Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Yankees Veterans on the Doorstep of 300 Home Run Club
Along with the start of the 2024 MLB regular season comes plenty of highlight-reel home runs, and it probably won't take long for some of those homers to make history.
Pittsburgh Pirates legend Andrew McCutchen has notched 299 home runs in his career, meaning he could hit his 300th as soon as Opening Day on March 28. New York Yankees first baseman Anthony Rizzo is in a similar boat, boasting 295 career home through 13 MLB seasons.
Barring disaster, the veterans are likely to become the 160th and 161st members of the 300 home run club this spring.
McCutchen did most of his heavy lifting as a member of the Pirates, although he did add a few more bombs during his time with the Yankees, San Francisco Giants, Philadelphia Phillies and Milwaukee Brewers. The 37-year-old former NL MVP has averaged 20 homers a year over the course of his career, most recently recording 12 across 112 games in 2023.
Rizzo hit just one homer as a rookie with the San Diego Padres in 2011, right after the Boston Red Sox traded him there in exchange for All-Star Adrian Gonzalez. The Padres then sent Rizzo to the Chicago Cubs a year later, at which point he started to emerge as an All-Star himself.
Now 34 years old, Rizzo is averaging 23 homers a year for his career. After blasting 32 in 2022, he also only hit 12 in 2023 as he worked through the aftermath of a concussion.
There are only three other active players with between 250 and 299 career home runs.
Houston Astros first baseman José Abreu is sitting at 261, although the 37-year-old slugger recorded just 33 home runs over the last two seasons combined and has never broken 36. Rizzo's teammate, Aaron Judge, needs to hit 43 homers to reach 300, and while he has 50 and 60-homer seasons under his belt, those are the only two times he's hit 40-plus across his eight seasons in New York.
Los Angeles Dodgers star Mookie Betts is 48 home runs away from 300, with his current career high of 39 coming in 2023.
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