Better Late Than Never: Admiring Edwin Encarnación's Late-Career Power Binge
Edwin Encarnación mixed two types of performances into one very interesting career.
How Edwin Encarnación Became a Premier Power Hitter
Edwin Encarnación finished with 424 homers, and he did most of the work during the second half of his 16-year career.
From 2005-11, Encarnación averaged 17 homers per season. He surpassed the 20-homer plateau just twice, with his high-water mark during this period being 26 dingers for the Cincinnati Reds in 2008.
But from 2012-20, he averaged 34 homers per season. This was highlighted by eight straight years of surpassing the 30-homer plateau between 2012 and 2019. His high-water mark during this period was 42 dingers, which he did twice (2012 and 2016) for the Toronto Blue Jays.
Edwin Encarnación Home Runs to Enjoy
4/30/2013: Not many reach the fourth deck at the Rogers Centre, but on this day, Encarnación did just that.
10/14/2015: Encarnación’s first career postseason home run tied up an epic ALDS Game 5 matchup against the Texas Rangers in the sixth inning.
10/4/2016: Hitting a walk-off tater against the Baltimore Orioles to send the Jays to the ALDS.
Blog Spotlight for Encarnación
Encarnación finished his MLB career with 424 homers. Most of them came with Toronto, where he hit 239 homers. As you can imagine, he’s littered all over some of the Jays’ leaderboards when it comes to power.
He’s featured on Toronto’s all-time home run leaderboard and the single-season home run leaderboard. He’s also among the franchise’s single-season RBI leaders. Encarnación is obviously part of the 300-homer club and owns two of the 367 occurrences of at least 40 homers in a season.
P.S. I’ve compiled some of my best blog posts into a book for a comprehensive look at each MLB team’s single-season home run leaderboard. You can buy the ebook on Gumroad (or get it for free as a paid subscriber) and the paperback book on Amazon.
Single-Season HR Performances | Career HR Performances | Postseason HR Leaders | HR Derby Performances
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I always felt like Juan and Edwin Encarnacion were underrated during their careers! Great piece, Matt!