NL Players of the Month: June 2026

The 2026 MLB season has passed its halfway mark in terms of games played. The nominal halfway point, the All-Star break, is fast approaching too. That meant I had plenty of storylines to consider when it came to writing up Just Baseball’s picks for the hitters and pitchers of the month.

One of these players has already been named an All-Star for the sixth year in a row. That same player remains the heavy favorite for the NL MVP. However, he’s only an honorable mention here. The player who beat him out to be our June Hitter of the Month is doing everything he can to turn the MVP race into an actual conversation instead of just a one-man show.

Meanwhile, the NL Cy Young front-runner came oh-so-close to being our June Pitcher of the Month, but he ultimately fell short for the second month in a row. Instead, the honor went to one of the most talented players on one of the league’s most disappointing teams so far in 2026.

Alright, it’s time to cut the secrecy act and stop beating around the bush. Even without their names, I’m sure you already know exactly who I’ve been writing about. Let’s get to it.

NL Player of the Month: Pete Crow-Armstrong

June Stats: 26 G, 124 PA, 11 HR, 20 RBI, 8 SB, .381/.468/.781, 236 wRC+, 3.1 fWAR

At this time last year, Pete Crow-Armstrong looked like a legitimate contender for the NL MVP. Or at least, he looked like the only player who might be able to dethrone Shohei Ohtani.

Then, PCA struggled through August and September, and those struggles carried over to the beginning of 2026. Was it possible that his hot start in 2025 was a mirage? Maybe he wasn’t really an MVP-caliber talent after all.

Um, no. He definitely, definitely is. The Cubs center fielder went off in June, putting up the kind of offensive numbers we’re only used to seeing from names like Judge, Kurtz, Alvarez, and Ohtani. When offense like that combines with PCA’s defense and baserunning, you’re looking at a player who just might be able to challenge a certain two-way superstar for the NL MVP after all.

Honorable Mentions

Shohei Ohtani

June Stats (Hitting): 24 G, 109 PA, 8 HR, 19 RBI, .333/.435/.656, 192 wRC+, 1.3 fWAR

June Stats (Pitching): 4 GS, 24.2 IP, 3.28 ERA, 25 K, 7 BB, 1 HR, 0.8 fWAR

Nobody expected Ohtani to keep his ERA below 1.00 all season. Even so, the four-time MVP has set the bar so high for himself that his pitching performance in June was almost a disappointment.

He went at least six innings in all four of his starts for the Dodgers, striking out a quarter of the batters he faced and finishing the month with a 3.28 ERA. More than half of the batted balls he allowed were hit on the ground, and only one escaped the yard.

That’s a great month by anyone else’s standards, but for Ohtani, it’s not even the reason he earned this honorable mention. That has everything to do with his eight home runs, .333 batting average, and 1.091 OPS. At the plate, he had his best month of the season in June, finishing with the third-highest wRC+ among qualified hitters.

By FanGraphs WAR, Ohtani is now on pace for the best season of his career – a career in which he’s already won four unanimous MVPs. Good grief.

Luis García Jr.

June Stats: 26 G, 91 PA, 11 HR, 27 RBI, .306/.352/.776, 202 wRC+, 1.2 fWAR

Luis García Jr. matched PCA’s home run output in 33 fewer trips to the plate last month. He also led the majors with 27 RBI, while his 202 wRC+ ranked second only to Crow-Armstrong’s 236. Of his 26 hits in June, 17 went for extra bases, good for an MLB-leading .471 isolated power.

García is in his seventh big league season, with close to 700 MLB games under his belt. He’s had his moments for the Nationals over the years, but it’s safe to say he’s never had a stretch anything like this before in his career. Whether he can keep this up or not, he deserves his flowers for a truly spectacular month.

NL Pitcher of the Month: Logan Webb

June Stats: 5 GS, 38.0 IP, 0.71 ERA, 29 K, 4 BB, 1 HR, 1.3 fWAR

One of the hardest parts of choosing a pitcher of the month is deciding how heavily to weigh a pitcher’s ERA compared to his underlying numbers. Thankfully, Logan Webb made this one easy for us. Not only did he finish June with an MLB-leading sub-1.00 ERA, but his 1.3 fWAR in the month was also tops among NL pitchers.

Jacob Misiorowski may have been more dominant on a per-inning basis (more on him in a moment), but Webb made one more start and threw 10 more innings than the NL Cy Young front-runner. He pitched at least seven innings in all five of his games, only walking four of the 133 batters he faced.

Not much has gone right for the Giants this year, but Webb has been as excellent as always. A brief IL stint in May will prevent him from reaching 30 starts (for the first time since 2021), but he’s still on pace for his sixth straight season with an ERA below 3.50 and an fWAR over 4.0.

Honorable Mentions

Jacob Misiorowski

June Stats: 4 GS, 28.0 IP, 0.96 ERA, 38 K, 8 BB, 1 HR, 1.2 fWAR

For the second month in a row, Misiorowski did everything he could, but somehow came up just short of winning our NL Pitcher of the Month honors. In May, he was the victim of Cristopher Sanchez’s scoreless innings streak. In June, he was the victim of a schedule that limited him to just four starts.

All four of those starts were of the quality variety, including a one-hit, 15-strikeout shutout against the Phillies – the best pitching performance of the 2026 season. By strikeout rate and xERA, the Brewers’ ace was the top pitcher in baseball in June, and his ERA was under 1.00 for the second month in a row.

Maybe Misiorowski will finally be our pitcher of the month in July. If not, at least he can look forward to starting the All-Star Game and continuing his Cy Young campaign. That’s a pretty nice consolation prize.

Foster Griffin

June Stats: 5 GS, 31.1 IP, 1.15 ERA, 33 K, 4 BB, 3 HR, 0.9 fWAR

Logan Webb is one of the most consistent frontline starters in the league. Jacob Misiorowski might be the most exciting young arm in baseball. Foster Griffin is neither of those things.

Technically still a rookie, Griffin pitched a handful of innings for the Royals and Blue Jays in 2020 and ’22 before spending the next three years in NPB. Nearly 31, the southpaw is off to an excellent start in his first full MLB season.

He pitched to a 2.12 ERA through his first eight starts before struggling through a pair of back-to-back rough outings in mid-May. Since then, he has a 1.49 ERA in his last seven games, including four straight quality starts to close out June.

Griffin’s early-season success wasn’t always supported by the underlying numbers, but his performance in June was nothing short of dominant. His 33:4 strikeout-to-walk ratio was the best in the National League, and he generated groundballs at a 48.1% clip.

As with his Nationals teammate Luis García Jr., the jury is still out on how sustainable Griffin’s success is, but June was a huge step in the right direction.