May Players of the Month: Rafael Devers and Aaron Wilkerson

The SoxProspects.com community has voted Rafael Devers and Aaron Wilkerson as the Player and Pitcher of the Month for May, respectively.

Devers and Wilkerson are at opposite ends of the spectrum, with Devers being an 18-year old who is ranked fifth at SoxProspects.com and Wilkerson a 26-year old who was signed out of the independent American Association late last year to fill a rotation spot in Lowell.

While most 18-year olds in America were seniors in high school making a last-minute surge to pull up their grades, Devers was busy batting .364/.394/.576 during his second month with the Greenville Drive. After a solid month of April, Devers exploded in the power department in May. He had 10 doubles, a triple, and belted three home runs. Devers has been using the whole field, blasting home runs to left-center, right-center, and right field, while spraying his singles and doubles all around the diamond.

SoxProspects.com Executive Editor Chris Hatfield was lucky enough to be in attendance for Devers' most impressive performance of the season, when he went 5 for 6 with two doubles and two home runs on May 3. He noted that Devers' power came to life once he started getting the barrel to more balls. Devers, ranked fourth in the latest update to the SoxProspects.com rankings, is now batting .331 for the season.

Aaron Wilkerson is old for the Carolina League, but his impressive month was too good to ignore. The right-hander posted a 2-0 record with an ERA of 0.71, surrendering just 11 hits and six walks in 25 1/3 innings pitched, but what may be the most impressive aspect of his May was the strikeouts. He punched out 34 batters, which was good for a 38.2% strikeout rate.

Wilkerson posted a 1.62 ERA in 50 innings for the Lowell Spinners in 2014 and spent April with the Greenville Drive.

Photo Credit: Rafael Devers by Kelly O'Connor

Tweet