Players who hit for multiple cycles in their careers

Players who hit for multiple cycles in their careers

July 2nd, 2022

Hitting for multiple cycles in a career is one of the rarest feats in baseball. Only 29 Modern Era American or National League players have done it.

Five of them have joined the group in the past five seasons: Trea Turner, Brock Holt, Christian Yelich, Freddie Freeman and Nolan Arenado.

Yelich made big league history on May 11, 2022, when he notched his third career cycle against the Reds at Great American Ball Park. That made him only the fifth AL/NL player since 1900 to record that many cycles in a career. (Cincinnati Red Stockings first baseman John Reilly also recorded three cycles, though he authored all of them by 1890.)

While hitting one cycle might be rather arbitrary for a big leaguer, hitting even two in a player's career takes some skill. That group includes nine Hall of Famers, another near-lock for the Hall and many more players who were All-Stars. Below are those names, listed in reverse chronological order by the dates of their last big league cycle.

THREE-CYCLE CLUB


Dates of cycles: 8/29/2018, 9/17/2018, 5/11/2022

When Yelich steps to the plate against the Reds, he's a cycle machine. In 2018, posting an OPS near 1.500 against the Brewers' division rival, Yelich became the first player in the Live Ball Era to record multiple cycles against the same team in a single season. Fast forward four years later, and he joined the three-cycle club when he torched the Reds -- yes, them again! -- for his third career cycle on May 11, 2022 -- the fifth player in AL/NL history to complete the feat.


Dates of cycles: 4/25/2017, 7/23/2019, 6/30/2021

Turner's first two cycles both came against the Rockies. His first, in 2017, came on a frigid night at Coors Field, and Turner (just 23 at the time) became the second-youngest player to hit for the cycle and drive in seven or more runs in a game in Major League history. With his second against the Rockies, at Nationals Park, he became the third player with more than one against the same team.

Turner's record-tying cycle came on a hot afternoon in Washington D.C., and he got the job done in a hurry. He singled in the first, doubled in the third, homered in the fourth and then turned what looked to be a double in the right-field corner into the cycle-clinching triple with his trademark speed. Turner also stole two bases in the first inning, just in case anyone doubted that speed.

Adrián Beltré
Dates of cycles: 9/1/2008, 8/24/2012, 8/3/2015

All three of Beltre's cycles came at Globe Life Park, including his first as the Mariners' third baseman. The Hall of Fame candidate had allocated three of his five career triples in Arlington as part of his cycles when he completed historic No. 3.

Babe Herman
Dates of cycles: 5/18/1931, 7/24/1931, 9/30/1933
At a lean 6-foot-4 and 190 pounds, Herman cut quite a different figure from the other Babe. But, like Ruth, Herman lives on in the record books, with the two highest single-season averages (.393 in 1930, .381 in 1929) of any Dodgers hitter.

Bob Meusel
Dates of cycles: 5/7/1921, 7/3/1922, 7/26/1928
Meusel wasn't the first or even second most-famous hitter in the Yankees' famed "Murderers' Row," but the outfielder was still one of the better hitters of the 1920s. Meusel's first cycle came against a fairly famous pitcher: Walter "Big Train" Johnson.

TWO-CYCLE CLUB


Dates of cycles: 6/18/2017, 7/1/2022
A little more than five years after his cycle for the Rockies, Arenado authored the Cardinals' first cycle in 17 years during a game against the Phillies. He got the hard half of the cycle out of way early as he hit his first triple of the season in the first inning and followed with a homer in the third. He then recorded a double in the sixth inning and solidified his place on this list with a single in the eighth.


Dates of cycles: 6/15/2016, 8/18/2021
Freeman became the first Braves player to hit for more than one cycle when he went 4-for-5 against the Marlins in Miami on Aug. 18, 2021. The 2020 National League MVP doubled in the first inning, tripled in the fourth, singled in the fifth and clinched his second cycle with a homer in the sixth.

Brock Holt
Dates of cycles: 6/16/2015, 10/8/2018
Three years after the first cycle of his career, Holt made history by achieving the feat in the postseason. In his first start in the ALDS, Holt homered off Yankees backup catcher to complete the cycle in the ninth inning of Game 3.


Dates of cycles: 5/7/2008, 4/29/2017
Gomez started his second cycle off by losing his shoe while rounding second base, but it's safe to say the rest of his night went much smoother.

Michael Cuddyer
Dates of cycles: 5/22/2009, 8/17/2014
Cuddyer's second cycle, notched in his penultimate season at age 35, came at the spacious confines of Coors Field. His eighth-inning double made him just the third player to record a cycle for a team in each league.

Aaron Hill
Dates of cycles: 6/18/2012, 6/29/2012
Hill achieved a pair of milestones on June 29, 2012, collecting his 1,000th career hit on a first-inning double and then completing his second cycle in a span of two weeks later that night. Hill's teammate, , came a triple shy of his own cycle in the same game.

Brad Wilkerson
Dates of cycles: 6/24/2003, 4/6/2005
Not only was Wilkerson's second cycle memorable from a personal standpoint; it also helped the Nationals achieve their first victory after moving from Montreal to Washington, D.C. Not a single member of the Nationals were alive when the last Washington player to hit a cycle, Jim King, achieved the feat in May 1964.

John Olerud
Dates of cycles: 9/11/1997, 6/16/2001
Everything seemed to fall into place for the 2001 Mariners (at least in the regular season), including cycle No. 2 for their first baseman. Olerud doubled on a ball down the left-field line, tripled down the right-field line, singled up the middle and then finished the feat with a towering ninth-inning homer that went an estimated 464 feet at San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium.

George Brett
Dates of cycles: 5/28/1979, 7/25/1990
For his first cycle, Brett became the third player to finish his cycle with a walk-off homer. More than a decade later, a 37-year-old Brett was reportedly considering retirement after a rough start to his 1990 season, but he turned his season around in July, headlined by his second career cycle, en route to his third and final batting title.

Chris Speier
Dates of cycles: 7/20/1978, 7/9/1988
In his first cycle, Speier all but single-handedly muscled the Expos past the Braves, driving in six of Montreal's seven runs. During his second cycle, he brought home five runs during a 21-2 blowout win by the Giants. Add it all up, and with 11 RBIs, Speier had the second-highest total in two cycles -- behind only Joe DiMaggio's 13.

Frank White
Dates of cycles: 9/26/1979, 8/3/1982

Both of White's cycles involved complete-game pitching efforts -- in the first, his cycle complemented a complete-game shutout by Royals teammate Dennis Leonard, and in the second, White hit an RBI triple in the ninth off Tigers starter Pat Underwood for a rare walk-off cycle.

Bob Watson
Dates of cycles: 6/24/1977, 9/15/1979

The future Astros and Yankees general manager was the first player to hit for the cycle in both leagues, accomplishing the feat for Houston in the National League before repeating it with the Red Sox two seasons later following a midseason trade to Boston. His cycle for the Astros was the 10th natural cycle in MLB history.

Cesar Cedeno
Dates of cycles: 8/2/1972, 9/9/1976

Cedeno burst onto the scene as a 19-year-old rookie in 1970 by hitting .310 with seven homers and 17 steals. In the following two seasons, he led the Major Leagues in doubles and hit for his first cycle in '72 in the first of three straight 20-homer, 50-stolen base seasons, joining Joe Morgan and Rickey Henderson as the only players to have three such campaigns.

Jim Fregosi
Dates of cycles: 7/28/1964, 5/20/1968

Before he later became manager of the Angels at age 36, Fregosi hit for the first cycle in the history of the then-young franchise in '64 and did it again four years later with an added twist, becoming the seventh player to hit for the reverse natural cycle and the first since Jackie Robinson in 1948.

Ken Boyer
Dates of cycles: 9/14/1961, 9/16/1964

Boyer went above and beyond with both of his cycles. In 1961, he lifted a homer in the bottom of the 11th inning against the Cubs for the first walk-off homer to complete a cycle in Major League history. Three years later, during his 1964 MVP (and World Series champion) season, his second career cycle was the third natural cycle ever in the National League.

Wally Westlake
Dates of cycles: 7/30/1948, 6/14/1949

Before he finished his career as a journeyman utility outfielder, Westlake completed two cycles with the Pirates in his first three seasons, with the first coming off Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca, later of "Shot Heard 'Round The World" fame.

Joe DiMaggio
Dates of cycles: 7/9/1937, 5/20/1948

DiMaggio is one of two players since 1908 to have two five-hit cycles in his career, and in both cases the extra hit was a home run, as The Yankee Clipper went a combined 10-for-11 with four big flies and 13 RBIs. The cycles came 11 years apart, and in both 1937 and '48, DiMaggio led the AL in home runs and finished second in the MVP race.

Bobby Doerr
Dates of cycles: 5/17/1944, 5/13/1947
Doerr's cycles came almost exactly three years apart at Fenway Park, although the Hall of Fame second baseman also lost a season to military service in between. He batted a career-high .325 in 1944.

Joe Cronin
Dates of cycles: 9/2/1929, 8/2/1940

A Hall of Fame shortstop, Cronin authored his first cycle came against the Red Sox in Boston (with the Washington Senators), while his second came more than a decade later for the Sox in Detroit. Cronin hit just 14 combined home runs in the two seasons in which he cycled.

Arky Vaughan
Dates of cycles: 6/24/1933, 7/19/1939

Like DiMaggio, Vaughn racked up five hits in both of his cycles, which both came for the Pirates in New York -- the first at Ebbets Field and second at the second at the Polo Grounds. The Hall of Fame shortstop was a .318 career hitter.

Lou Gehrig
Dates of cycles: 6/25/1934, 8/1/1937
The Iron Horse was in his 12th Major League season before notching his first cycle, in a year when he also earned an MLB Triple Crown by leading all players in batting average (.363), home runs (49) and RBIs (166). Gehrig's second cycle came in his second-to-last full season, before his career ended prematurely.

Mickey Cochrane
Dates of cycles: 7/22/1932, 8/2/1933
The Hall of Fame catcher cycled in each of his last two season with the Philadelphia Athletics, before a trade to Detroit. The second came in a 16-3 blowout at Yankee Stadium, as Cochrane added two walks to his four hits, scored three times and drove in four.

Chuck Klein
Dates of cycles: 7/1/1931, 5/26/1933

Klein's first cycle came at the Baker Bowl, the hitter-friendly Phillies' home ballpark, where Klein batted .395/.448/.705 in 581 career games to boost his Hall of Fame credentials. But Klein, the 1932 NL MVP, got his second at St. Louis' Sportsman's Park, against Hall of Fame Cardinals hurler Dizzy Dean.

George Sisler
Dates of cycles: 8/8/1920, 8/13/1921

The St. Louis Browns star notched the first of his cycles the same year he led the AL with a .407 batting average and piled up 257 hits -- a number that remained the Major League record until broke it in 2004. He batted .371 the next year with a league-leading 18 triples, on his way to Cooperstown.