With his 58th home run of the 2022 Major League Baseball season Sunday, New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge became the second player to hit 58 home runs in a single-season since Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard slugged 58 in 2006.
Judge's teammate Giancarlo Stanton is the only other player to hit 58 home runs or more since 2006. Stanton bashed 59 as a member of the Miami Marlins in 2017, earning him National League MVP honors.
Ryan Howard would win the National League MVP and a Silver Slugger honors in 2006 for his league-leading 58 home runs and 149 RBI, and his phenomenal .313/.425/1.084 slash line. His success also earned him a spot in a series of Subway commercials.
Howard would go on to hit 382 home runs, place top-5 in NL MVP voting four different times, and win a World Series in 2008, over his remarkable 13-year career.
Despite putting together an exceptional career, Howard would fall short of reaching the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2022, receiving just 8% of the vote from the Baseball Writers' Association of America and falling off the ballot. Perhaps he will receive greater consideration from the Era Committees in the future.
The most home runs hit by a player in a single-season since Howard's 58 in 2006, was 59, a mark Miami Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton reached in 2017.
Since Howard hit 58 and David Ortiz hit 54 in 2006, just seven players have hit 50 home runs or more in a season: Stanton (59 in 2017), José Bautista (54 in 2010), Alex Rodriguez (54 in 2007), Pete Alonso (53 in 2019), Chris Davis (53 in 2013), Prince Fielder (50 in 2007) and Judge, twice.
This is Judge's second season hitting 50 or more home runs. The current American League MVP frontrunner hit 52 in 2017, the same year that he won the American League Rookie of the Year award and finished second in AL MVP voting behind José Altuve.
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