Last Updated on January 8, 2024 by Matt Musico
If you’ve ever wondered who the single-season Marlins HR leaders are at each position, then you’re in the right place. Outside of pitcher and designated hitter, each player had to man their position for at least 100 games (or 75% of games played) for the season in question.
After you’re done checking this out, head over to the Marlins’ all-time and single-season home run leaderboards.
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Single-Season Marlins HR Leaders
Catcher: J.T. Realmuto, 21 Home Runs in 2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hpjrv1gvcWE
J.T. Realmuto spent five seasons with the Marlins, and each one was better than the one before it. Between 2014 and 2018, Realmuto’s home runs, RBI, and OPS continually increased. Since we care the most about homers, his progression looked like this: 0, 10, 11, 17, and 21. Obviously, that 2018 performance was the culmination of his upward trajectory in South Beach.
His monthly home run production was very steady throughout the campaign. He hit four homers in a month four different times. The other two months? He hit two in May and three in August. Most of his offensive production came before the All-Star break. Realmuto slashed .310/.365/.537 with 12 homers, 20 doubles, and 45 RBI in his first 303 plate appearances. Over his final 228 trips to the plate, those numbers decreased to .232/.307/.414, nine, 10, and 29, respectively.
It didn’t matter how many outs there were in an inning, either. Realmuto produced a .811 OPS with nobody out, a .855 mark with one out, and a .809 mark with two outs. He slugged between five and eight home runs in each situation, too.
Pitcher: Three-Way Tie at 3 Home Runs
We’ve got a good old-fashioned three-way tie, folks. It’s between Alex Fernandez (1999), Dontrelle Willis (2006), and Josh Johnson (2009).
Fernandez spent the majority of his 10-year MLB career in the American League. So, he only racked up 64 career plate appearances as a hitter. All three of his career homers came in 1999. On the other hand, Willis was a pretty good hitter, slashing .244/.287/.378 in 447 plate appearances. He collected nine homers and 39 RBI during that time. Eight of those nine dingers came between 2003 and 2007 (with at least one homer per year). Willis went deep one final time in 2011 with the Cincinnati Reds.
Johnson’s 2009 campaign included an All-Star selection for his work on the mound. He went 15-5 with a 3.23 ERA in 209 innings. But at the plate, those three homers he hit accounted for the majority of his production. Johnson collected 12 total hits, with four going for extra bases (those three homers and one double).
First Base: Carlos Delgado, 33 Home Runs in 2005
Carlos Delgado has an interesting blip on his Baseball Reference page. He spent 12 years with the Toronto Blue Jays to start his career. He finished his time as a big leaguer with the New York Mets for four years. In between those tenures, though, was one year with the then-Florida Marlins. It was a typical year for the first baseman. In addition to those 33 homers, he collected 115 RBI while hitting .301/.399/.582, placing sixth in NL MVP voting.
Delgado started slow from the standpoint of power, but things picked up quickly. Through 22 games in April, the left-handed slugger had just two homers and 10 RBI. He never posted a month with fewer than five homers or 18 RBI the rest of the season.
Delgado posted an OPS greater than 1.000 in four different innings for the Marlins, but none were better than what he did in the fourth. For whatever reason, he had the most fun of all during that frame. The first baseman slashed .358/.397/.791 with eight homers and 16 RBI during that part of the game.
Second Base: Dan Uggla, 33 Home Runs in 2010
When it comes to Marlins home run royalty in the middle infield, two dudes easily stand tall above the rest. At second base, it’s Dan Uggla. He owns the top five home run-hitting seasons for second basemen in franchise history. And in case you were wondering, he only spent five years with the Marlins, so he made them count.
Uggla hit at least 27 dingers in each campaign, with each of his last four getting past the 30-homer plateau. Like Realmuto, he saved his best work for his last season with the club.
The majority of Uggla’s time was spent either as the cleanup hitter or hitting out of the fifth spot. It’s clear he liked being in the four-hole, though. The evidence is in his OPS — it was .944 in that spot of the lineup and .799 in the five-hole. He also slugged at least five homers against four different teams. This included the Braves (five), Mets (six), Phillies (five), and San Francisco Giants (five).
Shortstop: Hanley Ramirez, 33 Home Runs in 2008
And here’s the other half of the Marlins’ middle-infield home run royalty. Hanley Ramirez has five of the top seven spots when looking at the franchise’s shortstop homer leaderboard.
Ramirez surpassed the 30-homer plateau twice during his 15-year MLB career. Once in 2008 with the Marlins and again in 2016 with the Boston Red Sox. The 33 dingers he slugged for Florida ended up being his career-high mark, though. Ramirez added 34 doubles, three triples, 67 RBI, a league-leading 125 runs scored, and a .940 OPS during this campaign. He finished 11th in MVP voting, earned an All-Star selection, and won a Silver Slugger Award.
The shortstop posted an OPS of at least .900 in five of six months in 2008. He hit eight homers with a .995 OPS in April, which was followed by one homer and a .719 OPS in May. Then, Ramirez came right back in June with 10 dingers and a 1.016 OPS.
As the Marlins’ primary leadoff hitter, it’s unsurprising that as long as Ramirez produced, Florida won. In victories, he slashed .348/.447/.665 with 24 homers. In losses, those numbers dropped to .247/.346/.401 and nine, respectively.
Third Base: Miguel Cabrera, 34 Home Runs in 2007
Miguel Cabrera‘s 34 breaks the streak of 33 homers going around the Marlins infield. But still, like Realmuto, Delgado, and Uggla, he set this franchise record in his final year with the club. After two straight top-five finishes in NL MVP voting in 2005 and 2006, Miggy finished 15th in ’07. It’s not like his performance wasn’t as good, though.
In addition to those 34 homers, Cabrera collected 119 RBI while hitting .320/.401/.565. He spread his power production quite evenly between home (19) and road games (15), as well as the first half (18) and the second half (16).
What’s most interesting to me is how his performance kept getting better against starting pitchers each time the lineup turned over. His OPS went from .890 to 1.029 to 1.119 to 1.182 between his first at-bat and fourth at-bat against a starting hurler.
Single-Season Marlins HR Leaders
Left Field: Marcell Ozuna, 37 Home Runs in 2017
While another Marlins outfielder was putting together an MVP campaign (we’ll get to him in a minute), Marcell Ozuna was in the opposite corner doing his own mashing. His 37 homers and 124 RBI are both currently single-season career-high marks. He paired it with a .312/.376/.548 line, an All-Star Game selection, a Gold Glove Award, and a Silver Slugger Award. At the moment, it’s the only time in his career that he’s posted a 30-100 performance.
Although loanDepot Park is known for its spacious dimensions, Ozuna hit 22 of his homers in Miami. He didn’t produce a double-digit homer month in 2017, but the outfielder hit somewhere between six and eight dingers in a month five times. The one occasion he didn’t was in July. He slugged four homers but paired it with 11 doubles and 27 RBI.
Ozuna also loved seeing a pitcher for the first time. In his first at-bat against starters, he slugged 12 homers with a 1.032 OPS. In his first at-bat against relievers, he slugged another 11 with a .880 OPS.
Center Field: Preston Wilson, 31 Home Runs in 2000
After finishing second in NL Rookie of the Year voting in 1999, Preston Wilson came back and took another step forward the following season. Although his 187 strikeouts led the league, he paired it with a .817 OPS, 31 home runs, and 121 RBI.
Outside of his 2003 performance in Colorado (36 homers, 141 RBI), this was the most powerful season of Wilson’s MLB career.
Of the outfielder’s 31 dingers, 19 came on the road, and 19 also came in the first half. He enjoyed two months with nine homers, but he saved his best overall offensive performance for September/October. Wilson slashed .337/.402/.693 with nine homers, 25 RBI, 20 runs scored, and eight steals over the final month of the regular season.
The total body of work was impressive, as he collected those 31 homers to go along with 35 doubles, and 36 stolen bases.
Right Field: Giancarlo Stanton, 59 Home Runs in 2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvC_6IQipLs&t=13s
We can talk about positional Marlins home run royalty all we want. Straight-up Marlins home run royalty is Giancarlo Stanton, and he probably won’t have company anytime soon. In his NL MVP performance, the right-handed hitting slugger led the league in homers (59), RBI (132), slugging percentage (.631), and OPS+ (169).
Like Ozuna, the spacious confines of loanDepot Park didn’t bother Stanton. Of his 59 homers, 31 came in front of the Miami crowd. He never hit fewer than seven in a month. His streak in July and August will always be one for the ages, as 30 of his homers came during that time (12 in July, 18 in August).
Stanton obviously tortured his fellow NL East opponents during this campaign. He slugged eight homers each against the Braves, Mets, and Phillies, as well as six against the Nationals. Two other teams he performed well against included the San Diego Padres (six homers) and San Francisco Giants (five homers).
Designated Hitter: Jorge Soler, 24 Home Runs in 2023
Miami signed Jorge Soler prior to the 2022 season to be a major power source for the Marlins. It didn’t work out that year, but it paid off in 2023. He led the team with 36 total home runs. Nobody else on the squad hit more than 19.
Soler spent 101 of his 137 games played as the team’s designated hitter. Across 443 plate appearances, the right-handed slugger slashed .246/.344/.484 with those 24 homers, 52 RBI, and 55 runs scored. His overall production was powered by two big months. Soler hit 12 homers in May and followed that up with 10 in August. He didn’t slug more than five in any other month.
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