Who doesn’t enjoy a home run? Who cares, this story isn’t for them, anyway. This one’s for the long ball-lovers.
With the way dingers are flying off the bat of some players, we’re bound to see some homer history in 2025. Just how much history, though? That’s what we’ll be finding out over the last weeks of the season, which will — fingers crossed — be full of home runs.
Statistics updated through Aug. 31, 2025.
Cal Raleigh: 50 HR, 128/134 G, 59-HR Pace
The Mariners’ backstop remains MLB’s home run leader despite Kyle Schwarber’s onslaught, and that’s despite going yard just once since the last check-in on Aug. 25. Raleigh now has 50 long balls for the year, the most-ever for a catcher: his 49th shot passed Salvador Perez’s 2021 season for that honor, and every additional homer extends the record.
He’s sat out three games with Seattle this season, which means his pace of 59 home runs at the moment assumes he plays in the rest of them. He will likely need at least one day off between now and the end of the year, however, so it’s vital that he has another big week to pump up his home run total and his pace at some point to get there for real.
Vital for what purpose? Raleigh is chasing multiple home run records and accomplishments. He’s already hit the most homers by a switch-hitting catcher in a single season ever, passing Todd Hundley’s 41 bombs in 1996, and just took Perez’s record, as well. Perez also led the majors in 2021, which Raleigh might very well manage. Perez and Johnny Bench — on two occasions — are the catchers who have pulled that off before. So Raleigh might have the most home runs by a catcher and the most home runs by a catcher leading the league in homers, depending on how the rest of the year shakes out.
Raleigh also reached the 50-homer mark, making him the 33rd player in league history to do so. Of those 33, 10 of those players have done so multiple times, and their repeat appearances make up the bulk of the 50-homer seasons in MLB.
In addition, Big Dumper is chasing Mickey Mantle’s record of 54 homers by a switch-hitter in a single season — Mantle is no longer the lone switch-hitter with a 50-homer season, but he’s got both of the other instances, as he hit 54 in 1961 and 52 in 1956. Raleigh is now just one four homers shy of tying Mantle’s mark, with 25 team games left to do it.
After that is Aaron Judge’s American League record for homers, 62. Judge broke Roger Maris’ longstanding mark — also from 1961 — in 2022. This is the only record Raleigh has a realistic shot at and is also lagging behind the pace for. While he previously was on pace for 61 homers, this slow week cut him down to 59. If Raleigh were to hit 63, he’d take possession of the AL record from the Yankees, the only team with control of it since Babe Ruth broke his own record of 29, set with the Red Sox, with 54 bombs in 1920.
Aaron Judge: 43 HR, 127/137 G, 51-HR Pace
Aaron Judge missed some time thanks to an IL stint for an elbow injury, and only returned on Aug. 5 as the Yankees’ DH. He hasn’t been the same hitter since the injury, as he’s batted just .207/.378/.397 since his return on Aug. 5, which has cut into his pace for the year. However, he’s picked it up of late, with three homers this week to start heading in the other direction again for the first time in awhile.
Judge’s 43rd homer of the season was the 358th of his career, and put him in a tie for the fifth-most ever in Yankees’ history with Yogi Berra. His 44th will give him sole possession of fifth place, with Joe DiMaggio next up at 361.
If Judge reaches 50 homers in 2025, it will be the fourth time he’s hit at least that many. That would tie the MLB record currently held by Babe Ruth, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire. Judge is still all of 33 years old: if he hits 50 homers in 2025, given his power, another 50-homer campaign before he calls it a career isn’t out of the question. One year at a time, however: Judge can tie the record this season, and worry about breaking it down the road.
While his homerless return cut his pace from 55 homers to 52, he went yard twice in his first full week back, bumping things back up to 53. It fell all the way down to 51, but this big week has kept it from dropping further, and instead started the slow climb back toward a pace of 52.
Shohei Ohtani: 45 HR, 134/137 G, 53-HR Pace
Ohtani is no longer tied for the National League lead in home runs, which is partially because he didn’t go yard since the last check-in, but also because Kyle Schwarber did. A lot. He’s still on pace for well over 50 dingers, though, which would be something. The Dodgers’ slugger hit 54 in 2024 and led the NL, but he wasn’t also a pitcher then, as he was still recovering from Tommy John surgery. Ohtani is back on the mound as a two-way star, and while he hasn’t spent the whole season there, the grind of his schedule is still intense and unique to him.
To give you a sense of rarity, Wes Ferrell is the record holder for the most home runs in a season by a pitcher who only did that, with nine, set back in 1931. Ohtani isn’t hitting all of his homers in games he’s pitching, so we can really only compare him to himself. His career-high for home runs in years in which he’s pitched is 46; Ohtani is on pace for 53. The first-ever starting pitcher who also hit 50 home runs in the same season? It’s looking pretty likely at this stage.
Kyle Schwarber: 49 HR, 137/137 G, 58-HR Pace
Schwarber is the NL player that Ohtani had been tied with for the lead in home runs, but a 4-homer Thursday propelled him to a cushy lead and just one bomb shy of Big Dumper’s total. Schwarber has never hit 50 home runs before, meaning he could join Raleigh as a first-timer in that club with one more blast.
He’s played in every game for the Phillies to this point, and his pace has him clearing 50 homers with room to spare, as well. And if Schwarber can get to 58 homers, he’ll tie the Phillies’ franchise mark set by Ryan Howard in 2006. Howard’s 58 ranks eighth all-time in the NL among single-season home run outputs, and is tied for 12th all-time overall in MLB – Schwarber could do a lot more than “just” tie or exceed a local mark by keeping up the pace.
Eugenio Suárez: 42 HR, 134/137 G, 50-HR Pace
Suárez is yet another potential first-time 50-homer player: if both Schwarber and Suárez make it there after Raleigh, the 50-homer club will jump from 33 members to 35.
Because of a midseason trade, Suárez and Raleigh also have the opportunity to be just the second-ever instance of teammates with 50-homer seasons: Maris and Mantle pulled it off in 1961, when Maris hit 61 and Mantle 54. Suárez hasn’t been there the entire season, no, but he’s still got nearly two months of season — and eight more homers — before the finish line.
While Suárez has struggled since being dealt to Seattle – he has picked it up of late, batting .250/.338/.550 with five homers in his last 17 games. That’s helped him stay at a 50-homer pace despite overall problematic Seattle numbers. He needs this cold streak to be over for good if he’s going to continue to have a shot at 50, though.
Junior Caminero: 39 HR, 130/136 G, 47-HR Pace
Caminero isn’t on a 50-homer pace, no, but he did hit another two this week, giving him 12 total in August – that’s bumped his pace from 41 to 47 in a matter of 26 games. If he keeps it up from here on out, 50 homers isn’t out of the question even if he’s trailing right now. If he and Schwarber and Suárez all made it to 50 homers, there would be 36 members of the 50-homer club in MLB history.
We’re still a ways off from even suggesting that’s possible, however, but Caminero’s recent performance is at least worth noting given his rapid jump to 39 dingers. He needs a September just as great as his August to have a chance.
Most 50-Homer Players in a Season
There have never been five players hitting 50 home runs in the same season: this group of five could make history there, and they’re all currently on pace for 50, with Suarez bringing up the rear at exactly that many and Raleigh already there. (Caminero, unless he actually is on pace for 50, isn’t included as part of the five so much as someone to keep an eye on.)
There have been two seasons of four players with over 50 home runs, in 1998 and 2001. In both instances, there were two players with over 60 homers, with one of them hitting at least 70. Mark McGwire hit 70 in ‘98, with Sammy Sosa’s 66 finishing second, and in ‘01 it was Barry Bonds’ 73 and Sosa once again, this time with 64.
There have been just 13 seasons with more than one 50-homer player: 1938, 1947, 1961, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2017 and 2024.
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