This player is on a historic grand slam pace

A grand slam requires a combination of skill and circumstance that makes it a difficult feat to achieve repeatedly.

Derek Jeter hit one in his entire career -- in his 10th full season -- despite 260 total home runs and years of playing in powerful Yankees lineups. Pete Rose also hit one, among his record 4,256 hits. Three-time All-Star Freddie Freeman is still waiting for his first as he approaches his 200th career big fly.

But sometimes they come in bunches, and not always from whom you would expect. Fernando Tatis once hit two in a single inning. Don Mattingly is tied for the single-season record (six), yet he didn’t hit any in his 13 other seasons. The group of players with at least 17 career slams includes five legendary sluggers with at least 490 homers each -- plus Robin Ventura and Carlos Lee.

And then there is the most prolific grand slam artist in today’s game: Hunter Renfroe. Albert Pujols is the active leader in total slams (14), but nobody can match Renfroe for pace.

A first-round Draft pick by the Padres in 2013 and a Top 100 prospect during his Minor League days, the 27-year-old San Diego slugger is now in just his third full MLB season. Renfroe went deep 26 times in both 2017 and ‘18, and he already has done so nine times this year, even as he remains a bit in the background in a lineup featuring Manny Machado, Eric Hosmer, Wil Myers and top prospect Fernando Tatis Jr.

Renfroe wasn’t in the background on Sunday, when he launched the fifth grand slam of his young career. It was of the dramatic variety, a pinch-hit shot to turn a 5-4 deficit into a walk-off victory against Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen. It was only Renfroe’s 63rd homer overall (he since has added two more), yet he tied the likes of Nolan Arenado, Josh Donaldson and Mike Trout in slams. No player has more since Renfroe registered his first, on Sept. 27, 2016.

To put those those five bases-loaded blasts in further context, here are 10 highly accomplished active players who have fewer, in addition to Freeman, whose 196 career home runs have not yielded a single slam:

• Miguel Cabrera (466 career HR, four GS)
• Evan Longoria (282 career HR, three GS)
• Joey Votto (272 career HR, four GS)
• Adam Jones (272 career HR, two GS)
• Ian Kinsler (252 career HR, one GS)
• Andrew McCutchen (228 career HR, one GS)
• Paul Goldschmidt (218 career HR, four GS)
• Khris Davis (203 career HR, two GS)
• Anthony Rizzo (200 career HR, three GS)
• Bryce Harper (191 career HR, four GS)

Among the 35 active players with at least five slams, Renfroe’s 65 total homers are the fewest, while his 7.7 percent rate of slams to total homers is the highest.

The closest comparisons are Boston’s Xander Bogaerts (six slams, 81 homers, 7.4 percent GS/HR rate) and Cincinnati’s Scooter Gennett (six slams, 85 homers, 7.1 percent GS/HR rate). Bogaerts’ fifth slam came on his 80th career homer, while Gennett’s came on his 70th.

Expanding the scope to include all of baseball history reveals that Renfroe’s path to bases-loaded dominance is rare, if not entirely unprecedented.

Fewest career games to five grand slams
1) Rudy York: 139, 1934-38
2) Alexei Ramirez: 152, 2008-09
3) Jim Gentile: 229, 1957-61
4) Al Rosen: 251, 1947-51
5) Hunter Renfroe: 281, 2016-19
Source: Elias Sports Bureau

Not only did Renfroe get there in 281 games, but also in his first 21 opportunities to bat with the bases loaded. (The 22nd opportunity came Tuesday, in yet another walk-off situation, but this time Renfroe hit into a game-ending force play against Mets closer Edwin Diaz). Despite that out, Renfroe is still 8-for-21 (.381) with five homers, a sacrifice fly and 27 RBIs in his career with the bases loaded.

In other words, Renfroe has smacked a grand slam 22.7 percent of the time he has stepped to the plate with the sacks packed. That is easily the highest rate on record for a player with at least five career slams.

Freeman, in contrast, has yet to homer in any of his 93 opportunities. Only Gordon Beckham has more bases-loaded plate appearances without going deep among active players.

Does all this mean Renfroe has some sort of special ability to do damage with the bases loaded? It’s difficult to say. What is certain is that Renfroe has made the most of his chances.