-2 (6 GS), 1.67 ERA, 37.2 IP, 33 K, 11 BB, 0.9 fWAR

It feels like Brown has been one of the more consistent starters in the league for over a year now. He was part of a six-way tie in our June player of the month list, the winner of the gold medal in our April list, and is now right back on the podium for August. He’s been so reliably good for this Astros team.

Brown is not a huge strikeout pitcher, but that doesn’t stop him from regularly being one of the AL’s top-ranked pitchers. In August, he finished fifth in the league in innings, fourth in HR/9 and ERA, and sixth in FIP. He was also one of just three pitchers (the other two are also both on the podium here) to post at least five quality starts in the month of August.

Bronze Medal Pitcher of the Month: Tarik Skubal, DET

August Stats: 2-1 (6 GS), 2.52 ERA, 39.1 IP, 45 K, 8 BB, 0.8 fWAR

Being the defending Cy Young Award winner in your league will automatically give you priority on most months to crack our players of the month podiums in any given month. It also helps when you lead the AL in strikeouts and finish second in innings pitched, eighth in K/9, ninth in BB/9, 10th in ERA, and 11th in FIP.

Ultimately, the sixth start Skubal made was the deciding factor in him earning a podium spot here instead of simply being an honorable mention. Bryan Woo and Cam Schlittler both earned consideration, but Skubal’s reputation and 10+ strikeout starts in two of his final outings of the month gave him the edge.

Just Missed the Podium: Aroldis Chapman (BOS), Kyle Finnegan (DET)

• Chapman: 1-0 (12 G), 0.00 ERA, 11.0 IP, 14 K, 1 BB, 0.7 fWAR
• Finnegan: 3-0 (12 G), 0.00 ERA, 14.1 IP, 19 K, 3 BB, 0.8 fWAR

Schlittler and Woo were both right on the cusp, but we’re going to go with a pair of relievers who were unscored upon in August instead.

Chapman’s utterly ridiculous showing this past month earned him a contract extension for next year (with an option for 2027). The long-time relief ace didn’t allow a single base hit all month, which in itself is insane. His season ERA is down to 1.02 and he’s on pace to have the best single-season performance of his entire career. There are some off-field factors that may get in the way of him earning a spot in Cooperstown one day, but if we’re looking solely at results, he should be a shoo-in.

Then there’s Finnegan, who’s pitching out his mind on his new team. He’s the only player to make this list that was involved in a trade deadline deal, and he’s a deserving candidate. The right-hander is punching out nearly 12 batters per nine innings since joining the Tigers (his previous career-high is 9.85), has yet to allow a run, and did all of this while throwing the ninth-most innings amongst AL relievers last month.