An MLB ranking of the past week’s 25 longest home runs, topped by Ian Desmond’s 486-footer in Colorado, and by rockets from Eloy Jimenez and Jorge Soler.
This past week in MLB was a superb time to be Eloy Jimenez or Jorge Soler.
Jimenez, the Chicago White Sox outfielder, just concluded the best week of his rookie season. He went 9-for 22 with two doubles, four home runs, and nine RBIs.
Soler, the Kansas City Royals outfielder, did almost as well. He batted 8-for-20 with two doubles, two home runs, and six RBIs.
And the home runs those two guys hit weren’t run-of-the-mill taters. Their average carry was 453 feet, and four of them were among the 15 longest struck by anybody all week.
The average exit velocity of Jimenez’s nine hits this past week approached 105 mph. That’s not the high; that’s the average. And it includes a 68 mph bleeder that found a hole against the Yankees Saturday. The other eight? They left his bat at an average velocity of 110 mph.
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Only the 486-foot bomb Ian Desmond delivered against Chicago Cubs left-hander Mike Montgomery Monday night prevented Jimenez from claiming the top spot on this week’s list of the game’s longest home runs. But Jimenez can take solace in the fact that Desmond produced his moon shot in the thin air of Coors Field. Jimenez hit his in sea level environs, Kansas City and Chicago.
For the record, Desmond’s home run, which reached the Coors Field concourse in deep left-center, is the longest hit in the majors so far this season. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euhUM6hwq0E
Soler didn’t hit as many bombs as Jimenez, but the two he did author were the hardest-hit homers of the week. On Sunday he smacked a 445-footer off Chicago’s Reynaldo Lopez that left his bat at 113.3 mph. The only harder-hit ball was Soler’s 462-footer Saturday off Jake Odorizzi, the week’s third longest. That one touched 114.4 mph.
It’s a good thing Ryan Carpenter didn’t run into either of those guys. The Tigers pitcher made two starts this week. On Sunday, the Minnesota Twins shelled him for 10 hits and eight runs in 3.2 innings in an eventual 12-2 defeat. One of those hits was Miguel Sano’s 436 foot home run. Carpenter returned to the mound on Friday and allowed eight runs on eight hits to Cleveland, among them Leonys Martin’s 435-foot homer.
The guys who went deep this week went extremely deep. The average carry of the 25 taters on this list was 450.76 feet, and five exceeded 460.
The list of longest blasts is based on the estimated distance of every home run hit during the week. In the event of ties, exit velocity is used as the tie-breaker.
Here’s the full list of the week’s 25 longest batted balls in MLB
Rank Date Hitter, team Pitcher, team Exit Vel. Distance
1 6-10 Ian Desmond, Col Mike Montgomery, Chc 110.8 486
2 6-9 Eloy Jimenez, CWS Glenn Sparkman, KC 111.5 471
3 6-15 Jorge Soler, KC Jake Odorizzi, TB 114.4 462
4 6-11 Eloy Jimenez, CWS Patrick Corbin, Was 110.8 462
5 6-12 Javier Baez, Chc Philip Diehl, Col 111.9 460
6 6-15 Alex Verdugo, LA Yu Darvish, Chc 109.0 459
7 6-14 Hunter Renfroe, SD Mike Dunn, Col 107.5 459
8 6-15 Pete Alonso, NYM Michael Wacha, Stl 111.8 458
9 6-11 Tommy Pham, TB Mike Fiers, Oak 108.0 458
10 6-9 Jung Ho Kang, Pit Chase Anderson, Mil 111.4 457
11 6-9 Brandon Lowe, TB Eduardo Rodriguez, Bos109.6 455
12 6-9 Daniel Vogelbach, Oak Cody Allen, LAA 109.0 448
13 6-11 Brandon Dixon, Det Jakob Junis, KC 108.8 447
14 6-14 Michael Chavis, Bos Dan Straily, Bal 108.0 447
15 6-90 Jorge Soler, KC Reynaldo Lopez, CWS 113.3 445
16 6-10 Ji Man Choi, TB Joakim Soria, Oak 109.7 445
17 6-13 Rafael Devers, Bos Adrian Sampson, Tex 109.5 443
18 6-14 Christian Vazquez, Bos Luis Ortiz, Bal 106.5 443
19 6-11 Travis Shaw, Mil Brad Peacock, Hou 106.2 440
20 6-15 Yordan Alvarez, Hou Clayton Richard, Tor 109.6 439
21 6-14 Josh Donaldson, Atl Nick Pivetta, Phi 109.3 439
22 6-11 Ryan O’Hearn, KC Blaine Hardy, Det 107.4 439
23 6-10 Ronald Acuna Jr., Atl Alex McRae, Pit 108.9 436
24 6-9 Miguel Sano, Min Ryan Carpenter, Det 108.3 436
25 6-14 Leonys Martin, Cle Ryan Carpenter, Det 108.3 435