Ronny Simon earns Indianapolis honors after torrid April at the plate

Ronny Simon made April impossible to overlook. In 22 games, the switch-hitting Indianapolis infielder and outfielder hit .388 with 33 hits in 85 at-bats, a 1.047 OPS, 21 RBI and 51 total bases, production that earned him Indianapolis Player of the Month honors on May 5 and pushed him to the top of the International League batting race.

The numbers went well beyond a hot average. Simon ranked second in the league in hits and OPS, third in slugging at .600, fifth in RBI and fifth in on-base percentage at .447. He reached base safely in 20 of 21 starts in April and recorded at least one hit in 18 of those games, a level of day-to-day reliability that kept Indianapolis’ lineup from going quiet. He finished the month with 11 multi-hit games, including four three-hit performances, and his 12 multi-hit games to that point led the club.

That kind of run has a way of changing the conversation around a player. Indianapolis noted that Simon’s .388 average was the seventh-best single-month mark by an Indians hitter since at least 2005 among players with at least 20 games, a list that now includes only two better April peaks in the club’s comparison set: Nick Solak’s .394 this April and Jake Elmore’s .390 in April 2019. For a Triple-A lineup that needed steady production, Simon was not just filling a spot. He was driving innings.

His broader Indianapolis track record makes the surge look less like a fluke and more like the latest proof of a bat that travels. Since arriving in 2025, Simon has hit .311 with 50 runs, 16 doubles, two triples, 10 homers, 54 RBI, 29 stolen bases and an .871 OPS in 82 games. Among Indianapolis players with at least 80 games since 2005, he ranks fourth in on-base percentage at .401 and eighth in batting average and OPS, a strong sign that he has already carved out a meaningful place in the franchise’s recent offensive history.

The background matters, too. Simon was originally signed by Chicago as a non-drafted free agent in 2018, moved to Tampa Bay in 2021, later elected free agency and spent 2025 in Miami’s system before making his MLB debut with the Marlins on April 21, 2025. Pittsburgh claimed him off waivers on June 2, 2025, and the Pirates now have a player whose April numbers forced a sharper look at the Indianapolis depth chart. In a season where the Indians have shown they can win, as they did in finishing 87-62 under Chris Truby in 2025, Simon’s surge is the kind that can shape call-up conversations, raise trade value and earn a more defined role when the next opening appears.