Canadian Tyler O’Neill named American League Player of the Week

July 30, 2024

By Kevin Glew

Cooperstowners in Canada

Boston Red Sox slugger Tyler O’Neill has been named the American League Player of the Week.

The announcement was made on the MLB Network on Monday afternoon.

The Maple Ridge, B.C.-born slugger received the honour after going 9-for-21 (.429 batting average) with four home runs, three doubles and eight RBIs in five games last week.

During that five-game stretch, he led the AL in slugging percentage (1.143), total bases (24) and tied for the lead in home runs and RBIs.

It’s the second MLB Player of the Week honour for O’Neill. He also won the award on September 20, 2021 while he was with the St. Louis Cardinals.

O’Neill received the award for his efforts from July 22 to July 28. During that period, he had two-home run games on July 23 and July 27. In the week prior, he had another two-home run game on July 20. Per the Elias Sports Bureau, that made O’Neill the first Red Sox player to have three multi-home run games in a span of six-or-fewer games.

O’Neill now has five multi-homer games this season, which is the most in the majors.

With his second home run on July 23, O’Neill reached 20 home runs in a season for the second time in his big league career. He belted 34 home runs for the Cardinals in 2021.

And, as the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame pointed out, O’Neill’s second homer on Saturday was the 100th of his major league career, which made him the 11th Canadian to reach that mark.

You can read a full list of Canadians with at least 100 big league home runs here.