When Power Peaks (Way) Too Early

I love the spring training leaderboards. Anything can happen in spring training. Did you know that Trevor Story, who is 33 years old and has spent a significant portion of his adult life on the injured list, is tied for the spring lead with three triples? Story hasn’t hit a regular-season triple since he quit working at the triples factory knows as Coors Field, but here he is atop the leaderboard because it’s spring training. Did you know that Luis Matos leads the world with four hit-by-pitches? He’s been plunked just three times during the regular season, but here he is in spring training with an HBP rate higher than his career walk rate. None of this means anything, but that’s part of the fun.

Shea Langeliers and Matt McLain are tied at the top with six home runs. Langeliers is certainly not a surprise. He’s a genuine power hitter with 60 combined homers over the past two years. McLain’s got plenty of power, but only once before has he hit six in a span of 15 games. This is at the very least a notable outcome for him, and as I went down the leaderboard, I found some seriously surprising names. How does 33-year-old Ben Gamel, owner of 41 career homers in 723 career games, find himself tied for sixth in baseball with four spring-training homers in just 11 games? Today we’re hunting for players with even more extreme splits. We’re looking for guys who have hit more home runs in spring training than in the regular season. We’ve got spring stats going back to 2006, so I pulled them along with major league stats going back to the 1990s. Let’s find some guys who peak really early.

We need to ask our question more specifically, though, because plenty of players who didn’t stick in the majors (or who haven’t yet stuck in the majors) will have more plate appearances in spring training, and thus more home runs during spring training, than in the regular season. Bryce Brentz is the runaway leader in this category. Brentz was a power-hitting outfielder who played parts of the 2014 and 2016 seasons with the Red Sox. He launched 161 homers across 10 minor league seasons and another 12 across nine different spring trainings. But he only got into 34 major league games and hit just one home run. That’s a differential of 11 home runs! The top of the leaderboard is all players like Brentz who hit more homers during spring training because they played more during spring training. It’s great to recognize them, but it’s not quite what we’re asking.

An everyday starter usually gets something like 50 or 60 spring-training plate appearances, and then 10 times more than that during the regular season. Brentz had more than twice as many plate appearances in spring training as he did in the regular season. That’s not what we want. We’re looking for players who hit more spring-training homers despite playing more during the regular season, preferably a lot more. We want legitimate major leaguers who somehow hit more homers during spring training. Players like Ben Gamel’s brother Mat Gamel, who homered six times during spring training in 2012 despite having just five career home runs to that point. That 2012 season was Mat Gamel’s last in the majors, and although he made more than twice as many trips to the plate in the regular season as he did during spring training, he finished his career with seven spring-training homers and six regular-season ones. Springtime is just Gamel season, I guess.

In terms of raw numbers, our leader is Atlanta’s Luke Williams. The 29-year-old Williams debuted in 2021, and although he’s bounced around to five different teams, he’s played in the majors in each of the last five seasons and has 230 career major league games under his belt. He’s also played every position except catcher. In 349 regular-season plate appearances, Williams has hit two home runs. However, in just 253 spring-training plate appearances, he’s smacked 10 homers! He’s got five times as many home runs in spring training despite having just three-quarters the plate appearances. Williams didn’t go deep once in any of the past three regular seasons, but he hit five spring-training home runs over that same three-year period, and he also has one this spring. He’s our torchbearer going forward.

In terms of proportion, we have a landslide winner in the form of pitcher Brett Tomko. Tomko pitched from 1997 to 2014, and he made 547 plate appearances during his time in National League parks. He never hit a home run. Our spring training database only has stats going back to 2006, so it has just 15 plate appearances for Tomko, but on March 27, 2006, he ripped a three-run homer off Steve Trachsel. Unfortunately, the story didn’t get much press because it was overshadowed by a brawl between the Red Sox and the Devil Rays. With more than 36 times as many regular-season plate appearances than recorded spring-training ones, Tomko is ahead of the world here. Longtime Astros pitcher Wandy Rodriguez isn’t far behind, homering once in 22 spring-training plate appearances, then never homering during 511 times up in the regular season. Sadly, we won’t have any more pitchers joining this prestigious made-up list.

If we limit ourselves to players with at least two more spring-training homers than regular-season ones, the top of the list has plenty of blasts from the past. We’ve got Fringe Five stalwart Jabari Blash with eight spring-training homers and five long balls in the regular season. We’ve got current Reds first base coach Collin Cowgill with 15 homers in spring training and 12 in the regular season. (Cowgill also had meniscus surgery a few weeks ago; feel better, Collin). We’ve also got current Mariner Cole Young, who has gone off this spring training, tying his regular-season mark with four homers. The most interesting name, though, is Miles Mastrobuoni, who’s now with the Mariners, as well. Mastrobuoni has never been an everyday player, but he’s not far off; he’s gotten into at least 50 games in each of the past three seasons. He’s hit just two home runs during that time, compared to five during spring training.

Mastrobuoni looks unlikely to make Seattle’s Opening Day roster, especially since he suffered a calf injury while playing for Italy during the World Baseball Classic, but he’s likely to find some playing time one way or another. Whether he ever matches his spring-training total, however, is an open question. Once again, none of this means anything. Sometimes, it’s just fun to have another reason to root for somebody. Nate Eaton also has more spring-training homers than regular-season ones, and somehow after starting the season in the minors, he was out there starting playoff games for the Red Sox in 2025. If Mastrobuoni and Eaton are getting serious time for the Mariners or the Red Sox in 2026, then things will have gone particularly badly in our Northern port cities. But on the bright side, if that happens, Mariners and Red Sox fans will get a chance to cheer for them to finally measure up to their springtime selves.