Kansas City Royals: Kendrys Morales First Royal to 30 Homers Since 2000
The Kansas City Royals Kendrys Morales hit his 30th home run on Saturday, becoming the first Royals’ hitter to reach 30 homers since Jermaine Dye in 2000.
When Kendrys Morales hit his 30th home of the season off of Daniel Norris on Saturday, he joined an exclusive club. He became just the 11th Kansas City Royals player with at least 30 home runs in a season. The last player to hit 30 or more home runs for the Royals was Jermaine Dye in 2000, when he hit 33 big flies.
The Royals’ 30-homer season drought was the longest in baseball before Morales’ long ball snapped it. Now the title belongs to the San Francisco Giants, who have not had a 30-homer season since Barry Bonds hit 45 in 2004. Every other team in baseball has had at least one 30-homer season since 2011. This year, 20 of the 30 MLB teams have a 30-home run hitter.
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The Kansas City Royals have never been a big home run hitting team. They have the fewest home runs of the 24 MLB teams that have been playing since 1969, when the Royals began play as an expansion team. They even have fewer home runs than the two expansion teams that began play in 1977, the Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners, despite having played eight more seasons.
When it comes to total number of 30-homer seasons, the Royals are tied with the Tampa Bay Rays for the fewest such seasons since 1969. Both teams have 11. Of course, the Royals have played 48 seasons during that time while the Rays have played just 19. The other five franchises that have come into existence since 1977—the Blue Jays, Mariners, Rockies, Marlins, and Diamondbacks—all have more 30-homer seasons than the Royals. The power-hitting Baltimore Orioles have twelve 30-homer seasons since 2011, one more than the Royals have had since 1969. This franchise just does not like giving away free baseballs to fans in the bleacher seats.
Even when a Royals player hits 30 home runs in a season, he doesn’t get much beyond that mark. The team’s all-time single-season home run leader is the great Steve “Bye Bye” Balboni, who hit 36 dingers in 1985. Balboni was the Mark Trumbo of 1985. He hit 36 home runs, good for fourth in the league, but was worth just 1.2 Wins Above Replacement (WAR, per Fangraphs). Balboni’s value was limited because he had a .307 OBP, was terrible on defense, and a lumbering tub of goo on the basepaths. Trumbo has hit a league-leading 44 home runs this year, but his .309 OBP and deficiencies in the field and on the basepaths have made him a 1.5 WAR player.
The Royals are the only franchise in baseball without a 40-homer season. In contrast, the Washington Senators/Texas Rangers franchise has fifteen 40-homer seasons since 1969, tops in baseball. Juan Gonzalez had five 40-homer seasons for the Rangers in a seven-year stretch from 1992 to 1998. Alex Rodriguez hit 40 or more home runs in all three years he played in Texas (2001 to 2003). Rafael Palmeiro also had three 40-homer seasons for the Rangers. These three Rangers combined for eleven 40-homer seasons in the twelve years from 1992 to 2003. It was probably that summer heat in Arlington that helped balls fly out of the ballpark.
Taking it to another level, there are eighteen teams that have had at least one 50-homer season since 1969, with the Cubs leading the way with four such seasons. Sammy Sosa has all four and he did it in four straight seasons from 1998 to 2001. Like the heat in Texas, maybe there was something going on at Wrigley. Perhaps the wind was blowing out on a regular basis?
Next: Playoff wrapup: Yankees, Astros hopes fading
It’s actually shocking that Kendrys Morales reached 30 home runs this year. He was terrible for the first two months of the season. Through June 5, Morales was hitting .191/.257/.320, with six home runs in 214 plate appearances. He’s hit 24 home runs in 378 plate appearances since then. It’s been a terrific turnaround for Morales. If he can stay hot enough to hit another four home runs over the next eight day, he could move into the top five on the single-season home run list for the Kansas City Royals.