PEORIA, IL – The Midwest League and Minor League Baseball announced on Monday that Peoria Chiefs first baseman Juan Yepez was named MWL Player of the Week for April 5-15. He is the first Chiefs position player to win the award since Harrison Bader August 24-31, 2015
Through the first nine games of the season Yepez leads the MWL in batting average (.500), hits (15), triples (2), total bases (25) and RBI (11). He is second in the league in OBP (.543) and slugging (.833) and tied for third with six extra base hits. He has three doubles, two triples and a home run that was his first MWL grand slam.
Yepez has hit safely in all eight of his starts this season and the only game in which he did not get a hit was as a pinch-hitter in the 9th inning on Thursday against Cedar Rapids. So far this season he has tied a Chiefs franchise record with two triples in a game, hit a go-ahead grand slam in a Chiefs come-from-behind win and delivered a walk-off double in the snow.
A native of Caracas, Venezuela, Yepez was acquired by the Cardinals in May of 2017 from the Atlanta Braves in the Matt Adams trade. After the trade he joined the Chiefs and hit .260 in 80 games with seven homers, 16 doubles, 47 RBI and 33 runs scored to help the Chiefs make the 2017 MWL playoffs.
Since the Chiefs won the award in consecutive weeks in 2015 with Nick Thompson (Aug 17-14) and Harrison Bader (Aug 24-31) no position player has won the award for Peoria. In that span the Chiefs have had six pitcher of the week winners.
