Buxton's power-speed combo puts him in record books

Byron Buxton never ceases to amaze. Did you know that he’s hit 45 home runs since he last grounded into a double play? The Athletic’s Aaron Gleeman made that astute observation early Monday morning, when it was 44 homers.

That made us curious -- where does the streak rank historically? Buxton’s 44th homer in this span gave him the most home runs between double plays grounded into since double plays were officially tracked for batters in both leagues (1940). That’s per Elias Sports Bureau research.

He broke a tie with Matt Carpenter, who hit 43 home runs between grounding into double plays, from Sept. 9, 2017 to April 14, 2019.

But again, Buxton still hasn’t ended his streak -- because he’s yet to hit into another double play to bookend the streak. His last double play was Aug. 18, 2020, when he actually hit into two. Since then, he’s hit in 124 games entering Tuesday, without a single GDP. He homered on Sept. 7, 2020, for the first of the 45 subsequent homers thus far.

Of course, this stat is perfect for Buxton -- whose speed precludes being doubled up frequently, and who crushes the ball otherwise. He’s one of three qualified players in the 90th percentile or higher in barrel rate and sprint speed this season, along with Mike Trout and Jazz Chisholm Jr. Power and speed is the name of the game.

He’s grounded into just 10 double plays in 539 career games -- that’s what speed does. So it shouldn't be too much of a surprise that he hasn't grounded into one lately, but even still, this is a historic streak. It's also a glimpse into all that Buxton is capable of, when healthy.

Now, we all get to watch and see where the streak may end, and how many more homers Buxton will rack up before then.