Giancarlo Stanton homered 56 times in his first 250 career games, but when he began this season by going homerless in his first 19 games there were plenty of questions about what was wrong with the 22-year-old Marlins slugger.
It turns out, the answer was … nothing.
Stanton snapped his homerless streak on April 29 and in 31 games since then he’s hit .336 with 13 homers, 10 doubles, and a .759 slugging percentage. That includes .343 with 12 homers in 29 games this month, which is good for a 1.201 OPS that leads all MLB hitters for May.
For his young career Stanton has now 69 homers in 300 games, which is tied with Albert Pujols for the 11th-most in baseball history through 300 games. Here’s the leaderboard:
Ryan Howard 91 Bob Horner 84 Chuck Klein 81 Ryan Braun 79 Joe DiMaggio 79 Mark McGwire 77 Rudy York 77 Ralph Kiner 75 Eddie Mathews 72 Reggie Jackson 71 GIANCARLO STANTON 69 Albert Pujols 69
Incredible company, to say the least. And it’s also worth noting that Stanton’s first 300 games have come at a much younger age than many players on that list. For instance, Ryan Howard holds the all-time record with 91 homers through 300 games, but he debuted at age 24 and played his 300th game at age 27. Stanton will be 27 in … 2017. By then he might have 300 homers.