Everyone loves starting a baseball game on the right foot. And when I say “the right foot”, I mean by slugging a leadoff dinger. If you’re wondering who has hit the most leadoff home runs in a season, then this list will answer all your questions.
We’ll share some pertinent statistics, along with as many videos as I can find to bring these performances to life.
Related: A Complete Guide to Single-Season (& Single-Game) HR Performances
Most Leadoff Home Runs in a Season
15 Home Runs
Kyle Schwarber, 2024 Philadelphia Phillies
A SCHWARBOMB FOR THE RECORD BOOKS#RingTheBell pic.twitter.com/Pm2OTDPOOe
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) September 10, 2024
The fact that Kyle Schwarber is at the top of this leaderboard is just so funny to me. Mostly because if you didn’t know anything other than looking at his stat page, the last place you’d think he hits in the lineup is leadoff. But that’s baseball for you.
Schwarber’s .851 OPS was his highest since the .928 mark he posted in 2021 while splitting time with the Washington Nationals and Boston Red Sox. Although he failed to reach the 40-homer plateau for the third straight year, his season-long total settled in at 38 to go along with 104 RBI and 110 runs scored.
The left-handed slugger hit 15 homers in the first inning in 2024. The next most powerful inning of his season was the sixth — he hit seven dingers in that frame.
Check out details on all his 2024 homers with our Kyle Schwarber Home Run Tracker.
READ MORE: Kyle Schwarber’s Assault on Phillies HR Leaderboards Is Eye-Popping
13 Home Runs
Alfonso Soriano, 2003 New York Yankees
Alfonso Soriano’s 2003 campaign wasn’t as good as his 2002 performance (he placed third in AL MVP Award voting), but it was still pretty good. For the second straight year, he flirted with making Major League history by joining the 40-40 club after slugging 38 homers and stealing 35 bases. This was the only year between 2002 and 2006 where he didn’t win a Silver Slugger Award. Despite that, he was selected to his second career All-Star Game and finished 20th in AL MVP Award voting.
Soriano just loved stepping up to the plate with a clean slate. He hit 24 of his 38 homers with no outs. The right-handed slugger also posted a .362/.411/.777 line leading off the game for New York. Leading off an inning was also something he enjoyed — Soriano hit .340/.379/.680 in that situation.
12 Home Runs
Shohei Ohtani, 2025 Los Angeles Dodgers
What can’t this guy do? He can pitch, he can hit a bunch of homers, and he can do it all while leading off the game. I have to be honest, watching Ohtani hit a leadoff moonshot has to be the best mood booster the Dodgers’ dugout can get.
The left-handed slugger spent all but 47 of his 727 plate appearances in the leadoff spot, and it makes sense. If you’re Dave Roberts, why would you change something if it’s working?
Overall, Ohtani slashed .284/.395/.626 while hitting first in the order in 2025. That’s pretty much what he did as the first batter of the game — he hit .299/.365/.649 in that scenario. In addition to the 12 homers, he also collected seven doubles and two triples.
Mookie Betts, 2023 Los Angeles Dodgers
Opposing pitchers typically don’t have a chance to breathe at any point while facing the Dodgers. That starts right at the top when facing L.A.’s leadoff hitter, Mookie Betts. He surpassed the 30-homer plateau for the fourth time in his career in 2023. The 39 dingers he slugged were a new personal best mark.
Imagine what number he would’ve finished at if he didn’t slump over the final month of the regular season. Betts hit .455/.516/.839 with 11 homers, 10 doubles, and 30 RBI across 126 August plate appearances. Over his final 107 trips to the plate in September/October, Betts struggled to a .244/.393/.326 line with just one homer and nine RBI.
Jose Altuve, 2022 Houston Astros
The 2022 season was another Silver Slugger campaign for Jose Altuve. He also finished fifth in AL MVP Award voting after posting a .921 OPS with 28 homers, 39 doubles, 57 RBI, and 103 runs scored for the eventual World Series-winning Astros.
Altuve relished leading off the game for Houston. In addition to those 12 homers, he slashed .330/.438/.730 in 137 plate appearances. His 1.172 OPS in the first inning was his highest of any frame that year. The only other inning where he posted an OPS better than 1.000 was the second inning (1.154 in 30 plate appearances).
George Springer, 2019 Houston Astros
Leading up to 2019, George Springer had already posted four seasons of 20-plus homers for the Astros. But this particular campaign went above and beyond since it included career-best marks for OPS (.974), home runs (39), and RBI (96).
In addition to his 12 first-inning homers, Springer added another 10 dingers in the third inning. The right-handed hitter collected 24 of those 39 homers in the first three innings of games. If we look at his OPS, Springer’s overall production continually dropped as the game wore on. It was 1.093 through the first three innings. That was followed by a .907 mark between innings four and six before finishing at .826 from innings seven through nine.
Alfonso Soriano, 2007 Chicago Cubs
Fresh off a 40-40 season with the Nationals, Soriano made an immediate impact with his new team on the North Side of Chicago. He posted a .897 OPS with 33 homers, 40 doubles, 70 RBI, and 97 runs scored for the Cubs.
The adage about leadoff hitters is to take some pitches and allow his teammates to see what the hurler has in store for them that day. But Soriano was better when he stepped into the batter’s box in attack mode. He hit .345/.357/.632 when swinging at the first pitch for Chicago in ’07. When he took the first pitch, his line dropped to .270/.326/.514.
Brady Anderson, 1996 Baltimore Orioles
Brady Anderson’s 50-homer performance in 1996 for the Orioles will forever be one of the best examples of an outlier when talking about baseball’s PED era. The outfielder hit 20-plus homers in a season only two other times when not counting what happened in ’96. Those instances came in 1992 (21 homers) and 1999 (24 homers).
The left-handed hitter particularly enjoyed playing the Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers, the two teams most of his homers came against. Anderson went deep eight times against Texas and six times against Seattle. No other team saw him go deep more than five times that year.
11 Home Runs
Shohei Ohtani, 2026 Los Angeles Dodgers
After two straight years of 50-plus homers, Ohtani was due for a bit of a lull in the power department. Injuries limited him to 135 games (and he seemed especially impacted down the stretch), but he still managed an .889 OPS with 30 homers, 81 RBI, and 89 runs scored for Los Angeles.
Plus, there was also his ability to help the Dodgers start fast. In addition to those 11 homers, Shohei added six doubles and posted a .284/.366/.621 line leading off the game.
Byron Buxton, 2025 Minnesota Twins
The biggest thing for Byron Buxton in 2025 was the fact that he played in 126 games for the Twins. It’s the first time he appeared in that many since he suited up for 140 in 2017. The .878 OPS, 35 homers, 83 RBI, 97 runs scored, and 24 steals he accumulated during that time? Well, that’s just a bonus.
It was great to see the outfielder put it all together in his age-31 campaign, which resulted in him earning his second career All-Star selection. He was penciled into four different spots on the lineup throughout the year, but none of them produced a better OPS than when he was at the top (.936).
And leading off the game? He was even better, posting a 1.088 OPS with 25 total hits in 93 plate appearances.
Francisco Lindor, 2025 New York Mets
The Mets completely crashed out and missed the postseason despite Francisco Lindor posting the second 30-30 season of his career (among other big years from their star offensive players). And with 5.8 bWAR, he’s now been worth at least 5.0 bWAR for each of the last four seasons.
Lindor was a much better overall hitter at Citi Field (.926) compared to being on the road (.694) in 2025, but he obviously loved leading off games for New York. Across 133 plate appearances, he slashed .320/.376/.648 with 11 homers and seven doubles.
Kyle Schwarber, 2023 Philadelphia Phillies
As mentioned above, Schwarber is not your prototypical leadoff hitter. But still, that man knows how to stake his team to an early lead. The 2023 campaign was Schwarber’s second straight 40-homer performance with the Phillies. These numbers already have him at the top of Philadelphia’s single-season home run leaderboard and climbing the club’s all-time list in short order.
Schwarber loved facing the opposing starting pitcher for the first time (.922 OPS) and the third time through the order (.996). That second at-bat, though? Not so much for some reason. He posted a .645 OPS in that situation.
Jacque Jones, 2002 Minnesota Twins
Jacque Jones is one of those sneaky-good players who consistently flew under the radar. His 2002 campaign was among the best he produced across his 10-year MLB career. He set single-season career-high marks for homers (27), RBI (85), doubles (37), runs scored (96), hits (173), and OPS (.852) in 149 games played.
He enjoyed being on the road more than anything else, though. Jones posted a .721 OPS with six homers in 308 plate appearances at the Metrodome. Those numbers paled in comparison to what he did as a visiting player in 318 trips to the plate: .977 OPS with 21 homers.
Bobby Bonds, 1973 San Francisco Giants
Bobby Bonds put together a lethal power/speed combo across his 14-year career. By the time he hung up his spikes, Bonds had slugged 332 homers with 1,024 RBI, 1,258 runs scored, and 461 steals. His five 30/30 seasons are tied for the most in Major League Baseball history. The player he’s tied with? That would be his son Barry. Funny how things work out, right?
The 1973 season was a career year for Bobby, as he posted a personal-best .900 OPS while winning a Gold Glove Award and finishing third in NL MVP Award voting. This was one of his 30/30 campaigns, and he just missed creating the 40/40 club. Bonds slugged 39 homers with 43 steals, 96 RBI, and a league-leading 131 runs scored. He settled for being the first player in MLB history to hit double-digit leadoff home runs in a single season.
10 Home Runs
James Wood, 2026 Washington Nationals
The 2026 season was James Wood’s second straight campaign with an All-Star appearance and at least 30 homers. He also saw his season-long OPS jump from .825 to .891. He racked up 134 plate appearances leading off games for the Nats, and the left-handed slugger posted a .292/.403/.593 line in the process.
Gunnar Henderson, 2024 Baltimore Orioles
Since the 2024 season is still happening, I won’t do a full write-up on Gunnar Henderson’s sophomore season until it’s officially in the books. However, it’s been a record-breaking year at the dish for Henderson. His 36 homers (as of 9/10/2024) are already a single-season franchise record for shortstops.
Marcus Semien, 2023 Texas Rangers
Marcus Semien put together an excellent second year with the Rangers. He led the league in games played (162), plate appearances (753), at-bats (670), runs scored (122), and total hits (185), on his way to being an All-Star, winning a Silver Slugger Award, and finishing third in AL MVP Award voting. Oh, and winning the World Series to top it all off ain’t so bad, either.
Semien turned things up a notch for Texas after the All-Star break. After hitting 11 homers with a .776 OPS in the first half, those numbers went up to 18 and .894, respectively, in nearly 100 fewer plate appearances.
Charlie Blackmon, 2016 Colorado Rockies
This article was published in 2024, so it’s hard to remember a time when Charlie Blackmon was an elite leadoff hitter for the Rockies. But it happened and he put up some huge seasons. This was his first of two straight Silver Slugger performances. Between 2016 and 2017, Blackmon slashed .327/.390/.578 while averaging 33 homers, 35 doubles, 10 triples, 93 RBI, 124 runs scored, and 16 steals.
Wondering about the Coors Field effect is just part of life for any Rockies player who puts together an exceptional year. But for Blackmon in 2016, he was equally good at home and on the road. He posted a .939 OPS with 12 homers and 15 doubles in 313 plate appearances at Coors Field. In 328 trips to the plate as a visiting player, he produced a .926 OPS with 17 homers and 20 doubles.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who holds the record for the most leadoff home runs in a single season?
Alfonso Soriano is the all-time MLB leader for most leadoff home runs in a single season. He hit 13 in 2003 for the New York Yankees.
Which MLB player has hit the most career leadoff homers?
Rickey Henderson is the all-time leadoff home runs leader with 81. Other notable players on the list include Alfonso Soriano (54), Craig Biggio (53), Ian Kinsler (48), and Curtis Granderson (47).
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