Jared Walsh and Mike Mayers take home September awards

The Angels’ season is over, but they closed it out with some awards. They were one of the hottest teams in baseball for the month of September, and their production didn’t go unnoticed. Not one, but two players took home honors for the monthly MLB awards.

We’ll start with Jared Walsh, who took home American League Rookie of the Month honors. Walsh very well could have won the Player of the Month too, as he was one of the top hitters in the entire league. In 22 September games, Walsh hit .337/.368/.744/1.113 with nine home runs and 26 RBI. Like sheesh.

It’s one thing to do that in 22 games, that’s already impressive enough. But from a rookie?! If Walsh had played majority of the season, he very well could have won American League Rookie of the Year. Unfortunately, he appeared in only 32 total games. Still, an impressive month and season from the former 39th round pick.

Moving to the other side, Mike Mayers took home American League Reliever of the Month. He also had himself a really good season, but that was largely due to an incredible month of September. He appeared in 14 games, throwing 18 ¹⁄₃ innings. Overall, he posted an ERA of 0.98 with 25 strikeouts and only five walks.

Had it not been for his final appearance of the season, he would have finished the month with an ERA of 0.00. Had it also not been for one rough outing early on in the season, Mayers could have made the case for reliever of the year. From July 31 through September 23, he threw 27 innings and allowed only one run while striking out 37.

A lot went wrong for the Angels in 2020, but there were at least some bright spots and positives to look forward to next season.