KANSAS CITY, Mo.—The Kansas City Royals announced this afternoon that infielder Maikel Garcia and right-handed pitcher Seth Lugo have been named Royals Player and Pitcher of the Month, respectively, for June. The awards are determined by a local media vote.
Garcia slashed .296/.343/.490 (29-for-98) over 25 games last month and ranked 2nd among all Royals with 12 extra-base hits, including 8 doubles, 1 triple and 3 home runs. On June 18 against the Rangers in Arlington, he hit his 8th home run of the season, already establishing a new career high and passing his 7 home runs in 157 games last season. He recorded multiple hits in 9 of his 25 games in June, which tied for the 13th-most such games in the American League last month, trailing leader Yandy Díaz (14). Overall, Garcia is putting together one of the best seasons of his career, as he leads all Royals with 29 multi-hit efforts, which are tied for 3rd most in the American League, 5 such games behind leaders Jacob Wilson and Aaron Judge (34 each). He also ranks tied for 3rd in the AL with 22 doubles, 5th with a .309 batting average, 6th with 18 stolen bases and 96 hits and 12th with an .843 OPS. This marks the second straight monthly honor for Garcia, who in May ranked tied for 3rd in the American League with 37 hits.
Lugo finished the month of June with a 2-0 record and 1.26 ERA (4 ER in 28.2 IP) over 5 starts, which marked the 2nd-best ERA in the month of June in franchise history (min. 5 starts), trailing only Mark Gubicza (1.18) in 1988. Among the 111 Major League pitchers who made at least 5 starts last month, his ERA ranked 3rd behind Philadelphia’s Zack Wheeler (0.58) and Houston’s Hunter Brown (1.19). He held opponents to 2 runs or fewer in all 5 starts, including 1 or no runs allowed in 4 of those 5 outings. Lugo recorded 2 scoreless starts in June, which came against the two teams who faced off in the 2024 World Series, as he held the Yankees scoreless over 5.2 frames on June 12 in Kansas City, before tossing another 5.2 scoreless innings on June 28 vs. the reigning champion Dodgers. He tallied 31 strikeouts over his 28.2 innings (9.7 K/9), and his 27.4% strikeout rate was the 12th-highest mark in the American League, trailing leader Garrett Crochet (34.8%). With his dominant month, Lugo lowered his season ERA to 2.74 (27 ER in 88.2 IP), which is the 8th-lowest mark in the AL, trailing leader Brown (1.74). This unanimous selection marks Lugo’s fourth honor since signing as a free agent with Kansas City prior to the start of the 2024 season, as he won the award in three straight months from March/April-June last year, a season in which he finished as the runner up in the AL Cy Young Award voting.