Nobody Has Reached the 500 Home Run Club Quite Like Gary Sheffield
He racked up plenty of frequent flyer miles while cranking baseballs over the fence.
One of the things that makes baseball (and sports in general) great is that no two journeys are the same. Even if two players finish their respective careers with the same number of home runs, they each do it in their own special way.
There are currently 28 different players who have slugged at least 500 home runs during their big-league careers. I’ve been talking about a bunch of them over the past few weeks. They’ve all reached this milestone in a unique way, and some have distinguished themselves within an already exclusive club.
But nobody has done it quite like Gary Sheffield did during his 22-year career.
Gary Sheffield Was a Well-Traveled Slugger
Sheffield is an iconic ballplayer for many ’90s and early-2000s baseball fans because of his incredible batting stance. Seriously—if you told me you’ve never once imitated his batting stance in the backyard, your bedroom, or anywhere else, then I’d find that hard to believe.
Another thing that makes Sheffield unique within the 500-homer club is the sheer number of teams he suited up for. He played for eight different organizations before hanging up his spikes for good. Nobody with at least 500 homers has played for more teams than he has.
Here’s a quick breakdown of who Sheffield played for and how many homers he slugged during his time with them:
Los Angeles Dodgers: 129 homers in four seasons
Florida Marlins: 122 homers in six seasons
New York Yankees: 76 homers in three seasons
Atlanta Braves: 64 homers in two seasons
Detroit Tigers: 44 homers in two seasons
San Diego Padres: 43 homers in two seasons
Milwaukee Brewers: 21 homers in four seasons
New York Mets: 10 homers in one season
Sheffield finished his career with 509 home runs. And to make things even more fun, his 500th homer was the first time he went deep with the Mets in 2009 at age 40.
Pinpointing Sheffield’s Power Prime
Reaching a career milestone like 500 homers means a player has to be a consistently good hitter for the majority of their time in the big leagues. That’s exactly what Sheffield did—the 162-game average for his entire career included a .907 OPS with 32 homers and 105 RBI.
But still, there’s a period that stands out above the rest. It started in 1999, his first full season with the Dodgers, and lasted until 2005 with the Yankees.
These seven seasons included six performances of at least 30 homers and 100 RBI. The only time he didn’t reach those numbers was in 2002 with the Braves—he slugged 25 homers with 84 RBI while appearing in just 135 games. Sheffield’s overall performance was worth at least 3.2 bWAR in each season.
Overall, he produced 33.2 bWAR during this stretch, which accounts for about 55% of his career total (60.5). And in case you’re wondering (I know you are!), an average year from Sheffield between 1999 and 2005 included a .307/.408/.558 line with 35 homers, 27 doubles, 110 RBI, and 105 runs scored.
Sheffield was named an All-Star five times during this stretch. He also took home three of his five Silver Slugger Awards and finished within the top 20 of MVP voting five times. This included four top-10 finishes and three straight from 2003-05 (third in ‘03, second in ‘04, and eighth in ‘05).
Single-Season HR Performances | Career HR Performances | Postseason HR Leaders | HR Derby Performances
If you liked this post from MLB Daily Dingers, please share it with your friends and family!
Content provided on MLB Daily Dingers is always free. But if you’re interested, become a paid subscriber and help support the newsletter. You’ll get certain perks, such as unlimited access to all the digital products on my Gumroad storefront!
Sheff was a Met!?! I must've been napping that day or something. Crazy!
Great post Matt. Sheffield is a HOF player excluded even though his PED usage came before MLB instituted a formal and clear testing and punishment protocol. He's blackballed by the BBWAA - unfairly IMO.