Jay Harry earns International League Player of the Week honors after hot streak

Jay Harry turned a six-game trip to Des Moines into a week that forced a tougher question than the award itself: is this a real step forward, or just a blistering run against Iowa? Minor League Baseball named the Buffalo Bisons infielder International League Player of the Week for the June 22-28 window after he hit .464 with three home runs and 14 RBIs, reached base safely in every game, and kept Buffalo’s offense in gear at Principal Park.

The numbers were loud, but the context made them louder. Buffalo won four of six against the Iowa Cubs, opening the set with an 11-10 extra-inning escape on June 23 and then erupting for a season-high 15-1 win two days later. Harry was at the center of the blowout, launching a three-run homer and drawing three walks as Buffalo posted its biggest victory and highest run total of the season. Sean Keys and Charles McAdoo also went deep in that game, a reminder that Harry’s surge arrived inside a lineup that was already doing damage all week.

That mattered because Harry was not just riding a few lucky bloops. He finished the series 13-for-28, with hits spread across the week and enough impact to keep innings alive and flip games. In Buffalo’s 9-3 win in 11 innings on June 27, he went 4-for-5 with two runs scored. The next day, in the 8-5 series-clinching victory, he delivered a three-run RBI double after Buffalo had scored eight runs over the first three innings. That is not empty contact. That is production that changes the shape of a game.

For Buffalo, the question now is whether the surge holds once pitchers start attacking him differently. Harry is 23, a left-handed batter and right-handed thrower listed at 5-foot-11 and 195 pounds, originally drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the sixth round in 2023 out of Penn State before Toronto acquired him from Minnesota in the July 30, 2024 deal for reliever Trevor Richards. A week like this is how a player stops being a name in the lineup and starts being a problem for the other dugout.

The award reflects the hot streak, but the more important detail is how he got there: he kept reaching base, he punished mistakes, and he stayed in the middle of Buffalo’s order long enough to matter every night. If that mix sticks, the Bisons have found more than a one-series heater.