Oliver Dunn earns International League Player of the Week for Charlotte surge

Oliver Dunn reached base in all six games against Gwinnett and turned Charlotte’s most explosive series of the young season into a personal breakout, going 10-for-24 with a .417 average, a .531 on-base percentage and a 1.000 slugging mark. The International League rewarded that run on May 5, naming Dunn Player of the Week and making him the first Charlotte player in 2026 to pick up a weekly league honor.

The numbers from the April 27-May 3 stretch were the kind that change a player’s standing fast. Dunn piled up three home runs, three doubles, a triple, eight runs scored, 11 RBIs and seven walks. He had multiple hits in three games, never went home empty-handed at the plate, and looked like the most dangerous bat in the series from start to finish.

Charlotte’s biggest swing of the week came in a 21-1 win over the Stripers on May 2, when the Knights hit seven home runs and buried Gwinnett in one of the loudest offensive nights of the season. Dunn drove in three runs in that game, part of a Charlotte barrage that also featured RBI production from Baker, Camilletti and Connor. Over the full series, the Knights scored 56 runs and allowed 42, a reminder that this was less a tidy winning streak than a full-blown hitting spree. Gwinnett’s own coverage of the loss described it as a franchise-record seven homers allowed.

For Dunn, the honor carried extra weight because it came in his first season with Charlotte. The 28-year-old from Salt Lake City, a left-handed hitter who throws right-handed, joined the White Sox organization as a free agent in December 2025 after electing minor league free agency at season’s end. He was drafted by the Yankees in the 11th round in 2019 out of the University of Utah, then reached the majors with Milwaukee before making his MLB debut on March 30, 2024.

Dunn’s Charlotte line has now moved him into a more serious conversation. At the time of the award, he had 32 games, 124 at-bats, 36 hits, five homers, 24 RBIs and seven stolen bases, production that makes him look less like a temporary hot hand and more like a middle-order piece Charlotte can lean on. With a road trip to Jacksonville already underway after the announcement, the question is no longer whether Dunn can help a Triple-A lineup. It is how quickly this week forces Chicago to notice.