Most leadoff home runs in a single season

Power has not traditionally been an attribute associated with leadoff hitters, who for much of baseball history have been selected primarily for their ability to make contact, get on base, and run.

That thinking has shifted in recent years, making the leadoff home run a bit less of a rarity, even as it remains a notable achievement. Before 2016, there had never been a season with at least 120 leadoff home runs across MLB. Since 2016, every completed season has had at least 150, besides the 60-game 2020 season.

With that in mind, here is a look at the most leadoff homers hit by a player in a single season, through Sept. 28, 2024.

1) Kyle Schwarber (2024 PHI), 15: On Aug. 4, Schwarber joined Alfonso Soriano as the only players with multiple seasons with 10-plus leadoff homers, and he wasn't done. On Sept. 10, Schwarber crushed a leadoff home run that left his bat at 113.9 mph and traveled 437 feet, giving him the most leadoff home runs (14) in a single season in MLB history. When he hit his 13th leadoff homer of the 2024 campaign, Schwarber also became the first player since at least 1974 (when tracking of this stat began) to have three consecutive seasons with 30 or more home runs out of the leadoff spot in the batting order. He hit his 15th and final leadoff homer of the year on Sept. 21.

2) Alfonso Soriano (2003 NYY), 13: Only Rickey Henderson has hit more career leadoff dingers than Soriano, who produced at least nine in a season three times. Soriano went deep 38 times total and stole 35 bases in 2003, his last season with the Yankees before he was sent to Texas in the Alex Rodriguez trade.

3-T) Mookie Betts (2023 LAD), 12: Slugging leadoff men are atypical, but then again, so is Betts, who looks the part of a top-of-the-order guy with his compact build, good speed and great eye. Moving from right field to second base, as he did in 2023, only served to superficially boost his leadoff-hitter credentials. Despite all that, Betts continued to pack a ton of power -- his 12 leadoff home runs were barely a third of the 39 total he hit on the season.

3-T) Jose Altuve (2022 HOU), 12: The Astros won an MLB-best 106 regular-season games en route to winning the World Series in 2022. Nine of those wins began with Altuve launching a leadoff homer. Three of his 12 leadoff dingers came against the division-rival Mariners, and two of those came off of the same pitcher, left-handed starter Robbie Ray.

3-T) George Springer (2019 HOU), 12: Before Altuve took over as the firestarter in the Astros’ lineup, Springer was arguably the most fearsome leadoff hitter in the game. He belted 35 leadoff home runs from 2016-19, which was 11 more than any other player. He was his most productive in 2019, when he bopped a career-high 39 home runs.

3-T) Alfonso Soriano (2007 CHC), 12: Soriano signed with Chicago after the 2006 season, then put up 33 big flies in his first year with the Cubs, who had him make 125 of his 134 starts in the leadoff spot.

3-T) Brady Anderson (1996 BAL), 12: It wasn’t hard to see why Anderson was batting first. From 1992-95, he posted a .367 OBP and averaged a solid 16 homers and 34 steals. Then the power suddenly exploded in 1996, as Anderson crushed 50 taters -- more than double what he produced in any other season. He remains the only player to hit leadoff homers in four straight games, from April 18-21 of that season.

8-T) Kyle Schwarber (2023 PHI), 11: Schwarber is far from a conventional leadoff hitter, and the 2023 season exemplified that as well as any. Schwarber crushed 11 home runs to lead off a game, part of his career-high total of 47 for the entire season. Even if we expand beyond the first inning specifically, Schwarber was at his best when he was atop the batting order. In his 108 games played as the Phillies’ leadoff hitter in 2023, Schwarber had 34 home runs, compared to 13 home runs in the 52 games where he was elsewhere in the order.

8-T) Bobby Bonds (1973 SF), 11: Barry Bonds outhomered his dad overall, but Bobby has him beat when it comes to leadoff shots, both in a single season (Barry’s high was eight in 1988), and in a career (Bobby 35, Barry 20). As for Bobby, he finished 1973 one homer shy of a 40-40 campaign (39 homers, 43 steals).

8-T) Jacque Jones (2002 MIN), 11: This was a career year for Jones, who smacked 27 homers in all while slugging .511 for a Minnesota club that stormed to 94 wins and a division title.

11-T) Gunnar Henderson (2024 BAL), 10: On the heels of his 2023 AL Rookie of the Year campaign, Henderson reached double digits in leadoff homers for the O's. He finished with 37 home runs on the season, the most by a shortstop in franchise history.

11-T) Marcus Semien (2023 TEX), 10: Quite a few eventual league champs have leadoff hitters on this list -- four, to be exact, with Semien following Soriano ('03 NYY), Springer ('19 HOU) and Altuve ('22 HOU) -- and while that's probably more of a coincidence than anything else, having a slugging leadoff man certainly doesn't hurt your cause. Even with their long history of sluggers, Semien's 2023 output at the top of the lineup was like nothing else in Rangers history -- before he hit his 10 leadoff home runs, the club's all-time record was seven.

11-T) Charlie Blackmon (2016 COL), 10: This was Blackmon’s breakout season at the plate, but he’s hit at least one leadoff homer in every season since 2013 and is climbing up the all-time leaderboard in this category. Eight of his 10 in 2016 came in a stretch of just over three months from May 3-Aug. 11.