Frank Schwindel named National League Rookie of the Month

Cubs first baseman Frank Schwindel took home NL Player of the Week honors in early September.

Now. he’s got another award to add to his trophy case: National League Rookie of the Month for September (which includes the three days of October).

Schwindel hit .344/.388/.600 (43-for-125) from September 1 through the end of the season, with 11 doubles and seven home runs. A lot of that production was in that NL Player of the Week performance, as he tailed off a bit toward the end of the season. He also had a 13-game hitting streak during this time, which tied Kris Bryant and Matt Duffy for the Cubs’ best of 2021.

Overall with the Cubs in 2021, Schwindel hit .342/.389/.613 (76-for-222) with 19 doubles, a triple and 13 home runs in 56 games. As Jim Deshaies pointed out on Sunday’s broadcast, that’s just about the length of last year’s pandemic-shortened season and if he had put up those numbers in 2020, he’d have been an MVP candidate.

Congratulations to Schwindel for this honor. Whether he’ll be a productive part of the Cub going forward remains to be seen, but he was certainly fun to have around in 2021.