NL Players of the Month: April 2026

The first full month of the 2026 Major League Baseball season is officially in the books, and that means it’s time to start handing out awards for the most outstanding performances.

April is always an interesting part of the MLB calendar, and this year was no different. While the Mets and Phillies have shockingly floundered out of the gate, the Braves have taken hold of the NL East thanks to a surge in offense.

Meanwhile, the NL Central has been baseball’s most competitive division thus far with each team sporting a .500 record or better, and the Padres could be the biggest threat to dethrone the Dodgers in the NL West.

In terms of standout individual performances, several superstars continued to dominate the league, while some unlikely contributors stole headlines with stellar play out of the gate.

In the end, our two award winners for the month of April are no strangers to superlatives, but there were a handful of other players who deserve a shout for the month they put together.

Our Just Baseball editorial team selected a hitter and a pitcher of the month, along with two honorable mentions each, in the National League and the American League for the month of April. While plenty of deserving names were in consideration, these are the players that stood out among the rest.

Here are Just Baseball’s NL Hitter and Pitcher of the Month for March/April.

Hitter of the Month: Matt Olson, ATL

March/April Stats: 143 PA, 9 HR, 27 R, 28 RBI, .296/.371/.616, 166 wRC+, 1.7 fWAR

The big-bad Braves are back, and a lot of that stems from what Matt Olson has done at the plate through the first month of the season.

Leading the Braves to an MLB-best 22-10, Olson leads the National League in fWAR heading into May (1.7). Among qualified names, he’s second in the National League in slugging percentage (.616), wRC+ (166), and ISO (.320) while placing third in wOBA (.419).

Olson is one of three players in Major League Baseball with 13 doubles this season (Taylor Ward, Ernie Clement), but he also has nine homers as well — the third most in the National League. His 22 extra-base hits lead all hitters in MLB and are four more than the next-closest National League player (Kyle Schwarber, 18).

He’s been a run-producing machine for a Braves offense that leads MLB in runs per game, as Olson is third in the NL in runs scored and tied for second in RBI. Most recently, he had his signature moment of the young season following a walk-off two-run home run against the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday.

Olson has pummeled baseballs to open his 2026 season, ranking in the top five percent of MLB in barrel rate (18.9%), the 88th percentile in average exit velocity (92.7 mph), and the 84th percentile in hard-hit rate (50%). On top of that, he’s still one of the better first base defenders in the game, he’s walking at a well-above-average clip, and he’s dropped his strikeout rate from a season ago.

After a 54-homer outburst in 2023, Olson’s slugging numbers took a slight step back these past two seasons. But to open the 2026 season, he’s back to peak form, and it’s a reminder that he can be one of the most lethal power bats in the game when he’s right.

Honorable Mentions

Max Muncy, LAD

March/April Stats: 115 PA, 9 HR, 23 R, 11 RBI, .287/.374/.594, 165 wRC+, 1.4 fWAR

In a Dodgers lineup that is littered with MVP candidates, Max Muncy is the one who stole the spotlight through the first month of the 2026 MLB season in Los Angeles.

Through the month of April, Muncy was right behind Olson in several categories, finishing tied for fourth in the National League in OPS (.968) and wRC+ (165) while ranking fifth in wOBA (.416). He also put up 1.4 fWAR, which was tied for the seventh-highest mark in the NL.

Speaking of pummeling baseballs, few hitters made better quality of contact than Muncy did through the first month of the season. With a hard-hit rate of 53.4% and a barrel rate of 17.8%, Muncy launched nine homers to go with four doubles, yielding an ISO of .307 that was fourth in the National League.

Muncy isn’t just hitting for power, though, as his .287 batting average would be a career high by a wide margin. While yes, it’s early, it shows that he’s doing damage in more ways than just the long ball.

Often overshadowed in a star-studded Dodgers lineup, Muncy has been a key piece for Los Angeles’ offense.

Ildemaro Vargas, ARI

March/April Stats: 95 PA, 6 HR, 19 R, 20 RBI, .378/.398/.689, 199 wRC+, 1.5 fWAR

We’d be remise to not list Ildemaro Vargas as an honorable mention — what a story it’s been for the 34-year-old journeyman.

Vargas has a hit in each of his 23 games this season and is riding a 26-game hitting streak dating back to last season. Nobody could have predicted that Vargas would be rocking a 199 wRC+ through the first month of the season, and there lies the beauty of baseball.

Vargas put up some absurd numbers in March and April and leads the NL in several offensive categories. He paces the National League in wRC+, batting average (.378), OPS (1.087), and wOBA (.468).

The only thing that kept him from taking home the hardware this month is that he only has 95 plate appearances under his belt, nearly 50 fewer than Olson. At the same time, he’s put up nearly the same fWAR as Olson despite playing in nine fewer games, a testament to how stellar he has been out of the gate.

His exit velocities are far from marvelous, but he’s still managed to rack up 14 extra- base hits, including six doubles, six homers, and two triples. Punching out just 12.1% of the time, Vargas has been a near-impossible out at the plate thus far, and he’s been one of the best feel-good stories across all of Major League Baseball to start the 2026 season.

Pitcher of the Month: Shohei Ohtani, LAD

March/April Stats: 2-1 (5 GS), 0.60 ERA, 30.0 IP, 34 K, 9 BB, 1.3 fWAR

While it hasn’t been the typical Shohei Ohtani start at the plate that fans have been accustomed to seeing (though a 153 OPS+ is nothing to scoff at), he’s returned to the mound in full capacity and has thrown his name into the early Cy Young conversation.

Across five starts, Ohtani has allowed just two earned runs (0.60 ERA) while fanning 34 hitters and walking just nine. Punching out 10.20 hitters per nine, Ohtani ranks ninth in the National League in strikeout-minus-walk rate at 21.0%. (min. 30 IP).

Simply, hitters are not making contact with his pitches, and even then they do get the bat on the ball, they are hardly doing any damage against him.

He’s in the 85th percentile in whiff rate at 31.4%, and he’s allowed only two barrels all season, yielding a 91st-percentile barrel rate of 2.7%. Opponents are batting just .157 against him (third in the NL) with just a .464 OPS, and his WHIP of 0.87 is fourth in the NL.

He paces the National League in FIP through April, he’s tied with Nolan McLean for the highest fWAR among NL pitchers (1.3), and it doesn’t appear he’s slowing down any time soon.

Not only is Ohtani the favorite to win NL MVP by a landslide (-375), but he’s also currently third in NL Cy Young odds at +500 behind Paul Skenes and teammate Yoshinobu Yamamoto. As if you needed a reminder, what Ohtani doing is truly generational.

Honorable Mentions

Mason Miller, SDP

March/April Stats: 15 G, 15.1 IP, 10 SV, 1.17 ERA, 29 K, 3 BB, 0.9 fWAR

It takes a special type of performance for a reliever to work his way into the pitcher of the month conversation, but Mason Miller has done just that.

Before allowing two runs on April 27, Miller did not allow a run across his first 12 appearances (12.1 IP). Not only that, but he allowed only three hits, walked just one batter, and struck out 25 hitters. For those keeping track at home, that’s a 56.8% K-BB% with a K/9 of 18.23. His FIP sat at -0.48 during this stretch as well.

Even after his two-run outing against the Cubs two appearances ago, he’s still rocking a negative FIP (-0.06) across 15 outings with a 1.17 ERA. He’s punching out 53.7% of batters with just a 5.6% walk rate, yielding a 48.1% K-BB%.

Among NL pitchers with at least 10 innings pitched, Miller has already accumulated 0.9 fWAR in 15.1 innings. That puts him in a five-way tie for 10th in the NL, but he’s done so in over half the innings as the other arms around him on the leaderboard. That is the special type of performance that puts a reliever into the pitcher of the month conversation.

While the odds might be stacked against him (+3000 at BetMGM), Miller is looking to become the first reliever to win a Cy Young since Eric Gagne in 2003. But if there is any reliever to snap that 22-year drought, it’s Miller.

He’s on the fast track to being a generational type of closer, he’s entering the midst of his prime at 27 years old, and he got his 2026 campaign started off with a bang.

Chase Dollander, COL

March/April Stats: 3-2 (1 GS; 7 G), 2.25 ERA, 32 IP, 39 K, 9 BB, 0.6 fWAR

Among qualified NL pitchers, Chase Dollander is third in ERA (2.25) with the fifth-best K-BB% (23.1%) and fourth-best K/9 (10.97). The stuff was never in question, but it was a matter of whether or not Dollander would be able to realize his potential pitching at Coors Field.

Well, through his first 32 innings of the 2026 season, the 24-year-old has put those concerns to rest.

In his first outing of the year, Dollander allowed four earned runs across four innings pitched. Since then, across his last six appearances and 28 innings, he is pitching to the tune of a 1.29 ERA with a 1.78 FIP with 34 punchouts. Over that stretch, only Ohtani has a lower ERA in the National League, and his FIP paces the NL.

Though he’s made just one true start, Dollander has pitched in seven games this season, working as a long man out of the bullpen across his first six appearances. The Rockies officially moved him to the starting rotation in his most recent outing, where he tossed seven shutout innings with seven punchouts against the Mets.

After posting a 6.52 ERA in his first crack at the big leagues a season ago, Dollander is starting to settle in and has found a formula that works pitching in Colorado.