LAD Single Season HR Leaders

Phil Gurnee ♦ June 21, 2017 ♦ 3 Comments

[Updated 08/23/2023]

As of 8/23/2023 Mookie Betts has already hit 34 home runs as he tries to claim his 3rd Dodger single season home run title in four years.

Mookie Betts claimed his 2nd single season Dodger home run crown by slugging 35 dingers.  The slight built Mookie has shown more power the older he gets.  Will Smith moved up for 3rd in 2021 to 2nd in 2022 with 24 home runs. The newest Dodger star Freddie Freeman hammered 21 home runs, along with Max Muncy, and Trea Turner.  Cody Bellinger hit 19 giving him 41 home runs from 2020 – 2022 after hitting 47 home runs in 2019, and 111 home runs between 2017 – 2019.  Trayce Thompson hit 13 home runs after arriving to the Dodgers in mid-summer.  Justin Turner in his farewell season, hit only 13 home runs.

In 2021 Max Muncy claimed his 2nd Dodger season home run title with 36, a distant 2nd was Justin Turner with 27.  Will Smith got on the Dodger leaderboard with a robust 25. 2020 leaders Mookie Betts and AJ Pollock hit 23 and 21 respectively.  Cody Bellinger continued his descent by only hitting 10 home runs, a far far cry from his massive home runs seasons of 2017 – 2019.  A strange name on the leaderboard for Dodger fans was that of Albert Pujols who slugged 12 home runs in only 204 plate appearances.

Due to the shortened seasonin 2020, Mookie Betts and AJ Pollock tied for the team lead in home runs with only 16.  Seager was 2nd with 15. Bellinger who had led the team in home runs in 2017 and 2019 only hit 12, and Max Muncy who led the team with 35 in 2018 also only hit 12 in 2020.

Cody Bellinger led the 2019 team in home runs, and for most of the summer, it looked like Cody would break the single-season home run record set by Shawn Green in 2001 with 49. Cody hit only five home runs in Sept and finished with 47, and was unable to catch Shawn Green but also fell one home run shy of the 48 that Adrian Beltre hit in 2004.

Max Muncy led the Dodgers in home runs in 2018 with 35 and he might be the most improbable single-season LAD home run leader in their history when you think about where he came from to do it. In the spring of 2018 Max Muncy was simply insurance depth but when Justin Turner went down in April Max got the call and boy did he answer it.

Cody Bellinger broke onto the scene in a huge way leading the Dodgers in home runs in 2017 while breaking the NL home run record for a rookie by slugging 39 of them.  Bellinger joins Frank Howard,  Jim Lefebvre, and Mike Piazza as the only rookies to lead the team in home runs.

Below are some thoughts on LAD seasonal home run leaders and the complete list.

Several LAD have led their team in home runs four times. Frank Howard, Ron Cey, and Pedro Guerrero, but only Mike Piazza has done it five times.

Billy Grabarkewitz was the closest thing to a shortstop leading the team but many of 1970 appearances came as 3rd baseman.

Charlie Neal, Davey Lopes, and Jeff Kent are the only 2nd baseman to do the trick.

John Roseboro was joined by Yazmani Grandal last year as the only catchers to lead the team in home runs. Roseboro joins Muncy, Lou Johnson, and Len Gabrielson as strange bedfellows to lead the LAD in home runs in a single season.

The best bar bet in Los Angeles for forty years was Len Gabrielson leading the team in 1968 with only 10 home runs.

HOF on this list includes Frank Robinson, Mike Piazza, and future HOF Adrian Beltre.

Homegrown LAD leaders were Frank Howard, Jim Lefebvre, Billy Grabarkewitz, Al Ferrera, Willie Davis, Joe Ferguson, Ron Cey, Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Mike Marshall, Franklin Stubbs, Eric Karros, Mike Piazza, Raul Mondesi, Adrian Beltre, Matt Kemp, and Cody Bellinger.

You could include Pedro Guerrero who was only 17 when the Dodgers acquired him from the Indians.

Between 2008 and 2015 the only Dodgers to lead the team in home runs were Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp, and Adrian Gonzalez.

Between 1992 – 2000 the only Dodgers to lead the team in home runs were Mike Piazza, Eric Karros, Raul Mondesi, and Gary Sheffield

Between 1965 – 1970 only one Dodger hit at least 20 home runs and that was Jim Lefebvre in 1966.

No Dodger had hit at least 30 home runs since Matt Kemp in 2011 until Cody Bellinger hit 39 in 2017. Since that point, Bellinger 39, Muncy 35, and Bellinger 47 have all done the trick.