Carlos Beltran (411 home runs and counting)
While Teixeira joined exclusive company on Sunday, he was not the first player to do so in 2016. He wasn’t even the first member of the Yankees to accomplish the feat, as his teammate Carlos Beltran hit his 400th home run on May 15th against the Chicago White Sox.
“I never thought I was going to be able to get to the point that I am now,” Beltran said that day. “I knew I had a passion for the game of baseball, I’ve always been a hard worker. But when you accomplish something like this, it really means a lot for me, my family in Puerto Rico and to my country.”
Beltran is in his 19th big league season, and at the age of 39 is experiencing a renaissance of sorts. Through 75 games this year, he is slashing .299/.340/.576 with 19 home runs and 53 RBIs, by far and away his best first half in quite some time. The 19 longballs have already equaled his total from 2015 and surpassed the 15 he hit in 2014.
The numbers from each side of the plate that Beltran has put up are eerily similar to those of Teixeira, with 290 coming left-handed and 121 coming right-handed. Longevity clearly helped him to reach the 400 home run mark, as his 162-game average is just 28.
Beltran has spent time with six different ballclubs in his career, but New York is where he has done the most damage. 202 of his homers have come as either a member of the Mets (149) or Yankees (53). He also notably had 123 with the Kansas City Royals, where he started his career.
With Teixeira and Beltran both reaching the 400 home run mark, the Yankees are the only team in baseball history to boast three players at the same time who have hit that many, with Alex Rodriguez and his 695 being the third.
Next: Chipping away in ATL.