Little remembered fun fact: the final NL Player of the Week in 2019 was none other than Cubs outfielder Ian Happ.
Although Happ had a great weekend in the Cubs’ opening series, he yields his NL Player of the Week crown to another Chicago Cub: Kyle Hendricks was today named the first 2020 NL Player of the Week.
Hendricks, as we so lovingly enjoyed, threw an eye-poppingly impressive shutout on Friday. It was not only one of the best starts of his career, but when you consider the context, for him to have thrown a shutout on this late-July Opening Day was unbelievable. In total, Hendricks threw 9.0 innings, gave up just three hits, no walks, no runs, and struck out nine.