10 MLB Sluggers You Haven't Thought About in Years
It's a situation every sports fan knows and loves.
You're sitting around with your buddies and the conversation turns to simply naming random players and reminiscing about their careers, to the point that it almost becomes a competition to see who can come up with the best random-name pull.
That's exactly what we're doing here with a trip down memory lane to look back at 10 sluggers you haven't thought about in years.
More specifically, these players all starred in the 2000s and 2010s, and while none of them are widely regarded as all-time greats or superstars, they each had at least one 40-homer season during their careers.
It's a list of players with short peaks and good-not-great career resumes, but for a short time each of these guys was among the most feared sluggers in the game.
Enjoy!
2B Brian Dozier
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For decades, second base was a position occupied primarily by light-hitting, defensive minded players.
Guys like Joe Morgan, Ryne Sandberg, Roberto Alomar and Craig Biggio helped usher in a new wave of offensive contributors at the position, but the list of second basemen who have hit 40 home runs in a season is still extremely short.
- Rogers Hornsby, 1922
- Davey Johnson, 1973
- Ryne Sandberg, 1990
- Brian Dozier, 2016
- Marcus Semien, 2021
In five full seasons as the Minnesota Twins starting second baseman, Brian Dozier posted a 116 OPS+ and averaged 29 home runs and 81 RBI. He peaked with a 42-homer season in 2016, finishing 13th in AL MVP voting.
Despite a relatively short prime, he still finished his career with 192 home runs over nine seasons, good for 19th all-time among second basemen.
OF Jermaine Dye
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Outfielder Jermaine Dye was a Top 100 prospect in 1995 and 1996 while climbing the ranks in the Atlanta Braves farm system, and he slugged 12 home runs in 98 games during his rookie season before he was traded to the Kansas City Royals the following year.
He developed into an All-Star with the Royals, including a 33-homer, 118-RBI season in 2000, and after dealing with some injuries he enjoyed a second peak of sorts a few years later as a member of the Chicago White Sox.
In his first season with the South Siders in 2005, he had a 31-homer season and helped lead the White Sox to a title, winning World Series MVP honors along the way. The best season of his career came the following year when he hit .315/.385/.622 for a 151 OPS+ with 44 home runs and 120 RBI to finish fifth in AL MVP voting.
He wrapped up a quietly excellent 14-year career with 325 home runs and 1,072 RBI.
3B Troy Glaus
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The Anaheim Angels selected Troy Glaus with the No. 3 overall pick in the 1997 draft out of UCLA, and he launched 35 home runs in 109 games between Double-A and Triple-A the following year before making his MLB debut as a September call-up.
His 47 home runs as a 23-year-old in 2000 led the American League, and he followed that up with a 41-homer, 108-RBI performance the following year. After dealing with injuries in 2003 and 2004, he departed in free agency and joined the Arizona Diamondbacks on a four-year, $45 million deal.
He posted a 126 OPS+ with 37 home runs and 97 RBI during a bounce-back season in 2005, and the D-backs flipped him to the Toronto Blue Jays that offseason in exchange for Orlando Hudson and Miguel Batista one year into that long-term deal.
He had one more elite-level season in 2006, tallying 38 home runs and 104 RBI, and he closed out his 13-year career with 320 home runs as one of the underrated sluggers of his era.
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OF Carlos González
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Outfielder Carlos González was traded in back-to-back offseasons early in his career, going from the Arizona Diamondbacks to the Oakland Athletics in the Dan Haren blockbuster prior to the 2008 season, and then to the Colorado Rockies in the Matt Holliday trade the following winter.
At 24 years old and in his first full season in the majors in 2010, he won the NL batting title while hitting .336/.376/.598 with 34 doubles, 34 home runs and 117 RBI, and he also paced the league in hits (197) and total bases (351).
That was his first of six seasons with at least 20 home runs, and his power peak came in 2015 when he launched 40 homers and won Silver Slugger honors for the second time in his career.
He ranks sixth in Colorado Rockies franchise history with 23.8 WAR, behind only Todd Helton (61.8), Larry Walker (48.3), Nolan Arenado (40.1), Troy Tulowitzki (39.5) and Trevor Story (26.8), and his 227 home runs are fifth on the club leaderboard.
OF Shawn Green
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Shawn Green made three straight appearances on the Baseball America Top 100 prospect list in the mid-'90s while rising the ranks in the Toronto Blue Jays farm system alongside Carlos Delgado.
He was a solid semi-regular player over his first few seasons in the big leagues before finally breaking out with a 35-homer, 100-RBI, 35-steal season in 1998. The following season was even better as he made his first All-Star appearance with a 42-homer, 123-RBI campaign while leading the AL in doubles (45) and total bases (361).
The Blue Jays traded him to the Los Angeles Dodgers on the heels of that huge season in exchange for Raul Mondesi and Pedro Borbon, and after a slight down tick in his power production during his Dodgers debut he had huge seasons in 2001 and 2002.
- 2001: 154 OPS+, 49 HR, 125 RBI, 7.0 WAR, 6th in NL MVP
- 2002: 154 OPS+, 42 HR, 114 RBI, 6.9 WAR, 5th in NL MVP
In 15 seasons, he tallied 2,003 hits, 328 home runs and 1,070 RBI in an underrated career.
DH/1B Travis Hafner
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For a brief time in the mid-2000s, the duo of Travis Hafner and Grady Sizemore were two of the most productive players in baseball and the driving force behind the Cleveland offensive attack.
The three-year peak that Hafner put together stacks up to any player in baseball during the 2000s outside of Barry Bonds, and he led the AL in OPS+ in 2004 and 2006:
- 2004: 162 OPS+, .311/.410/.583, 72 XBH, 28 HR, 109 RBI
- 2005: 168 OPS+, .305/.408/.595, 75 XBH, 33 HR, 108 RBI
- 2006: 181 OPS+, .308/.439/.659, 74 XBH, 42 HR, 117 RBI
A 31st-round pick in the 1996 draft by the Texas Rangers, Hafner was acquired by Cleveland in an under-the-radar deal that sent Einar Díaz and Ryan Drese the other way prior to the 2003 season, and his breakout in 2004 did not come until his age-27 season.
His peak was short and he played more than 100 games in a season just once after he turned 30 years old, but he still finished with a 134 OPS+ and 213 home runs in 1,183 career games.
1B Derrek Lee
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First baseman Derrek Lee was one of baseball's top prospects when he was traded from the San Diego Padres to the Florida Marlins prior to the 1998 season in exchange for NL Cy Young contender Kevin Brown.
He had four straight 20-homer seasons in Florida early in his career, including a 2003 season where he posted a 131 OPS+ with 31 home runs and 21 steals while winning Gold Glove honors and helping lead the Marlins to a World Series title.
The Chicago Cubs acquired him via trade following that terrific season, and he was a steady presence in the middle of the North Siders' lineup alongside Sammy Sosa and Aramis Ramírez for several years.
The best season of his career came in 2005 when he nearly won NL Triple Crown honors, hitting .335/.418/.662 for a 174 OPS+ with 46 home runs and 107 RBI, winning the NL batting title while also leading the league in hits (199), doubles (50) and total bases (393) in a 7.7-WAR campaign.
Lee hit .281/.365/.495 for a 122 OPS+ with 331 home runs, 1,078 RBI and 34.5 WAR in 15 seasons.
1B Carlos Peña
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The No. 10 overall pick in the 1998 draft and the No. 5 prospect in baseball at the start of the 2002 season, Carlos Peña spent time with the Texas Rangers, Oakland Athletics, Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox before joining the Tampa Bay Rays prior to the 2007 season.
He was 29 years old when he joined the Rays, and while he had a 111 OPS+ in 1,925 career plate appearances, he had still not quite established himself as an everyday player and was widely viewed as a bust relative to lofty expectations.
As has been the case with so many players before and since, Peña proved to be a low-cost steal in Tampa Bay as he found a new level of success hitting in the middle of a lineup that also featured Evan Longoria, Carl Crawford, Ben Zobrist and others.
He had a 46-homer, 121-RBI season in his Tampa Bay debut, and over four years with the team, he posted a 135 OPS+ while averaging 36 home runs, 102 RBI and 4.4 WAR as a bona fide AL MVP candidate.
After one more solid season with the Chicago Cubs in 2011, his career quickly wound to a close, but he managed to launch 286 home runs in 1,493 games.
3B Mark Reynolds
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Mark Reynolds became the first player to strike out 200 times in a season in 2008, and while there are now 16 different 200-strikeout seasons on the books, his 223 whiffs in 2009 still stand as the single-season record.
However, he could also absolutely mash.
Despite that record-setting strikeout total, he still hit .260/.349/.543 with 30 doubles, 44 home runs and 102 RBI in his third season in the majors in 2009, good for a 127 OPS+ and some down-ballot NL MVP support.
It was the first of three straight 30-homer seasons, the third of which came as a member of the Baltimore Orioles. Six years later, at the age of 33, he added one more 30-homer campaign to his resume as a member of the Colorado Rockies.
All told, he finished with 298 long balls across 13 seasons, and he managed a 103 OPS+ despite a .236 average and 30.9 percent career strikeout rate.
1B Richie Sexson
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Richie Sexson was the young up-and-comer on some stacked Cleveland lineups at the end of the 1990s, posting a 135 OPS+ with 11 home runs in 49 games as a rookie in 1998 while playing alongside Jim Thome, Manny Ramirez, David Justice and Travis Fryman.
The following year, he split his time between first base, left field and designated hitter and had a 31-homer, 116-RBI season, but his lack of a clear everyday position eventually made him a trade chip and he was sent to the Milwaukee Brewers at the 2000 deadline in exchange for Jason Bere, Bob Wickman and Steve Woodard.
The towering 6'7" slugger quickly became one of the most feared hitters in the National League, and from 2001 through the 2006 season he posted a 131 OPS+ while averaging 40 home runs and 120 RBI per 162 games.
Along with a pair of 45-homer seasons in Milwaukee, he also had two big seasons as a member of the Seattle Mariners before his production quickly fell off following his age-31 season.
Despite playing his final game at the age of 33, he finished with 306 home runs and his 16.1 at bats per home run rank 35th on the all-time list, ahead of guys like Lou Gehrig, Albert Pujols, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and countless other legendary sluggers.
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