National League Players of the Month: June 2025

By the end of last weekend, all 30 teams had played their 81st game, which means we are officially more than halfway through the 2025 MLB regular season.

The All-Star break is drawing near, the trade deadline won’t be long after that, and before you know it, teams will be fighting tooth and nail for a playoff berth down the stretch. The season might be halfway done, but the fun is just getting started.

Month three featured plenty of great performances from players in the National League. We saw young studs breaking out, older veterans proving they’ve still got it, superstars bouncing back into form, and the Phillies’ rotation making everyone else look foolish.

Before we get swept up in the excitement of the All-Star Game and trade season, it’s only fair that we celebrate some of the Senior Circuit’s best from the past month. Here are Just Baseball’s National League Hitters and Pitchers of the Month for June.

NL Hitters of the Month

Gold Medal Hitter of the Month: Juan Soto, NYM

June Stats: 116 PA, 11 HR, 25 R, 20 RBI, .322/.474/.722, 2 SB, 227 wRC+, 1.7 fWAR

Remember all the panic over Juan Soto and his massive new contract when he finished May with just a .770 OPS and a 120 wRC+?

The young superstar quickly showed any concerned fans how foolish they were to worry with an utterly dominant performance in June.

His 227 wRC+ was the best in the NL, and even more impressive, it was the highest of any month of Soto’s career. He also tied for the NL lead with 11 home runs and paced the Senior Circuit with 25 walks and 1.7 FanGraphs WAR.

Soto brought his full-season wRC+ up to 153 on July 1, the sixth-highest mark among qualified NL hitters. Why did anyone ever doubt this man?

Silver Medal Hitter of the Month: Eugenio Suárez, ARI

June Stats: 99 PA, 11 HR, 13 R, 27 RBI, .315/.354/.728, 0 SB, 193 wRC+, 1.3 fWAR

In the final season of the contract extension he signed seven-plus years and two teams ago, a nearly 34-year-old Eugenio Suárez is playing better than ever, putting himself in a great position to cash in as a free agent this coming winter.

Suárez tied with Soto for the NL lead in home runs last month and drove in more runs than any other NL batter. He also led the league in Win Probability Added (1.80), as he saved many of his biggest hits for the most important spots.

What’s more, he did all that in just 24 games and fewer than 100 plate appearances, after a hit-by-pitch on his right hand kept him out for a few games toward the end of the month.

Bronze Medal Hitter of the Month: Ronald Acuña Jr., ATL

June Stats: 112 PA, 6 HR, 26 R, 12 RBI, .360/.491/.596, 4 SB, 202 wRC+, 1.6 fWAR

The 2023 NL MVP is back, and he’s reminding us all that he’s still a premier, game-changing talent. Ronald Acuña Jr. reached safely in almost half of his plate appearances in June, while scoring 26 times in 26 games. No NL player reached base at a higher rate or crossed the plate more often.

Since his return from the IL in late May, Acuña has already racked up 2.0 fWAR in just 35 games. Over a full season, that would put him on pace to match his production from his MVP campaign.

Just Missed the Podium: Max Muncy

June Stats: 98 PA, 7 HR, 22 R, 24 RBI, .333/.459/.654, 2 SB, 206 wRC+, 1.5 fWAR

Thank goodness for Max Muncy’s optometrist. The All-Star third baseman looked lost at the plate in March and April, and many started to wonder if age was catching up to him with his 35th birthday on the horizon.

Nope.

Muncy started wearing glasses, and all of a sudden, he looks as dangerous as ever – if not more so. His 206 wRC+ ranked second in the NL in June, trailing only Soto’s, while his 1.60 WPA was second only to Suárez’s.

Acuña’s additional plate appearances and stolen bases, plus the fact that he led the league in runs and OBP, earned him the final spot on the podium, but Muncy made it an incredibly difficult decision.

NL Pitchers of the Month

Gold Medal Pitcher of the Month: Zack Wheeler, PHI

June Stats: 2-1 (5 GS), 0.58 ERA, 31.0 IP, 42 K, 7 BB, 1.4 fWAR

Zack Wheeler wants that Cy Young. The Phillies’ ace put frontrunner Paul Skenes on notice with a phenomenal June, giving up just two earned runs across five starts and striking out 35% of the batters he faced. He now leads the NL in strikeouts and K-BB% on the season, as well as Statcast’s xERA.

Wheeler capped off the month with his best start of the year, as he struck out 10 Padres over eight scoreless innings. He also pulled off the ultimate power move a couple of weeks ago, choosing this month to announce that he’s planning to retire at the end of his current contract, even though he’s still pitching at the top of his game.

Silver Medal Pitcher of the Month: Ranger Suárez, PHI

June Stats: 3-2 (6 GS), 1.30 ERA, 41.2 IP, 36 K, 7 BB, 1.1 fWAR

All six of Ranger Suárez’s outings in June were quality starts, but even the word “quality” doesn’t do justice to how well he pitched. He went at least seven innings in five of his six starts, and only once did he give up more than one earned run.

No NL pitcher threw more innings than Suárez in June, and his 1.30 ERA ranked second only to Wheeler’s. He led the league with a 1.31 WPA.

The 29-year-old is making up for lost time, and if he keeps racking up innings like this, soon no one will remember that he spent the first five weeks of the season on the IL. That’s certainly what Suárez is hoping for in his free agent walk year.

Bronze Medal Pitcher of the Month: Cristopher Sánchez, PHI

June Stats: 2-1 (5 GS), 1.85 ERA, 34.0 IP, 33 K, 6 BB, 1.2 fWAR

Another Phillie? Yes, another Phillie. Wheeler, Suárez, and Cristopher Sánchez were three of the top four NL pitchers in ERA, fWAR, and WPA in June, and the only three to rank among the top five in all three metrics.

Sánchez wasn’t quite as dominant as his teammates, but he was pretty darn close, pitching to the NL’s fourth-best ERA, second-best fWAR, and third-best WPA. He ranked second in groundball rate, second in FIP, and sixth in strikeout-to-walk ratio.

The southpaw pitched arguably his two best games of the season to close out the month, tossing eight innings of one-run ball against the Marlins and following that up with a six-inning, 11-strikeout showing against the Astros.

Just Missed the Podium: Logan Webb, SFG

June Stats: 2-1 (6 GS), 2.23 ERA, 40.1 IP, 43 K, 7 BB, 1.1 fWAR

Logan Webb tied with Suárez for the league lead in quality starts this month (6) while ranking second in innings and third in fWAR. He continues to be one of the most durable and dependable aces in the game, and right now, he looks better than ever before.

Just Missed the Podium: Quinn Priester, MIL

June Stats: 4-0 (5 G, 4 GS), 1.98 ERA, 27.1 IP, 29 K, 5 BB, 0.7 fWAR

Quinn Priester only threw 27.1 innings this month, but we had to acknowledge his terrific performance. The 24-year-old led the league in groundball rate as he helped the Brewers win all five games in which he pitched.

He finished June with the best start of his young career, as he held the Rockies scoreless over seven while striking out 11. It’s starting to look like Priester will be a mainstay of Milwaukee’s rotation for years to come.