Is a 60-Home Run MLB Season in the Works?
Pictured: 2025 Topps Chrome Black #DOD-6 Aaron Judge Depth of Darkness
On the doorstep of June, torpedo bat or not, the ball has been flying out of ballparks across the country getting fans on their feet and collectors collecting. One of the elite regular season milestones for a MLB slugger to reach is 60 home runs. Are any of the game’s top power hitters keeping pace to match or surpass the benchmark set by Babe Ruth during the 1927 season in 2025?
The 60-dinger single season milestone has been crossed by six different players in MLB history. After Ruth’s historic output, fans would have to wait until 1961 to see Roger Maris hit 61. After Maris broke Ruth’s record, Mark McGwire (70) and Sammy Sosa (66) both eclipsed the mark in 1998.
In 1999, McGwire fell five homers shy of his own record, belting 65 reaching 147 runs batted in again.
At any other time in MLB history preceding the prolific homerun outburst, Sosa would have been the league leader in round trippers swatting 63 in 1999, 50 in 2000, and 64 in 2001. Going head-to-head with Big Mac, Sosa only led the National League twice in blasts (2000, 2002). The 2002 output was 49, falling short of being the league leader thanks to Alex Rodriguez’s 57 taters.
The same year McGwire retired from baseball, Barry Bonds had his biggest season at the plate swatting 73 out of the park. Making the feat more challenging, the opposition intentionally walked Bonds 35 times in 2001.
Falling short of big bobbers in the late ‘90’s and early 2000’s, in 2022 Aaron Judge broke Maris’ New York Yankees single season record belting 62. Can he reach 60 again?
In the American League, Judge (18) and Seattle’s Cal Raleigh (17) are out in front of Taylor Ward (15) and Logan O’Hoppe (14) in the home run race.
Over in the National League, LA’s Shohei Ohtani leads all with 19 dingers, ahead of the Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber (18), and Diamondbacks duo Eugenio Suarez (15) and Corbin Carroll (15).
Per a home run calculator, Ohtani will come to the edge of destiny projected to hit 59.13 dingers based on a 162-game schedule. The rate of taters is one in every 2.74 games. If his stolen base numbers from last season are reached again in 2025, Ohtani will be our first 59-59 guy.
Judge is on pace for another monster season, but with 109 games remaining he projects to hit 55 home runs, one dinger in every 2.94 games.
Pictured: 2025 Topps Chrome Black #DOD-7 Shohei Ohtani Depth of Darkness
