Vlad, Acuña making history as HR leaders
The home run leaderboard is historic right now. Entering Tuesday, 22-year-old Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and 23-year-old Ronald Acuña Jr. are tied for the Major League lead with 15 homers apiece.
If that type of youth atop the leaderboard feels uncommon, it’s because it is. In the last 30 years, they’re just the third duo of players age 23 or younger to both be top two in home runs at least 15 homers into a season, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
The last time this happened was in July 2015, when a 22-year-old Bryce Harper and a 23-year-old Mike Trout were both tied for second, and then tied for first, across a handful of days.
Before Trout and Harper, it was Juan Gonzalez and Ken Griffey Jr. in 1993, both at 23 years old. Entering the final weekend of the season, Gonzalez led the Majors in homers and Griffey was tied for second, with Barry Bonds. And of course, the two were both in the top two on numerous days throughout the season leading up to that.
And don’t look now, but 22-year-old Fernando Tatis Jr. is just two homers off the pace of Guerrero and Acuna, with 13 of his own.
Not to get ahead of ourselves, but if Guerrero were to lead the Majors, he’d be the third-youngest player to do so, and if he led the AL, but not MLB, he’d be fourth youngest to lead his league. Of course, Tatis would be on that list, too, while Acuña would just barely miss out. No matter which ages and names we’re dealing with, this home run race is going to be a lot of fun this summer.