The best power-speed combo seasons ever

The 50-50 Club has its first member. Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani accomplished the feat with a performance for the ages on Sept. 19, 2024, recording his 50th homer and 50th stolen base in the same game while going 6-for-6 with three dingers, two steals and 10 RBIs against the Marlins.

Less than a month earlier, Ohtani became the first Dodgers player and the fastest player overall to join the 40-40 Club, completing the feat with a walk-off grand slam to beat the Rays.

Ohtani’s achievement comes on the heels of another historic power-speed combo effort by Ronald Acuña Jr., who was unanimously selected as the National League MVP after inaugurating the 40-70 Club.

Now that MLB's first 50-50 season is in the books, let's run down all of the notable homer-steal pairings you should know about, from the most- to the least-common historically.

30 HR, 30 SB
Done 72 times by 47 players
Last: Bobby Witt Jr. (2024)

The 30-30 season is common, relatively speaking, with an average of 1.6 players reaching that mark per season since 1987 (60 instances in 38 seasons). But it’s still an impressive feat. Of the 47 players to manage it all time, only 16 have done so multiple times. The most? It’s a tie between Bonds (Barry) and … Bonds (Bobby), with five each.

40 HR, 20 SB
Done 36 times by 23 players
Last: Ohtani (LAD), 2024

Up until Canseco’s 40-40 season in 1988, only three players had gone 40-20, and all are legends: Willie Mays (1955), Hank Aaron (1963, 1966) and Carl Yastrzemski (1970). This combo became considerably more common during the homer-happy 1990s but has only happened about once every two years on average since 2000. Eight sluggers have notched multiple 40-20 campaigns, led by Alex Rodriguez’s four. Ohtani, who hit 46 homers and stole 26 bases in his 2021 MVP season, reached the 40-20 milestone again in 2023 and '24.

20 HR, 50 SB
Done 23 times by 15 players
Last: Ohtani (LAD), 2024

Acuña became the first player with a 20-50 season in 16 years with his effort in 2023. About two months after Acuña reached this plateau, Corbin Carroll became the first rookie in MLB history to post 20 homers and 50 steals. Elly De La Cruz did it as a 22-year-old in 2024, and Ohtani later joined him in accomplishing the feat. All-time stolen base king Rickey Henderson was Mr. 20-50, doing it four times between 1985-93, when he averaged 19 homers and 67 steals.

30 HR, 40 SB
Done 23 times by 18 players
Last: José Ramírez (CLE), 2024

Bobby Bonds remains the king of the 30-40 season, doing it four times from 1969-78. To this day, only two others have even reached 30-40 twice: Bobby’s son Barry and Alfonso Soriano. There were five 30-40 campaigns from 2002-07 but only six since: Matt Kemp (2011), Mike Trout (2012), Acuña (2023), Witt (2023), Ohtani (2024) and Ramírez (2024).

40 HR, 30 SB
Done 15 times by 13 players
Last: Ohtani (LAD), 2024

Until 1988, only Aaron (1963) had ever pulled this one off. Canseco joined him then, and it happened seven more times between 1996-99, with Barry Bonds and Jeff Bagwell both doing it twice during that span. Acuña added himself to the list in 2019 (41-37), along with Yelich, who was riding a power surge that he has not rediscovered since. And Ohtani eclipsed this milestone in 2024.

20 HR, 60 SB
Done eight times by five players
Last: De La Cruz (CIN), 2024

While this one isn’t quite as rare as 40-40, it’s also true that there had been three 40-40 seasons since the last 20-60 campaign before Acuña accomplished the feat in 2023. And fewer players have achieved the 20-60 combo, with Henderson doing it three times, fellow Hall of Famer Joe Morgan twice and Eric Davis once. Each of those took place between 1973-90. De La Cruz became the fifth player to achieve the feat in 2024, swiping his 60th bag against the Blue Jays on Aug. 21 (and hitting his 22nd homer in the same contest). Elly is the third Cincinnati hitter to go 20-60, joining Morgan in 1973 and 1976 and Davis in 1986.

40 HR, 40 SB
Done six times by six players
Last: Ohtani (LAD), 2024

The most famous power-speed club. Canseco and Bonds both did it with exactly 40 steals, and Alfonso Soriano with 41. A-Rod put up what was at that time the biggest 40-40 campaign, going 42-46 for the 1998 Mariners. Prior to Acuña in 2023, only two players had even reached the 35-35 threshold since Soriano in 2006: Kemp, who was one homer from 40-40 in 2011, and Acuña, who was three steals off in 2019. Ohtani joined the club with a flourish by becoming the fastest to reach the milestone, doing so in his 126th game of the 2024 season.

50 HR, 20 SB
Done five times by five players
Last: Ohtani (LAD), 2024

Fifty-homer seasons don't usually come with high stolen base totals. MLB sluggers have knocked 50-plus home runs in a season 50 times, and more of those came with two or fewer steals (16) than with 10 or more (15). That really makes you appreciate how special 50-20 is. Four of those 50-20 seasons belong to all-time greats (A-Rod, Mays, Griffey and Ohtani). The fifth? That came in 1996, when the Orioles’ Brady Anderson more than doubled his next-biggest home run total to go 50-21. (Anderson is also in the exclusive 20-50 Club, having gone 21-52 just four years earlier.)

30 HR, 50 SB
Done four times by four players
Last: Ohtani (LAD), 2024

Like Barry Bonds in 1990, Acuña won his first MVP Award after surpassing the 30-50 mark in 2023. Davis also managed this incredible feat while not even playing a full season, with 37 homers and 50 steals in only 129 games played in 1987. And while we’re only looking at single seasons here, it is worth noting that Davis actually went 46-99 over one 162-game stretch between 1986-87. In some alternate universe out there, a healthy Davis might have gone 50-100. Ohtani became the fourth to the 30-50 mark in 2024.

20 HR, 70 SB
Done four times by three players
Last: Acuña (ATL), 2023

The first three 20-70 seasons happened in 1985 or 1986, and all three also cracked the 80-steal barrier. Henderson accomplished the feat in back-to-back seasons with the Yankees, and in fact came pretty close to an absurd 30-90 effort in 1986 (28 HR, 87 SB). But don’t overlook Davis, who went 27-80 -- while not even getting enough plate appearances (487) to qualify for the batting title. Acuña posted MLB's first 70-steal season since Jacoby Ellsbury in 2009 -- while already having hit 41 home runs.

40 HR, 50 SB
Done twice by two players
Last: Ohtani (2024)

Acuña inaugurated a number of clubs en route to 40-70 in 2023, one of which was 40-50. Ohtani followed with a 40-50 season of his own in 2024. There were some close calls prior to 2023. A-Rod was four steals short of the 40-50 mark in 1998, while Davis was three homers away in 1987 -- and likely would have done it had he played a full season.

50 HR, 30 SB
Done once, by Ohtani (2024)

This one nearly happened in 1997, when the Rockies’ Larry Walker bashed 49 homers and swiped 33 bases during his NL MVP-winning campaign. That was the closest 50-30 call before Ohtani did it in 2024.

50 HR, 40 SB
Done once, by Ohtani (2024)

Ohtani created both the 50-40 Club and the 50-50 Club at the same time when he hit his 50th homer of the 2024 season on Sept. 19, 2024.

50 HR, 50 SB
Done once, by Ohtani (2024)

Before Ohtani inaugurated the 50-50 Club, the most stolen bases by a player in a 50-homer campaign was 24, by Mays (in 1955) and A-Rod (in 2007), and the most homers by a player in a 50-steal season was 41, by Acuña (in 2023). Ohtani finished with 54 home runs and 59 stolen bases in 2024.

30 HR, 60 SB
Done once, by Acuña (2023)

Prior to Acuña's inauguration of this club in 2023, Henderson came the closest to reaching the 30-60 milestone, getting to within two homers in both 1986 and 1990.

40 HR, 60 SB
Done once, by Acuña (2023)

Acuña already had 68 steals when he crushed his 40th home run of the season on Sept. 22, 2023. The homer not only made him the fifth member of the 40-40 Club but also the first to the 40-50 and 40-60 milestones.

40 HR, 70 SB
Done once, by Acuña (2023)

After a tying single, Acuña stole second base in the 10th inning against the Cubs on Sept. 27, 2023, to create the 40-70 Club. Henderson (28 homers and 87 steals) and Davis (27 homers and 80 steals) came the closest to 30-70, each coming up just short in the home run department in 1986, but neither is anywhere near 40-70.

Never happened

60 HR, 20 SB

The high-flying 1998 season produced both the most homers to go with 20-plus steals (56 by Griffey) and the most steals to go with 60-plus homers (18 by Sammy Sosa), but both players came up a little short. The same goes for Aaron Judge during his 2022 campaign, when he stole a career-high 16 bases along with his AL-record 62 long balls.

Anthony Castrovince contributed reporting to this story.