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Hairston named Baseball America's National Player of the Year, adds two more All-America honors alongside Contrades

Hairston becomes Sun Devil Baseball's nation-leading fourth winner of Baseball America's prestigious award.

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Hairston named Baseball America's National Player of the Year, adds two more All-America honors alongside ContradesHairston named Baseball America's National Player of the Year, adds two more All-America honors alongside Contrades
Alyssa Colwell
by Jeremy Hawkes

PHOENIX - Landon Hairston was named Baseball America’s National Player of the Year this week, giving Sun Devil Baseball its nation-leading fourth winner of the award. 

Hairston was also honored by the outlet as a First Team All-American, joining teammate Nu’u Contrades on the All-America list, with the latter earning Second Team recognition. 

The duo was also recognized as First and Second Team All-America selections - respectively - by the American Baseball Coaches Association. In doing so, the pair of Sun Devils is guaranteed consensus All-America status after being named All-Americans by the National College Baseball Writers Association and Perfect Game earlier this week.

For more than four decades, Baseball America has recognized the top performers in college baseball through its annual awards program. The publication has named a College Player of the Year since 1981, a Freshman of the Year since 1982 and, beginning in 2025, a College Pitcher of the Year.

The track record speaks for itself: 38 College Player of the Year recipients and 34 Freshman of the Year winners have gone on to reach the major leagues, with several recent honorees still working their way through college baseball or the professional ranks.

Hairston, who was one of just four players to make BA’s national team of the week at least four times this season, led all qualified Division I hitters in OPS. He recorded an astounding 81 RBIs despite batting atop the order, the most by a leadoff hitter in the country and tied for fifth overall. He was also the only player in the nation to post a wOBA above .570.

Hairston, who later announced he’ll be staying at Arizona State for next season, is just the seventh non-draft-eligible player ever to win the award and the second in as many years, joining 2025 winner Roch Cholowsky. 

The 6-foot, 180-pound outfielder on Thursday became the fourth player in ASU history to be named National Player of the Year by Baseball America, following in the footsteps of Mike Sodders in 1981, Oddibe McDowell in 1984 and Mike Kelly in 1990.

Since ASU's first All-American in program history – Sterling Slaughter in 1963 – there have been just eight seasons where the Sun Devils have not produced an All-American. Hairston and Contrades are the seventh and eighth under head coach Willie Bloomquist, joining Cole Carlon (2025), Kien Vu and Ryan Campos (2024), Luke Keaschall (2023), and Joe Lampe and Nate Baez (2022). 

 

Landon Hairston Landon Hairston 5-1 at UCF.jpg

Landon Hairston
Sophomore - Outfielder - Queen Creek, Ariz. 

Baseball America National Player of the Year

Golden Spikes Award Finalist

Dick Howser Trophy Finalist

USA Baseball Collegiate National Team Invitee

Baseball America All-American  – First Team (Outfielder)

ABCA All-American - First Team (Outfielder)

NCBWA All-American – First Team (Outfielder)

Perfect Game All-American - First Team (Outfielder)

Big 12 Player of the Year

ABCA West Region – First Team (Outfielder)

Big 12 First Team - Outfielder

  • Landon Hairston finished the season as ASU’s new single-season home run king, claiming sole possession of the spot with his 28th of the year at the Big 12 Tournament, good for fifth in the nation.
  • Hairston entered the NCAA Tournament ranked fifth in the nation with his .413 batting average. He had a 28-game hitting streak that ended at UCF earlier in May, which was tied for the fifth-longest in Sun Devil school history.
  • Hairston led the team with his 20 doubles this season and, in doing so, he joined Bob Horner’s 1978 season as the only other player to reach the 20/20 club at ASU. 
  • Hairston remains first in the nation with his 1.368 OPS (min. 3 PA per game) and with his .860 - the latter of which breaks Bob Horner’s long-standing single-season school record of .819 (1978).
  • Of his 94 hits this season, 50 were for extra bases (28 homers, 20 doubles, 2 triples) - three more than any other player.
  • Hairston was the national leader with his four grand slams this season - also tying the ASU school record in the process.  
  • Hairston’s WAR of 5.29 is third in the country, while his 68.38 total Offensive Runs over Replacement is second.
  • Hairston finished with 81 RBIs this season, good for fifth in the country. However, all 81 RBIs came while hitting as the leadoff batter in the Sun Devil lineup, which was easily the most of any Division I leadoff hitter and the most for ANY leadoff hitter in Division I RBIs for an entire season since at least 2019, surpassing Christian Moore’s 71 over 65 games in 2024. 
  • The 81 RBIs were the most at Arizona State since Brett Wallace had 83 in 2008.
  • Other teams continuously tried to keep Landon Hairston off guard, as 71 times this season an opponent has made a pitching change either directly before facing the lefty or within two batters of facing him. And continuously, Hairston showed that it didn’t make a difference. 
  • His 12 home runs as one of the first three batters an opponent reliever has faced were first in the country. He also had 29 hits and 36 RBIs in that scenario, ranking first in both categories. He batted .518 off new pitchers that faced him within their first three batters faced - fifth-best in the country. His absurd 1.923 OPS off those new pitchers is first in the country. In fact, that was the highest of any player in the country since at least 2019.
  • Hairston was equally a pest as the very first batter of a game, recording a hit to lead off a game 24 times - the second-highest total in the country (UT Martin’s TJ Grimes, 26) while his four game-leading homers are third in the country.
  • His .462 average to lead off games is 10th among all players with at least 30 games led off. He has a hit on the first pitch of a game nine times - two more than anyone else in the nation.
  • Hairston is third in the country with his 82 runs scored, and opponents intentionally walked Hairston 13 times this season, the third-highest total in the country.
  •  

Nu’u Contrades vs. Ole Miss NCAA Tournament

Nu’u Contrades
Sophomore - Outfielder - Queen Creek, Ariz. 

Dick Howser Trophy Semifinalist

NCAA Lincoln Regional Most Outstanding Player

Baseball America All-American  – Second Team (2B)

ABCA All-American - Second Team (2B)

NCBWA All-American – Third Team (2B)

Perfect Game All-American - Third Team (2B)

ABCA West Region – First Team (2B)

Big 12 First Team - Second Base

  • Nu’u Contrades was ASU’s most veteran presence in his fourth year with the program - a rarity in the modern age of college baseball.  Contrades was selected by his teammates as a Co-Captain of the 2026 squad entering the year. 
  • Contrades homered four times in the NCAA Lincoln Regional en route to being named the Most Outstanding Player. The four homered bumped him to 21 for the season - tied for 13th in Sun Devil history.
  • Since the start of April, Contrades had at least one extra-base hit in 20 of 30 games. His 25 extra-base hits in that time were ninth in the country as he vaulted to the No. 2 ranking among second basemen by D1Baseball in their Week 12 update. His .770 slugging percentage since the start of April was 29th nationally.
  • Contrades’  21 homers were sixth in the conference and 21st nationally despite missing a decent chunk of time this season and batting off one leg for the majority of the season. 
  • Contrades’ 408.68 average distance on his homers is 16th in the nation among players with at least 15 homers this season. 
  • Contrades homered four times off relievers entering the game as the first batter they faced, tied for fourth-most in the country. His 11 RBIs in that scenario were tied for 20th in the country.
  • Contrades struck out just 28 times this season (13.8 percent on 202 ABs). Last season, he notably struck out just 30 times - compared to 28 walks -  on 181 ABs on the year (16.6 percent) after striking out 51 times with just 9 walks his freshman season on 217 ABs (23.5 percent).
  • Unfortunately, the veteran was down a couple of games while dealing with a hamstring injury sustained in the finale against LMU, missing nearly three weeks and the first two weekends of Big 12 action. Even with returning to the lineup, Contrades has operated mostly under 100 percent with the injury lingering.
  • Still Contrades was 10-for-10 on stolen base attempts this season, and his 91.7 career stolen base percentage (33-of-36) is the highest among all ASU players since 1999 with at least 30 bases stolen. 
  • Prior to his injury, Contrades was credited with saving 3.09 runs on infield ground balls this season, good for 34th in the nation but third among all second basemen.