Nolan Arenado caps resurgent season with NL Player of the Week

PHOENIX — Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman Nolan Arenado took pride in putting together his best season in years, and it ended with him winning his first National League Player of the Week award since 2022 on Monday.

Arenado was dominant for the D-backs in their push for the postseason, which came up just short for a third straight year on Sunday.

The 35-year-old went 10-for-23 (.435 average) with three home runs and eight RBIs in the final week, blasting his 30th home run of the year on Friday at Petco Park.

Arenado ended the season on a 13-game hitting streak, during which he drove six home runs.

After Arizona’s season finale on Sunday, Arenado expressed his disappointment in missing the postseason, saying he was feeling stronger as the year got deeper.

“I credit all the training staff and all those guys for getting my body to feel good at this time of year. I really feel like I could keep going, I didn’t feel like I was running out of gas,” Arenado said. “I felt like I was actually making strides. Obviously, it helps when you’re pushing for something, so it’s easy to get motivated for that.

“I made some great adjustments. I had to. I had no choice with the way I was playing early on. I was very proud of that. Probably one of the most proud years I’ve ever had in my career is probably this year, just the way I was getting older and the way I was able to rebound a little bit. But, like I said, it still hurts just not winning when we felt like we could have.”

This was Arenado’s ninth career NL Player of the Week award.

Arenado is the fourth Diamondbacks player to win the award this season after Ildemaro Vargas (4/25), Ketel Marte (5/23) and Corbin Carroll (8/16). The Diamondbacks had never played a season with four players earning the honor before.

OPS+ is a metric that compares players on an even playing field with 100 as the league average, and Arenado hit for a 101 OPS+ from 2023-25 as he entered his mid-30s. He blew that away with a 122 this season.

NL batting champion Gabriel Moreno (143) was the only Diamondbacks player with a higher mark — other than first baseman Tyler Locklear, who played 15 games.

Arenado shared some frustrations about his game, specifically his inconsistencies with runners in scoring position. But the Diamondbacks received closer to a prime Arenado season in terms of production than what he put out there over the previous couple years in St. Louis.

“The training staff, the weight room staff and then the coaches, we’re all on the same program, all helping me, pushing me,” Arenado said. “Expectations are high, and I like that. It never feels good enough. When you finish a season, when you lose like this, it still doesn’t feel good enough.

“I’m happy with the year. I am really proud of the way I fought all the way to the end. But when you don’t go to the playoffs, it still does not feel like anything’s good enough.”

His message for the team going into the offseason was to decompress, get to work and come back better next season.

The Diamondbacks traded pitching prospect Jack Martinez last winter for Arenado, while the Cardinals picked up most of his contract. Arenado had to waive his no-trade clause to come to Arizona.

The veteran is under contract for next season, but the D-backs will only be on the hook for $6 million. The Cardinals will be paying him deferred money until 2041.

In the American League, Baltimore Orioles first baseman Pete Alonso won the final Player of the Week for the 2026 season.

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