Lopez named NL Player of the Week
National Team alum and Miami Marlins shortstop Otto Lopez (Montreal, Que.) has been named National League Player of the Week. Photo: Miami Marlins
July 6, 2026
Official MLB News Release
All-Star designated hitter/outfielder Yordan Alvarez of the Houston Astros has been selected the American League Player of the Week, and All-Star shortstop Otto Lopez of the Miami Marlins has been named the National League Player of the Week.
The announcements were made on Monday on MLB Network.
Alvarez earned his sixth career award and third of the season after previously winning on April 6th and June 8th. He was also given the honour twice in 2022 (June 6th and September 19th) and once in 2024 (August 12th). Alvarez’s six career awards are tied with Hall of Famer Jeff Bagwell for the most in franchise history, and he is the 99th player to win at least six career honours.
Lopez won the award for the first time in his career, marking the first honour for Miami since his teammate Kyle Stowers won last year on July 14th. It marks the first time a Marlins infielder won the award since Adeiny Hechavarría garnered honors on April 26, 2015. It is the third time this season that a pair of internationally-born players have won the award in each league, joining Cuban-natives Yordan and Andy Pages on April 6th; and Willson Contreras (Venezuela) and Ketel Marte (Dominican Republic) on May 26th.
Yordan Alvarez, Houston Astros (@yordan4342)
The 29-year-old hit .435 (10-for-23) with four homers, 11 RBIs, two walks, four runs scored, a .957 slugging percentage and a .462 on-base percentage in six games.
The Las Tunas, Cuba native tied for second in the Majors in homers and RBIs; tied for fourth in batting average; tied for fifth in slugging; tied for sixth in total bases (22); and ranked eighth in OPS (1.419).
The now four-time All-Star capped off a two-homer, six-RBI performance on Saturday with a two-run walk-off homer, becoming the first player in Baseball history with multiple walk-off home runs on Fourth of July (also: 2022). He launched a two-run homer in the first inning, followed by an RBI single in the fifth and a sacrifice fly in the seventh inning as Houston came back from a 7-2 deficit to win the game. With the victory, the Astros have now won each of their last nine Fourth of July games since 2016, tied for the third-longest winning streak all-time with the 1901-05 Pittsburgh Pirates, trailing only the 1934-41 Chicago White Sox (14 G) and 1916-23 Cleveland Indians (13 G), per Elias.
The 2019 AL Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year launched a grand slam on Tuesday, marking his Major League-leading third slam of the year. Additionally, it was the seventh grand slam of his career, matching his teammate Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman and Carlos Lee for the most in Astros’ history. After his two-homer game on Saturday, Alvarez is one home run shy of becoming the sixth player in franchise history with 200 career home runs, seeking to join Hall of Famer Jeff Bagwell (449 HR), Lance Berkman (326 HR), Hall of Famer Craig Biggio (291 HR), Altuve (263 HR) and Jimmy Wynn (223 HR).
Alvarez, who was named the starting designated hitter for the 2026 American League All-Stars on Saturday, registered a trifecta three-hit games during the week, collecting three hits on Tuesday and Wednesday against Minnesota as he broke out of an 0-for-16 slump. His 11 games with at least three hits are second-most in the Majors behind only Otto Lopez’s 12 three-hit contests and his 30 multi-hit games are tied with Freddie Freeman, Riley Greene and Josh Jung for fourth-most this season.
Otto Lopez, Miami Marlins (@o.lopez23)
The 27-year-old hit .500 (14-for-28) with three homers, seven RBIs, four doubles, a triple, a walk, seven runs scored, a stolen base, a 1.036 slugging percentage and a .500 on-base percentage across six contests.
The Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic native, who spent part of his youth in Montreal, paced the Majors in batting average, hits, extra-base hits and total bases (29); ranked fourth in slugging and OPS (1.536); and tied for sixth in on-base percentage.
Lopez, a first-time All-Star in 2026, closed out his week with four straight multi-hit games, registering back-to-back games of three hits and three RBIs on Saturday and Sunday against the Athletics. He is the second Marlins player with three hits and three RBIs in consecutive contests this season, joining his teammate Javier Sanoja (June 29th & 30th) in accomplishing a feat achieved just 14 times in franchise history. Of the 14 instances, Lopez is the eighth player (ninth occurrence) to also homer in both games.
MLB’s leader in batting average and hits became the fifth Marlins player (seventh occurrence) in franchise history with at least eight hits and six RBIs in a three-game series. He is the first to achieve the feat since Jake Burger also had eight hits and six RBI in September 2023. Lopez is bidding to become the third player in franchise history to win the Tony Gwynn NL Batting Title, following Dee Strange-Gordon in 2015 and Luis Arraez in 2023.
Lopez already has 123 hits this season, 11 shy of his career-best 134 hits last season. With his four consecutive multi-hit games to finish off the week, he now has 39 multi-hit games this season and 12 games of at least three hits. He is on pace for 218 hits, 69 multi-hit games and 21 three-hit games, nearing franchise-records in all three categories. Currently, Juan Pierre’s 221 hits in 2004 are the most in a single season in Marlins’ history, which also featured a franchise record 70 multi-hit games. Strange-Gordon set the franchise mark with 25 three-hit games in 2015.