Top 7 Single-Season Tampa Bay Rays Home Run Leaders

Last Updated on October 3, 2026 by Matt Musico

Entering 2025, the Tampa Bay Rays had only seen one player slug at least 40 home runs since their first season in 1998 (Carlos Peña in 2007). But of course, there’s another dude who has recently been peppering that benchmark with relative ease and swag. 

Let’s discuss the seven most powerful seasons in Rays history. 

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

Rays Home Run Leaders: Top 7

Carlos Peña: 46 Home Runs in 2007

It was a sharp rise in production for Peña leading up to setting the Rays’ single-season home run record. In the two seasons before his 2007 performance, he appeared in just 97 games (332 plate appearances) for the Tigers and Red Sox. In that time, he posted a .799 OPS with 19 home runs and 47 RBI. This included just one homer in 18 games for Boston in 2006.

Before this 46-homer performance, Peña’s single-season career-high mark came in 2004 when he hit 27 dingers. The first baseman’s run production was practically identical at home (23 homers, 61 RBI) as it was on the road (23 homers, 60 RBI) in ’07. While he posted a slugging percentage above .600 in both the first and second halves, he finished with a flourish to become the Rays’ first 40-homer hitter.

His monthly progression in both homers and RBI is interesting, too. From April to September, here’s what his homer production looked like: 4, 6, 7, 8, 8, 13. And here’s what his RBI production looked like: 13, 15, 17, 22, 25, 29.

So, it was a slow build to September, which was easily his best month of the year (1.279 OPS in 122 plate appearances).

Junior Caminero, 45 Home Runs in 2025 

Junior Caminero was ohhh so close to passing Peña to become the club’s new single-season home run king. But even with that small disappointment, the leap he took in his first full MLB campaign was eye-opening. 

His first 50 MLB games (213 plate appearances) resulted in a .246/.296/.412 line with seven homers, 10 doubles, 25 RBI, and 19 runs scored. His 2025 numbers looked quite different. He hit .264/.311/.535 with 45 homers, 28 doubles, 110 RBI, and 93 RBI in 653 plate appearances. 

Caminero’s production was, unsurprisingly, key to the Rays’ success. In Tampa Bay wins, he owned a 1.080 OPS with 30 homers, while he slugged 15 taters with a .621 OPS in losses. 

He really turned on the afterburners for the final two months of the season. Through the end of July, his monthly OPS never finished higher than .858. He also didn’t produce a month with double-digit homers and had just one month of 20-plus RBI (24 in May).

But between August and September, Caminero’s OPS never dipped below .944. He also hit 12 homers with 23 RBI in August. 

Junior Caminero: 42 Home Runs in 2026

What’s the best way to follow up your first career 40-homer season? Do it for a second consecutive year, of course! 

At the young age of 23, Caminero has racked up the most 40-homer seasons in Rays history. Although he still fell short of Peña’s single-season record, the 87 taters he slugged between 2025 and 2026 tie him with Eddie Mathews for the most during a player’s age-21 and 22 seasons. 

In addition to surpassing the 40-homer plateau for the second time, Caminero also racked up 101 RBI and 100 runs scored while being a crucial piece to the Rays’ puzzle as they won the American League East division. 

He never slugged fewer than five homers in one month and finished with at least seven in a month four times. However, June was most impressive for him on all fronts. Across 112 trips to the plate, he slashed .327/.402/.673 with 10 homers and 24 RBI. 

Caminero also slugged at least one home run in six straight games from June 25 to July 1, becoming the youngest player to do that since at least 1900. 

Brandon Lowe: 39 Home Runs in 2021

Until Brandon Lowe did it in 2021, nobody had gotten on the doorstep of 40 dingers in a Rays uniform since Peña in 2009.

After a 143-plate-appearance sample in 2018, Lowe was a consistent power source for Tampa Bay during his tenure with the club. Over the 1,186 plate appearances that followed his 2018 cup of coffee, he mashed 70 homers with a .526 slugging percentage.

Once the 2021 All-Star break rolled around, Lowe was hitting a good number of homers (21, to be exact), but still owned just a .782 OPS off the strength of a .208/.316/.465 line in 335 plate appearances.

In his final 280 trips to the plate, he leveled up his performance. His triple slash climbed to .292/.368/.591 ( good for a .959 OPS) to go along with 18 homers, 51 RBI, and 20 doubles. It’s currently the most powerful campaign ever by a Rays second baseman.

Carlos Peña: 39 Home Runs in 2009

Peña enjoyed three seasons of 30 homers and 100 RBI during his 14-year MLB career. They all came in consecutive years with the Rays. These efforts helped him rise to second all-time on the Rays’ career home run leaderboard.

After hitting 31 dingers with 102 RBI in 2008, he followed that up with a league-leading 39 dingers and another 100 RBI. He was also selected to his first and only All-Star Game.

Although the plate appearances were lopsided toward the first half, Peña did most of his work in the homer department before the All-Star break, with 24 of his 39 dingers coming at that time. Like 2007, his power production at home (19 homers, 51 RBI) was oddly similar to what he did on the road (20 homers, 49 RBI).

While he was a monster during Rays victories, he also came close to disappearing in losses. When Tampa Bay won, Peña slashed .265/.390/.681 with 29 homers and 77 RBI. In losses, those numbers dropped to .180/.314/.360, 10, and 23, respectively.

Logan Morrison: 38 Home Runs in 2017

Logan Morrison had two seasons of 20-plus home runs during his career. Before hitting 38 in 2017 for the Rays, his career-high mark was 23 in 2011 for the Marlins.

In the two years leading up to this power surge, LoMo hit 31 homers in 909 plate appearances. In parts of three seasons following that performance, he hit 18 in 425 plate appearances. So, this acted as a last hurrah in his age-29 campaign.

It’s interesting to see how he was a completely different hitter at home compared to the road. At the Trop, Morrison had just a .709 OPS with 11 homers and 35 RBI. Those numbers jumped up to 1.020, 27, and 50 as a visiting player.

He also did the majority of his work before the All-Star break. His OPS dropped more than 100 points between the first and second halves. Meanwhile, 24 of his 38 dingers came during the initial stretch of the season.

Evan Longoria: 36 Home Runs in 2016

Evan Longoria’s 36-homer output in 2016 was the last time he’d get a shot at reaching those specific heights. He enjoyed three seasons of 30-plus homers in his first six seasons, but this occurrence was the only time he did it between 2014 and the end of his career in 2023.

Longoria enjoyed attacking the first pitch in 2016. He slugged eight of his homers and posted a 1.094 OPS in that situation. Another 12 of his home runs came on either a 0-1 or 1-1 count (six dingers each), posting an OPS of at least 1.200 in both scenarios. His OPS+ progressively got higher throughout an inning, as it went from 114 with no outs to 124 with one out and 134 with two outs.

He may have frontloaded his home run production with the Rays, but this performance certainly sticks out, especially because he’s currently Tampa Bay’s all-time home run leader.

Check out which performances have fallen short of joining this group by heading over to FanGraphs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who has the most home runs in a season for the Rays?

Carlos Peña is the Rays’ single-season home run king. He slugged 46 homers in 2007.

Who hit the first home run in Rays history?

Hall of Famer Wade Boggs hit the first home run in Rays history on March 31, 1998.

How many 40 home run seasons have there been in Rays history?

Carlos Peña’s record-setting 46 homers in 2007 was the 40-homer campaign in Tampa Bay history. Junior Caminero has done it in 2025 and 2026.

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