Isaac Paredes

Isaac Paredes had a week to celebrate last week. One quarter (26.3157894737%, to be exact) of his at bats resulted in home runs.

Paredes ended the week with 5 home runs, six runs, 9 RBIs, a .579 average and a 2.093 OPS.

I usually look for one picture of the new MLBoyfriend celebrating and/or being celebrated to put at the end of the post. There were A LOT to choose from this time.

Articles with headlines like, "Tres for Paredes! Infielder notches Rays' 7th 3-HR game" and "Rays' Isaac Paredes goes yard again -- hits fourth home run in two games against the Yankees" come with photos of Paredes on well-earned victory laps. His most recent Instagram post is of a classic sports tradition for the winning team's MVP.

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A post shared by Isaac Paredes (@isaacparedes99)

My personal favorite pic of Paredes last week was posted with Saturday's story, "Isaac Paredes propels Rays to comeback win over Pirates".

Congratulations, Isaac Paredes! You are my MLBoyfriend of the week. One more reason for you to celebrate.

Liam Hendriks

This is definitely a first for MLBoyfriend: I have selected a player who did not actually play at all last week. Liam Hendriks has been on the 15-day IL. So why is he my choice for the week? Well, some news broke about him. Here's another first for the blog, I'm using People as a source. This is the headline that caught my eye: MLB Pitcher and LGBTQ Ally Made Liam Hendriks Made Sure White Sox Had a Pride Night Before Joining the Team.

Hendriks raised the Pride Flag at the White Sox ballpark before last year's Pride Night and will do so again this year. He says of his allyship:

“For me, it’s just being a decent human being. You are going to have people you just don’t get along with purely based on personality, but race, sexual orientation or anything like that should never come into it. They should never be part of the equation of why you have a disdain for somebody, and that’s something that I think the more people talk about, hopefully it gets more normalized.”

In my research on Hendriks (a.k.a. Googling "Liam Hendriks"), I discovered that he publicly stood up for his teammate Tim Anderson in the wake of the Josh Donaldson incident. Long story short: A month ago, Donald made comments to Anderson that were at best disrespectful and some would say racist on the field. Donaldson was fined and suspended, but the whole thing has remained in the news because he appealed the suspension. Donaldson has been trying to rehabilitate his image with some lame explanations for his behavior. Hendriks called Donaldson's excuse, and I'm quoting here: COMPLETE BULLSHIT.

Another aspect of my "research" for these posts is checking out the player's Instagram account. Hendriks has a good one. Two posts stood out to me. First, this one in which he participates in an effort to raise awareness of gun violence:

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A post shared by Liam Hendriks (@hendriks_31)

Then, there was Hendriks' latest Instagram post from a White Sox event at Chicago's Field Museum. Sure, he's super cute in the pic, but his wife, Kristi, is clearly the star. Every gay at the party wants to hang out with that girl.

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A post shared by Liam Hendriks (@hendriks_31)

Congratulation, Liam Hendriks! You are my MLBoyfriend of the week. Quite an achievement considering you didn't spend one minute of the week on the field.

Marcus Semien

Marcus Semien was such an obvious choice that there's really not much to say. Last week, he had a .480 average and 1.536 OPS with 7 runs, 4 home runs, 6 RBIs,  and 2 stolen bases.

On Tuesday, June 7th, Semien had 7 hits and 3 home runs in one day as the Rangers faced off against the Guardians in a double header. 

And Semien did all that looking like this:

SRSLY.

Congratulations, Marcus Semien! You are my MLBoyfriend of the week.

Alejandro Kirk

It's almost impossible to measure catchers' performances behind the plate, but it's safe to say that Alejandro Kirk was the best catcher at the plate last week. 

Kirk had a whopping .450 batting average and 1.522 OPS with 8 runs and 7 RBIs. He got to wear the Blue Jays' coveted "Barrio Jacket" 3 times last week to celebrate the home runs he hit.

Last week was not a fluke for Kirk. He's coming off an excellent month of May in which he had more extra-base hits than strikeouts.

I'd like to take this opportunity to shame fat-shamers. At 5'8"and 245 lbs, Kirk is officially "obese" according to the body mass index. In fact, his BMI of 37.2 puts him much closer to the "morbidly obese" category than the "overweight" one. This elite athlete, one of the best in Major League Baseball right now, "needs" to lose at least 70 pounds to be his "ideal" weight. For more information on what absolute garbage the BMI is, listen to "The Body Mass Index" episode of the excellent podcast Maintenance Phase.

Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now.

Congratulations, Alejandro Kirk! You are my MLBoyfriend of the week. I'd also like to thank you for giving me a reason to post my favorite baseball photo of the week.

Gabe Kapler

Gabe Kapler is clearly this week's MLBoyfriend. The San Francisco Giants manager earned the title not for traditional baseball success but for showing true leadership. On Friday, May 27th, Kapler retweeted a PSA by the Anti-Defamation League in which he's featured.

We’re proud to support the #NoHateAtHomePlate campaign to end #AAPI hate. Watch @Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and @SFGiants manager @GabeKapler speak out for this initiative from ADL, @TAAForg & partners. pic.twitter.com/Z64vioiiAi

— ADL (@ADL) May 27, 2022

That same day, Kapler announced that he would not be standing for the National Anthem in the wake of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas:

When I was the same age as the children in Uvalde, my father taught me to stand for the pledge of allegiance when I believed my country was representing its people well or to protest and stay seated when it wasn’t. I don’t believe it is representing us well right now.

Please click here to read the whole post. It is thoughtful and heartfelt. 

Kapler will be standing for the National Anthem today in honor of Memorial Day. He has posted a statement explaining why he is making an exception to his ongoing protest.

Today, I’ll be standing for the anthem. While I believe strongly in the right to protest and the importance of doing so, I also believe strongly in honoring and mourning our country’s service men and women who fought and died for that right. Those who serve in our military, and especially those who have paid the ultimate price for our rights and freedoms, deserve that acknowledgment and respect, and I am honored to stand on the line today to show mine.

Congratulations, Gabe Kapler! You are the MLBoyfriend of the week. Thank you for your being the kind of leader baseball and the country need right now.

Martín Pérez

Pitchers don't have to throw two great games in a week to win the MLBoyfriend title, but it helps. Martín Pérez earns the prize after his two quality starts led to two wins last week.

On May 15, Pérez pitched 6.0 innings giving up just one run on 5 hits and 2 walks. He struck out 7 and got his first win of the week. 

I try to avoid silly baseball slang here, but I couldn't resist this headline: Rangers' Martín Pérez Twirls Shutout. Twirling sounds like something you'd do at a rave not on the mound. Anyway... Pérez threw a complete game on May 21 giving up 8 hits and 1 walk but 0 runs in the 9 innings. 

At the end of the week, with 15.0 innings pitched, Pérez had a very impressive 0.60 ERA and 1.07 WHIP. As if those 2 wins and stats weren't enough, he also had a few other things going for him. First, he posted great recaps of the games on Instagram:

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A post shared by Martin Perez (@martinperez54d)

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A post shared by Texas Rangers ⚾️ (@rangers)

Next thing in Pérez's favor is that he chews bubble gum--which has proven to be the way to my heart in the past.

Last, but certainly not least, this is how Pérez appeared in his post-game interviews last week:

Congratulations Martín Pérez, you are my MLBoyfriend of the week! FWIW, your performance last week got me to add you to my fantasy baseball team as well. So, you'll be seeing a lot more of me as your pretend manager this season.

Jean Segura

Jean Segura's biggest competition for the MLBoyfriend title this week came from his teammate, Bryce Harper. Even though Harper's numbers were slightly better last week, I chose to go with Segura for two reasons. First, Harper has already been my MLBoyfriend three times, and I am trying to get some fresh faces on the blog. Speaking of faces, that brings us to the second reason.....

Don't get me wrong. Segura had some great stats last week. He had a .478 batting average and 1.615 OPS with 4 home runs, 8 RBIs, 10 runs and 2 stolen bases. But also, this:

I'm just going to leave this Instagram post here as my final piece of evidence.

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A post shared by Jean Segura (@elmambodesegura)

Congratulations, Jean Segura! You are my MLBoyfriend of the week. When you celebrate with your teammate Bryce, make sure to tell him not to worry--I still love him.