7 MLB Players With 40 Home Runs & 40 Steals in a Season

As you can tell, we’re big fans of home runs here at MLB Daily Dingers. But we do understand that there’s more to life than hitting a home run (sometimes).

You know, like when you combine all those dingers with a bunch of stolen bases. That power-speed combination has been coveted for as long as we can remember. Which players are in the MLB 40-40 club, you ask?

There are only seven members, and they’re all highlighted below.

Related: A Complete Guide to Single-Season (& Single-Game) HR Performances

MLB 40-40 Club: Every Time It’s Ever Happened

Jose Canseco, Oakland Athletics

1988: 42 home runs, 40 stolen bases

The 1988 season was the certified breakout season for Oakland Athletics outfielder Jose Canseco. He enjoyed consecutive seasons of 30-plus homers for the A’s in ’86 and ’87, but his overall performance wasn’t at the same level when looking at what he did in ’88.

It also helped propel him to being within the top five of Oakland’s all-time home run leaders.

Canseco posted a .775 OPS, 115 wRC+, and 2.9 fWAR in 1986, and followed that with a .780 OPS, 106 wRC+, and 1.9 fWAR the following year before improving those numbers to .959, 169, and 7.6 for a truly memorable performance.

As if that wasn’t enough, he’ll also always have the honor of being the first player in MLB history to register at least 40 homers and 40 stolen bases in a season.

Just looking at some of these splits is crazy, too. Through Canseco’s first 345 career games, he slugged 69 homers and stole 31 bases. Then, it took him just another 159 games played to slug 40 dingers and swipe 40 bags. He was also mostly consistent on both ends – Canseco stole fewer than six bases in just one month (four in June) and hit fewer than eight homers in a month twice (4 each in May and August).

Not shockingly, Canseco’s performance earned him an All-Star selection and a Silver Slugger Award. Two seasons after winning the AL Rookie of the Year honors, he also took home the AL MVP Award. Throughout the rest of his 17-year career, Canseco only stole more than 20 bases in a single season two other times (26 in 1991 and 29 in 1998).

Barry Bonds, San Francisco Giants

1996: 42 home runs, 40 stolen bases 

Not only has Barry Bonds hit the most home runs all time, but he’s the current single-season home run king for MLB, as well as the Giants. But unlike Canseco, Bonds had spent most of his early career showing off his unique ability to hit a bunch of homers and collect tons of steals with the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Giants.

After all, there’s a reason why he’s the only member of the 500-homer, 500-steal club.

In the 10 years before Bonds’ 1996 campaign, he registered nine years of at least 29 steals, which included a 52-steal performance in 1990 and 43 more in 1991. He never led the league in this category, which goes to show how tough it was to be an above-average base stealer while Rickey Henderson was also on the basepaths.

The homer and steal numbers were hardly the only impressive parts of Bonds’ 1996 season. The 9.2 fWAR he produced was the fourth time he got himself over the 9.0 plateau. He also slashed .308/.461/.615 through 675 plate appearances, which the outfielder paired with a ridiculous 22.4% walk rate and 11.3% strikeout rate. That’s what Bonds typically did, though. By the end of his career, he owned a career walk rate of 20.3% and a career strikeout rate of 12.2%.

Bonds won a Gold Glove and a Silver Slugger for his incredible 1996 season, but he somehow only finished fifth in NL MVP Award voting.

The four who finished in front of him included Ken Caminiti, Mike Piazza, Ellis Burks, and Chipper Jones. It’s OK, though – he had already won three MVPs at that point and would win four more before hanging up his spikes for good.

Alex Rodriguez, Seattle Mariners

1998: 42 home runs, 46 stolen bases 

Alex Rodriguez was the third member of the 40-40 club. But he distinguished himself as the first infielder to accomplish the feat (which is still the case today).

While he was a rather consistent base stealer throughout the first 10-15 years of his big-league career, the 1998 season was the only time he registered 30-plus thefts (he did have five years of 20-plus steals, though).

On the power side of the equation, this was the start of an incredible surge from the infielder for the foreseeable future. It was his first campaign of 40-plus homers, a benchmark he’d reach for six straight years between 1998 and 2003 with the Mariners and Texas Rangers.

It’s interesting to see in this instance that A-Rod did most of his damage on the road instead of at home in front of Mariners fans at the Kingdome. He accumulated nearly the exact number of plate appearances at home (372) as he did on the road (376). However, Rodriguez slashed .286/.332/.484 with 18 homers, 54 RBI, 52 runs scored, and 21 stolen bases at home. Those numbers improved dramatically to .335/.387/.636 with 24 homers, 70 RBI, 71 runs scored, and 25 stolen bases as a visiting player.

READ MORE: Alex Rodriguez’s Special Distinction in MLB’s Exclusive 40-40 Club

Alfonso Soriano, Washington Nationals

2006: 46 home runs, 41 stolen bases 

Alfonso Soriano consistently flirted with joining the 40-40 club between 2002 and 2005 before finally having success in 2006 with the Nationals.

He made the wait worthwhile by putting up the most homers in a 40-40 season before some dude named Shohei Ohtani came around. That number is also Washington’s single-season team record – Soriano made his lone season in the nation’s capital a memorable one, that’s for sure. Nine of those homers came leading off the game for the Nats, as well.

Speaking of these close calls, the closest came in 2002 with the New York Yankees, when he finished third in AL MVP Award voting. He led the league in runs scored (128), hits (209), and stolen bases (41) while slugging 39 dingers. The following year, in 2003, was also a close call, as Soriano slugged 38 homers while swiping 35 bases. It wasn’t as close in 2005, but he still logged another 30-30 season with 36 homers and 30 steals in Texas with the Rangers.

I guess the fourth try was the charm in this instance, but my goodness, did he tear things up along the way while he was trying to get there. When looking at his 2006 season a little closer, he did the heavy lifting in each of these categories at opposite times. Before the All-Star break (403 plate appearances and 89 games played), he slugged 27 homers with 20 steals. After the All-Star break (325 plate appearances and 70 games played), he hit 19 homers and stole 21 bases.

Ronald Acuña Jr., Atlanta Braves

2023: 41 Home Runs, 73 stolen bases 

Simply becoming the first 40-40 player in nearly two decades was too mainstream for Ronald Acuña Jr. That’s why he joined this club while also creating the 40/60 and 40/70 clubs. Even with MLB’s new rules to create more action on the bases in 2023, this is just an incredible accomplishment.

In addition to those two numbers, Acuña slashed .337/.416/.596 with 106 RBI. He led the league with 217 hits, 149 runs scored, 168 OPS+, and 383 total bases. The outfielder’s production was consistent when comparing his home (20 homers, 36 steals) and road (21 homers, 37 steals) splits, too.

Acuña didn’t finish any month of the season with fewer than 11 stolen bases or four homers. He posted a 1.111 OPS twice (June and September/October). His final month of the regular season was his most powerful, slugging 11 dingers to get over the 40-homer plateau while swiping his last 11 bags.

Get an in-depth look at all of his dingers by checking out our Ronald Acuña Jr. Home Run Tracker.

Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Dodgers

2024: 54 Home Runs, 59 stolen bases 

Shohei Ohtani almost won the Triple Crown with a .310 batting average. Despite missing out on that honor, it seems like the left-handed slugger did OK otherwise. He led the National League in on-base percentage (.390), slugging percentage (.646), homers (54), RBI (130), runs scored (134), and total bases (411).

He’s the first hitter to surpass 400 total bases in a season since 2001. Ohtani also became the fastest player to join the 40-40 club, doing it in 126 games. But like he usually does, Ohtani took things one step further. He’s also the founding member of the 50/50 club and reached another level down the stretch.

Ohtani had one month of double-digit homers (12 in June) and one month of double-digit steals (12 in July) through the end of July. He reached double digits in both categories in August (12 homers and 15 steals) and September (10 homers and 16 steals). 

Pete Crow-Armstrong, Chicago Cubs

2026: 45 Home Runs, 41 stolen bases 

Outside of the early postseason exit, it was a truly special year for Pete Crow-Armstrong in 2026 with the Chicago Cubs. And what I love most about it all is that just about nobody expected this from him after the first two months of the regular season. 

Through the end of May, PCA had compiled 250 plate appearances across 60 games for Chicago. That opportunity led to a .237/.325/.388 line with seven home runs, 26 RBI, 33 runs scored, and 12 steals. But from June 1 through the end of the season, those numbers looked much different. 

Over Crow-Armstrong’s final 476 plate appearances (102 games), he slashed .302/.397/.668 with 38 home runs, 81 RBI, 86 runs scored, and 29 steals. So, yeah — he nearly went 30-30 in just four months. 

His final two months really helped him get over the threshold to join the 40-40 club. PCA slugged 21 homers with 15 steals between August and September for the Cubs. 

READ MORE: 12 Incredible Stats From Pete Crow-Armstrong’s Impressive 2026 Season

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