Each Team's Single-Season Home Run Leaders: AL East Edition
A look at single-season HR royalty throughout the American League East.
I’ve spilled a lot of digital ink on the MLB Daily Dingers blog talking about each team’s single-season home run leaders. Now, I’m bringing that project right to your inbox. First up is the American League East. Enjoy!
New York Yankees
Aaron Judge: 62 Home Runs in 2022
Judge had himself the walk year of all walk years. With his 50th homer on August 29th, he became just the seventh MLB player to reach the half-century mark before September. This was also his second 50-homer season since debuting in 2017. He joins Ruth and Mantle as the only other Yankees sluggers to register multiple 50-homer campaigns.
After slugging six homers in April, Judge hit 12 in May, 11 in June, and 13 in July before hitting nine in August. He finished his year with 11 dingers in September/October to become the new American League single-season record holder. His 33 home runs before the All-Star break are among the most in baseball history, and he found a way to keep elevating his game.
Following a .618 slugging percentage and 174 wRC+ in the first half, those numbers increased to .784 and 253, respectively.
Roger Maris: 61 Home Runs in 1961
Entering 1961, Roger Maris already made his mark with the Yankees, as he was fresh off an MVP campaign that included 39 home runs and 112 RBI. He followed that up by setting the single-season home run record, leading the league in RBI for the second straight year (141), and winning another MVP.
What I love the most about his performance is that once April was in the books, Maris had just one homer and four RBI. From that point on, he didn't finish a month with fewer than 10 homers or 21 RBI. When he played in Yankee victories, Maris slashed .298/.407/.702 with 47 home runs and 111 RBI. His 1.109 OPS in this situation was much different than the .757 mark he posted in losses.
Check out the rest of the top 32 here.
Boston Red Sox
David Ortiz: 54 Home Runs in 2006
For nearly 70 years, Jimmie Foxx was the only Red Sox hitter to reach the 50-homer plateau. His reign finally ended in 2006 thanks to David Ortiz. Big Papi had already etched his place in Boston's history books by being a clutch postseason performer and one of the main contributors to ending the Curse of the Bambino in 2004. It seemed like anything after that epic season could be viewed as gravy by the Fenway Faithful. Ortiz, a first-ballot Hall of Famer, gave the fans a heavy, heavy pour of that gravy for the remainder of his career.
The 2006 season was Papi's third consecutive year with at least 40 homers. It was the last time he surpassed that particular benchmark. Papi actually hit 32 of his 54 home runs away from Fenway Park. He also kicked things up a notch over the final three months. After slugging 23 homers through the end of June, he hit 24 between July and August before slugging another seven in September.
It's like he could smell the franchise record and the single-season HR record for designated hitters.
What I love the most is that while the homer numbers varied in different situations, his slugging percentage was elite in just about every instance. Whether he faced a righty or a lefty and whether he was at Fenway or on the road, his slugging percentage was above .600. The same could be said if you looked at his first- and second-half performances. On a monthly basis, the only time Ortiz didn't slug at least .600 was in May (.469) and June (.564).
Jimmie Foxx: 50 Home Runs in 1938
Jimmie Foxx led the league in home runs four times throughout his career. And until Ortiz broke his record in 2006, he held two separate single-season franchise home run records, one of which is still among the most home runs in a season in MLB history. Interestingly enough, the 50 home runs he hit in 1938 for the Boston Red Sox didn't lead the league. That honor went to Hank Greenberg, who slugged 58 on his way to setting the Detroit Tigers' single-season record.
Foxx got the last laugh, though. He didn't win the single-season home run crown, but he did lead the league in RBI (175), batting average (.349), on-base percentage (.462), slugging percentage (.704), OPS (1.166), and total bases (398) on his way to winning MVP honors.
While he nearly had an identical slash line in the first half (.347/.461/.705) as he did in the second half (.347/.461/.701), the right-handed slugger loved Fenway. In 334 plate appearances, he hit .405/.512/.887 with 34 home runs and 104 RBI. That's an unbelievable season on its own, but it was just half a season for Foxx. What a stud.
Check out the rest of the top 25 here.
Baltimore Orioles
Chris Davis: 53 Home Runs in 2013
I can just see it now -- in 20 years, baseball fans will be looking at some of the most powerful seasons in Orioles history and think, "Chris Davis?!? I thought he was terrible!" Well friends, before everything went south, he was one of the game's most feared sluggers for a short period.
If his 33-homer, 85-RBI performance in 2012 was the breakout, then 2013 was his peak. Davis posted a 1.004 OPS while leading baseball in home runs (53), RBI (138), and total bases (370), along with being the proud owner of a 168 wRC+ and 7.1 fWAR.
Davis hit 37 of his home runs before the All-Star break, with 22 of them coming in May and June alone. He also tore up right-handed pitching to the tune of a .316/.415/.728 line with 40 homers and 93 RBI in just 434 plate appearances.
Brady Anderson: 50 Home Runs in 1996
Thanks to when he accomplished this feat, Brady Anderson's 50-homer campaign will always raise eyebrows. I mean, how can it not? Outside of this performance, he enjoyed just two other seasons of 20-plus homers and never hit more than 24 in a season. In the two years before 1996, Anderson hit 28 dingers in 1,182 plate appearances. In the two years after 1996, he combined for 36 dingers in 1,270 plate appearances.
The 6.9 fWAR (nice) he produced in '96 was the best of his career, but Anderson did put together other solid seasons. He had three other years with at least 3.0 fWAR. No matter how you slice it, though, 1996 is the clear outlier. What's even more interesting is he didn't take advantage of the hitter-friendly conditions at Camden Yards! Anderson hit 19 homers at home and 31 on the road.
Check out the rest of the top 22 here.
Toronto Blue Jays
Jose Bautista: 54 Home Runs in 2010
Jose Bautista was one of those out-of-nowhere stories that you just love to see. Before setting the Blue Jays' single-season home run record, he'd never hit more than 16 in a season. And in just one year, he went to the All-Star Game, won a Silver Slugger award, and placed fourth in AL MVP voting.
What I love even more is that not many people (if any at all) thought it'd be happening by the end of April. Once the calendar flipped to May, he had just four homers and 12 RBI while posting a .741 OPS. Then he had a great performance the following month, slashing .287/.422/.766 with 12 homers and 25 RBI, but that was followed by another rough showing in June (.179/.324/.369 with four homers and nine RBI).
From July 1st through the end of the year, though, he went HAM. Bautista collected at least 11 homers and 2o RBI in each of the season's final three months (he slugged a combined 34 homers with 74 RBI), which led to a triple slash of .288/.397/.695, along with a 190 wRC+.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr.: 48 Home Runs in 2021
This was exactly the kind of breakout performance we were hoping to see from Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Sure, he fell short of winning the AL MVP because of a truly legendary performance from Shohei Ohtani, but he at least tied with Salvador Perez for the league lead in home runs. In winning his first of (likely many) Silver Slugger Awards, Vlad Jr. also led the league in runs scored (123), on-base percentage (.401), slugging percentage (.601), OPS (1.002), and total bases (363). Not bad for your age-22 season.
While Guerrero's bat cooled over the final three months, his first three were incredible. He posted a slugging percentage higher than .600 in April, May, and June, with June being his best overall month. In 114 plate appearances during that part of the year, he slashed .371/.465/.753 with 10 home runs and 24 RBI. It was the only month he recorded double-digit home runs.
The slugger did enjoy hitting at home, which was split between Dunedin, Florida, and Toronto in 2021. As the home team, Vlad Jr. slugged 31 of his homers and collected 69 of his RBI, all while hitting .332/.425/.708 (compared to .291/.378/.497 on the road). This huge breakout performance has enabled him to be among MLB's home run leaders over the last couple of years.
Check out the rest of the top 22 here.
Tampa Bay Rays
Carlos Peña: 46 Home Runs in 2007
It was a sharp rise in production for Peña leading up to him setting the Rays' single-season home run record. In the two seasons before his 2007 performance, he appeared in just 97 games (332 plate appearances) for the Tigers and Red Sox. In that time, he posted a .799 OPS with 19 home runs and 47 RBI. This included just one homer in 18 games for Boston in 2006. Before this 46-homer performance, Peña's single-season career-high mark came in 2004 when he hit 27 dingers.
The first baseman's run production was practically identical at home (23 homers, 61 RBI) as it was on the road (23 homers, 60 RBI). While he posted a slugging percentage above .600 in both the first and second half, he finished with a flourish to become the Rays' first -- and for now, only -- 40-homer hitter. His monthly progression in both homers and RBI is interesting to watch.
From April to September, here's what his homer production looked like: 4, 6, 7, 8, 8, 13. And here's what his RBI production looked like: 13, 15, 17, 22, 25, 29. So, it was a slow build to September, which was easily his best month of the year (1.279 OPS in 122 plate appearances).
Brandon Lowe: 39 Home Runs in 2021
We'll soon see that Tampa Bay has watched a couple of players get themselves into the mid-and upper-30s in recent years. But until Brandon Lowe did it in 2021, nobody had gotten on the doorstep of 40 dingers in a Rays uniform since Peña in 2009.
After a 143-plate-appearance sample in 2018, Lowe has been a consistent power source for Tampa Bay. Over the 1,186 plate appearances that followed, he mashed 70 homers with a .526 slugging percentage.
Once the 2021 All-Star break rolled around, Lowe was hitting a good number of homers (21, to be exact), but still owned just a .782 OPS off the strength of a .208/.316/.465 line in 335 plate appearances. In his final 280 trips to the plate, he leveled up his performance. His triple slash climbed to .292/.368/.591 (a .959 OPS) to go along with 18 homers, 51 RBI, and 20 doubles. While this is the second-best performance in franchise history, it's the most powerful campaign ever by a Rays second baseman.
Check out the rest of the top 17 here.
Did you like these write-ups? Then you’ll love my latest book, Single-Season Home Run Leaders. It’s a division-by-division look at each team’s HR royalty. Buy the ebook or paperback version on Amazon today.