The Tulsa Drillers are starting to get a lock on Player of the Week awards in the Texas League. For the fourth time in 2017 a Driller has claimed the award.

The Texas League has announced that Driller infielder Jose Miguel Fernandez is the recipient of the award for the period of June 12-18.

Previous Driller to be honored with the award are Edwin Rios, Kyle Farmer and Scott Barlow who each have received the honor this season.

Rios currently is tied for second in the league in OPS (.905), Slugging Percentage (.544), home runs (13) and is tied for first in total bases (137) and runs batted in (51). Farmer was promoted to the Oklahoma City Dodgers on May 23 and is currently hitting .350 with the Dodgers in 21 games. Barlow may well start for the Northern Division in the upcoming All-Star game.

Jose Miguel Fernandez
(Photo credit – Joe Camporeale)

Jose Miguel Fernandez was signed as a free agent by the Dodgers in early January.

The 5’10”/185-lb infielder who was born in Santa Clara, Cuba hit .319/.403/.423 with 37 homers and 318 RBI over eight years in Cuba’s top professional league — the same league that spawned Yasiel Puig, Jose Abreu and Yoenis Cespedes.

The left-handed hitter batted .524 with three doubles and six RBIs for Cuba in the 2013 World Baseball Classic.

Fernandez, now 29, signed for a $200,000 bonus after defecting from Cuba in December 2015. He had experience at second and third base in Cuba but his only playing time over the past two years was a brief stint in winter ball during the past winter.

Ben Badler of Baseball America wrote this report re: Fernandez back in April of 2015.

“Fernandez rarely offers at a pitch outside the strike zone, taking a patient approach and laying off pitches on the corners. When Fernandez does swing, he has a short, flat lefty stroke with good bat control. He sets up with his hands low but he’s able to catch up to good inside fastballs and keep his hands back to adjust to breaking balls. He has good hand-eye coordination and plate coverage, hitting well against lefties and righties. There is some funkiness to Fernandez’s swing, as his back foot often slides out from under him, only re-gaining his balance with his back foot on the other side of home plate. Fernandez hits a lot of line drives but he’s also a pull-oriented hitter who rolls over a lot of ground balls to the right side. His power is below-average, with a chance for 8-12 home runs per year over a full big league season.”

During his recent award winning week, the Cuban second baseman batted a league-leading .538 with 14 hits, 2 home runs, 2 doubles and 8 RBI to help spark Tulsa’s offense and help the Drillers with a four-game sweep of the Springfield Cardinals.

On the season, Fernandez is hitting a league leading .336 with an OBP of .386 along with seven home runs and 37 runs batted in 61 games. His .879 OPS and .514 Slugging Percentage both rank fourth in the league.