The rest of baseball is now officially on notice about Angel Martinez.
The Cleveland Guardians announced Monday that their young outfielder has been named the American League Player of the Week, capping off one of the most electric stretches any Guardian has put together this season.
“The week of Angel continues,” Guardians wrote.
The week of Angel continues. 😇#GuardsBall pic.twitter.com/Y4deppOrWl
— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) May 18, 2026
Over the past week, Martinez slashed .368 with four home runs, seven RBI and three stolen bases. That combination of power, contact and speed in a single week is the kind of performance that turns heads in every front office across the league.
This is not a case of a player riding one hot series to an award. Martinez hit the go-ahead two-run home run in the seventh inning of Saturday’s 7-4 win over the Cincinnati Reds, a moment that swung the series in Cleveland’s favor. He followed that up with another home run in Sunday’s dominant 10-3 series finale victory. Over that entire Cincinnati series he was a force in the middle of the Guardians lineup, and the Player of the Week honor is the formal recognition of what Cleveland fans already saw with their own eyes.
Martinez’s power numbers this season have taken a dramatic step forward from where he was a year ago. He hit 11 home runs across 139 games in all of 2025. He now has nine through just 44 games in 2026, a pace that puts him on track to nearly double his previous career high if he can stay healthy and maintain even a fraction of the form he has shown recently.
The Guardians open a four-game road series against the Detroit Tigers on Monday night, and they will be bringing the hottest hitter in the American League with them to Comerica Park. At this point, opposing pitchers have no good options when Martinez steps into the batter’s box, and that is a very good problem for Cleveland to have heading into the week.
NEXT: Guardians Announce Two Roster Moves Ahead Of Tigers Series
