The home run race is starting to show signs of great interest. With two more months of regular season play, the contenders for the 2025 home run champion are beginning to emerge. This internal competition in MLB has generated great excitement as it does every year among baseball fans, where the home run is one of the most symbolic moments in each of the ballparks.
For this edition, one of the candidates to become the home run champion is Philadelphia Phillies designated hitter Kyle Schwarber, who had a brief drought of home runs until he was caught by Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers. However, this afternoon “Schwarbs” hit two home runs in his game against the Baltimore Orioles, where the most spectacular was the Grand Slam in the bottom of the sixth inning.
The Home Run Race is very close
With Schwarber’s two long-distance shots, he placed his personal account at 40 and surpasses Shohei Ohtani who remains at 38. However, the Phillies player has shown the Japanese that he is not intimidated and has known how to respond at the right time. He also does it in a situation where the pressure was at its highest point, where he came to the batter’s box with two outs, although with the score in his favor.
However, both players are in the hunt for the leader in this department, Cal Raleigh, the Detroit Tigers catcher who remains at 42 home runs. He is even the main candidate to become the champion this season where statistics indicate that he could beat the figure of 60 home runs, a number that only a few players have surpassed such as Babe Ruth, the first player to reach this number in 1927; Roger Maris (61) in 1961 and Aaron Judge in 2022 in the American League. Meanwhile, in the National League there are Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds, where the latter two surpassed the 70 mark.
Who is the current MLB home run champion?
The champion of the 2024 season was Aaron Judge, who hit 58 home runs for the New York Yankees. The outfielder is currently in fourth place with 37 home runs despite not having played in the last 10 games due to the elbow injury he is currently recovering from. It is likely that “The Judge” will be back in the batter’s box on Tuesday, August 5 when he faces the Kansas City Royals.
In the 2024 National League, it was Japanese baseball player Shohei Ohtani who finished second in MLB with a total of 54. It was a very exciting competition and one that we will certainly see again in the 2025 season.
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