We’re nearing the unofficial halfway point of the 2022 MLB regular season. As we turn the page to a new month, you know what that means. It’s time for the June home run recap. Similar to what we did at the end of April and May, we’ll be reviewing the month that was in homers through a bunch of different lenses.
After discussing who hit the most and fewest home runs (for an individual and team), we’ll cover the longest and shortest home runs of the month. From there, we’ll look at the hardest-hit and softest-hit dingers before finishing with the homers that produced the highest and lowest launch angle.
As usual, we’ll be adding some context while providing videos to watch for each homer that finished in first place. A special thanks to MLBHRVideos on Twitter for making it easy to find all these dingers, as well as OnlyHomers.com for the excellent database they maintain.
June is clearly Kyle Schwarber‘s favorite month, folks. A year after going on an absolutely historic rampage and hitting 16 home runs in the span of what felt like 10 minutes, he came pretty close to that number again in 2022.
Through the end of May, Schwarber had slugged 11 home runs in 206 plate appearances. He followed that up with 12 homers in just 122 plate appearances this past June. He paired it with 27 RBI, 27 runs scored, six doubles, and a healthy .272/.385/.680 line. His monthly wRC+ is going on quite the upward trend, too. After posting a 98 mark in April, it went up slightly to 101 in May before shooting up to 187 in June.
Honorable Mentions:
There were 14 qualified hitters who didn’t slug a home run during the month of June. This group of players includes the following: Spencer Torkelson, Adam Frazier, Owen Miller, Cesar Hernandez, Myles Straw, Miguel Cabrera, Yonathan Daza, Whit Merrifield, Nick Senzel, Didi Gregorius, Ha-seong Kim, Steven Kwan, Yandy Diaz, and Jon Berti.
The only three with a wRC+ better than 100 for the month were Berti (114), Diaz (143), and Kwan (134).
Although Aaron Judge didn’t hit the most homers for the second month in a row, he once again led the Yankees. But as we can see above, Anthony Rizzo was hot on his tail. These two combined for about 36% of the team’s home runs in June. That’s pretty darn good if you ask me. New York had 12 different players go deep this past month. Giancarlo Stanton finished third with eight, and then there were five with four dingers each: D.J. LeMahieu, Gleyber Torres, Matt Carpenter, Kyle Higashioka, and Joey Gallo.
Honorable Mentions:
The Tigers came in with expectations of competing this year, and it just hasn’t worked out for them so far in 2022. This is the second time in three months A.J. Hinch‘s club has landed at the top of this specific list. Seven different players slugged at least one homer for Detroit in June, but only three of them hit more than one: Javier Baez (four), Eric Haase (three), and Robbie Grossman (two).
Baez’s bat has come alive this month after a rough May. Following a 135 wRC+ in April, Javy struggled to a 21 wRC+ in May. Thankfully for him (and the Tigers), it was back up at 132 in June. His OPS has gone on quite the roller coaster, as well: .826 down to .432 and then back up to .831.
Honorable Mentions:
When thinking about players who have had a sneaky-good start to the season, Rockies first baseman C.J. Cron is definitely on that list. He’s been among the league’s home run leaders since Opening Day, and he hasn’t taken his foot off the proverbial gas pedal just yet.
I feel like the solid season he produced in 2021 went under the radar, too. In 547 plate appearances, Cron slashed .281/.375/.530 with 28 home runs and 92 RBI. That all sussed out to a 127 wRC+ and a career-high 2.3 fWAR. That homer total was the second-highest of his MLB career. His best came in 2018 with the Tampa Bay Rays when he slugged 30 dingers.
With 17 homers and a 1.7 fWAR with still a couple of weeks before the All-Star break, the first baseman is on track to have himself a career year.
Honorable Mentions:
We’ve been blessed with an inside-the-park home run for the second straight month. First, it was Kevin Kiermaier in May, and now Jordan Luplow follows his lead. This won’t be the last time Luplow’s dinger comes up in conversation here, either.
The outfielder’s single-season career-high mark for homers is 15, which he did in 2019 for Cleveland. He’s already slugged 10 in 2022, so as long as he stays healthy, a new career-high appears likely. What sticks out about his production, though, is it’s still below average and he hasn’t driven in a lot of runs. Despite those homers, Luplow has accumulated just 20 RBI while posting a wRC+ of 91 thanks to a .158/.265/.439 triple slash.
Honorable Mentions:
I’m honestly surprised this Giancarlo Stanton laser didn’t completely bust through the stands at Yankee Stadium. It’s just a jaw-dropping show of his incredible strength. Judge has gotten plenty of (rightful) attention for the great start his walk year has gotten off to. However, Stanton is having an equally impressive first half.
Despite missing time due to injury and being limited to 259 plate appearances, Stanton has still slugged 19 homers with 52 RBI. That performance has led to a 142 wRC+ and 1.6 fWAR. The right-handed hitter really finished June with a bang, too.
In Stanton’s last seven games of the month, he slugged five homers. His line also looks quite quirky. The eight homers he hit are the most of any month this year so far. He posted a 142 wRC+ in June despite a .176 batting average and has his .527 slugging percentage to thank for that.
Honorable Mentions:
Harold Ramirez hit the fifth-shortest home run in May. He’s now contributed the softest-hit homer in the month of June. Is that an upgrade? I’m not so sure, but a home run is a home run — they all count the same, folks. Ramirez has hit just three homers so far in 2022, so he clearly has a way of making the most of the ones he hits.
Just by looking at his stats, though, it’s clear there’s more to his game than slugging balls over outfield walls. His June was quite impressive overall, as he slashed .369/.427/.477 with a 164 wRC+ in 75 plate appearances. That’s effectively erased a slow start, bringing his season-long wRC+ to 125 and his fWAR to 0.8. In parts of three seasons prior to 2022, Ramirez never finished with a wRC+ higher than 92. His cumulative fWAR was -0.3, so he’s on track to have the best year of his short MLB career.
Honorable Mentions:
Nick Maton has accumulated just seven big-league plate appearances so far this season. He’s collected three hits: a single, a triple, and the above homer, which generated the highest launch angle in June. And he hit that homer on June 1! He gave everyone else ample opportunity to overtake him, but he’s the winner of this highly coveted honor and was merely tied a week after it happened.
It’s obviously a small sample size, but it’s always fun to look at a player’s stat line and see a .500/.571/1.333 triple slash with a 392 wRC+ and 0.2 fWAR in just two games played.
Honorable Mentions:
See, what did I tell you? We’re back to Jordan Luplow. Something else that’s been noticeable about his recent performance includes his plate-discipline numbers. From 2017-20, Luplow had put together an 11.2% walk rate with a 22.1% strikeout rate. While his walk rate went up to 14.5% in 2021, his strikeout rate followed suit and settled in at 29.5%. So far this season, Luplow is walking at a 10.6% clip and is still striking out more often (29.5%) than he did earlier in his career.
Honorable Mentions:
We’ll be back at the end of next month detailing all of the above categories for the month of July. See you on the other side of the Home Run Derby.
The Philadelphia Phillies have been around as a franchise since 1883. So, they've had ample…
I love admiring a good old-fashioned moonshot just as much as the next baseball fan.…
There have been 22 instances of a San Diego Padres player surpassing the 100 RBI…
The Baltimore Orioles won the 2023 American League East division title thanks to a 101-61…
The 2024 season will only be Francisco Lindor's fourth with the New York Mets, but…
When it comes to consistency in the power department, few hitters can do it like…