Nay named player of the month in Southern League
It’s already been an awardsfilled week for Chattanooga Lookouts third baseman Mitch Nay.
After being named Monday as the Southern League’s hitter of the week, Nay was tabbed Tuesday as the league’s player of the month. The 6-foot-3, 210-pounder from Chandler, Arizona, hit a robust .356 in June with a whopping 29 RBIs in 27 games.
Nay, a first-round pick of the Toronto Blue Jays in 2012 who is just now in his first full Double-A season, ranked fifth in all of minor league baseball last month with his RBI tally.
“It’s been a little bit more consistent for me this year at the plate and in the field,” Nay said last week. “I felt like I had some good spurts last year, but I would fall out of them and have a difficult time getting back into them. I had a decent year last year, but some of my stretches didn’t last as long as I wanted.
“I feel like I have a little more control over that this year.”
The 25-year-old Nay entered Tuesday night’s game in Jacksonville leading the Southern League in slugging percentage (.551) and fourth in batting (.303).
A staph infection in Nay’s knee developed in 2015 and resulted in three surgeries that delayed his advancement out of the Single-A ranks. Nay was obtained by the Cincinnati Reds from Toronto during the Triple-A phase of the Rule 5 draft in December 2017.
“Mitch has had some big hits and some big RBIs for us,” Lookouts manager Pat Kelly said. “I know the analytical people tell us there is no such thing as a clutch hitter, but he seems to get his hits with men in scoring position, and that’s very important.”
Nay is the first Lookout to earn the league’s player of the month since 2017, when Nick Gordon (May) and Jonathan Rodriguez (July) received the honor.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.