July 23, 2024

By Tyson Shushkewich

Canadian Baseball Network

Since turning pro, all Matt Wilkinson has done on the mound is strike out opposing batters.

The 6-foot-1 lefty uses deception and one of the top-rated fastballs in the minors to continuously put up video-game-like numbers since the start of the 2024 season. With such impressive outings, “Tugboat” has always found his name in the Canadian Baseball Network’s Minor League Player of the Week conversation and this week (July 8 to July 14), he takes home the honour.

This is his second award win this season, after he earned the CBN Minor League Player of the Month award for April.

In his start on July 13, Wilkinson pitched five innings without allowing an earned run in a 2-1 loss.

Facing the Lansing Lugnuts at Classic Auto Group Park, Wilkinson (Surrey, BC) was making his eighth start of the season for the Lake County Captains, the high-A affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians. This was his first time facing the Lugnuts, an evening game in front of 5,248 home fans in Eastlake, Ohio.

To start the contest, the southpaw pitched a clean first inning – generating two ground outs – and his first strikeout of the game on four pitches.

Wilkinson dealt with some adversity in the second inning, as the leadoff batter singled up the middle. Undeterred, Wilkinson did what he knows best – striking out batters. He was able to get the next Lugnut to swing at strike three of an eight-pitch battle before sitting down the next man on five pitches, another swinging K. While the runner on base stole second with two outs, Wilkinson focused on the batter and finished with his first called strike three of the day.

The third inning picked up right where the former Okotoks Dawg left off in the form of another strikeout – a six-pitch at-bat that had CJ Rodriguez head back to the dugout. Wilkinson produced a ground out for the second out before the top of the lineup came back around, with Lugnuts’ hitter Jonny Butler finding his way on base via a deflection off of Wilkinson that the infield could not handle. The Captains starter would bounce back, using three pitches to produce a ground ball to second to end the inning.

The fourth saw Wilkinson allow his first and only walk of the day, with the Canuck getting squeezed on three pitches that could have been called for strikes. With one out in his back pocket, Wilkinson allowed a single to right and some sloppy defence behind him saw the runner score from first, giving the opposing team a 1-0 lead. With the runner on third given the fielding blunder, Wilkinson took matters into his own hands and got out of the inning via two swinging strikeouts, to escape with one unearned run.

In the fifth, Wilkinson was able to put one out on the board via a fly ball to centre before allowing his fourth hit of the day in the form of a single to right field. With the runner on first, a grounder to first should have gotten the southpaw out of the inning but a fielding error put runners on the corners, another tough spot for the Canadian. A fly ball to right scored the second Lansing run of the day before Wilkinson pitched himself out of the inning with a ground ball out, limiting the damage to one run.

After 76 pitches, the Captains pulled Wilkinson and the starter was saddled with the loss after his teammates could only muster one run of support. After the five innings, Wilkinson finished with a 64.5% strikeout rate and produced seven punchouts compared to one walk, four hits, and two unearned runs to drop his ERA to 2.48 since being promoted to high-A.

The strong outing has now dropped his collective ERA to 1.89 through 17 starts on the year. He has raised his K/9 rate to 14.3 through 81 innings and commands the strike zone with his 2.8 BB/9 while getting opponents to swing over his fastball or off-speed offerings. His 129 strikeouts sit tied for first across all of the minor league levels with Baltimore Orioles prospect Chayce McDermott and his 40.7 K% and K/9 rate leads the entire minors.

Former Winners

Opening Day to May 6 – LHP Matt Wilkinson (Ladner, BC), Guardians.

May 7- May 12 – INF Charles LeBlanc (Laval, Que.), Angels.

May 13- May 19 – RHP Adam Maier (North Vancouver, BC), Braves.

May 20- May 26 – INF Trei Cruz (Toronto, Ont.), Tigers.

May 27 – June 2 – RHP Lucas Wepf (Georgetown, Ont.), Dodgers.

June 3 – June 9 – C/DH Liam Hicks (Toronto, Ont.), Rangers.

June 10 – June 16 – OF Denzel Clarke (Pickering, Ont.), Athletics.

June 17 – June 23 – OF Denzel Clarke (Pickering, Ont.), Athletics.

June 24 – June 30 – RHP Jonah Tong (Markham, Ont.), Mets.

July 1 – July 7 – OF Denzel Clarke (Pickering, Ont.), Athletics.

July 8 – July 14 – LHP Matt Wilkinson (Ladner, BC)

Stats (July 8 to July 14) Compiled by Pete Berryman

Hitters

Pitchers