2010 Toronto Blue Jays, 257 HR
~Finished 4th in AL East (85-77)
~5.6 percent of MLB total HR hit that season
~103 more than the average team
~9 players with double-digit dongs
The Blue Jays were smack dab in the middle of five straight seasons finishing fourth in the AL East when they hit the fourth-most home runs in MLB history. This team had nine players with 14 or more home runs, including seven with 20 or more.
The team leader was Jose Bautista, with 54. This, of course, was Bautista’s breakout season. In six previous seasons of mostly part-time play, Bautisa had hit 59 homer runs in 2038 plate appearances, which is an average of one home run every 34.5 times up. In 2010, Bautista hit one home run every 12.6 times up. It wasn’t a fluke, though. Bautista would go on to hit 43 home runs the next season and would have seasons of 35 and 40 later in his career.
Beyond Bautista, the top home run hitters on the Jays were Vernon Wells, with 31, Aaron Hill, with 26, and Adam Lind, with 23. This was Wells’ last good season. He was worth 3.6 WAR in 2010 and would be worth just 0.2 WAR combined over the next three seasons. Hill hit 26 homers, but they came with a .271 OBP. Despite the dingers, he was a well below average hitter (77 wRC+). It was a similar story for Lind (.287 OBP, 89 wRC+).
Edwin Encarnacion had come to the Blue Jays in a trade with the Reds during the 2009 season. He hit 21 wallops in his first full season in Toronto. Two years later he would begin a stretch of seven straight 30-plus homer seasons that continues with the 2018 season.
The final 20-homer guy was Lyle Overbay, who was in his last season with more than 500 plate appearances. Alex Gonzalez hit 17 home runs in 85 games with the Blue Jays before being traded to the Braves in July. This was the shortstop named Alex Gonzalez who played from 1998 to 2014 not the shortstop named Alex Gonzalez who played from 1994 to 2006. The last double-digit home run guy was Travis Snider, who hit 14.