Who Were the Most Powerful MLB Sluggers of the Last 20 Years?

For Major League Baseball, the 21st century has largely been defined by power. To wit, its first 20 seasons produced more home runs than the past 30 seasons of the 20th century.

That speaks to a modern breed of sluggers who are very big, very strong and very capable of hitting the ball very hard and very far. So while we navigate the coronavirus pandemic, we thought we would honor the 20 most powerful sluggers of the past 20 years.

Home-runs-per-fly-ball rate (HR/FB, which is available as far back as 2002) was our best guiding star for comparing players from before and after the rise of Statcast in 2015. But we also used our own judgment based on testimonials, video highlights and—might as well admit it—even our memories.

We disregarded Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Ken Griffey Jr., Frank Thomas and other guys who played into the 2000s but whose heydays were primarily in the 1990s. And while we were mainly focused on quality, we also made sure to reward players for quantity.

Following a long list of honorable mentions, we'll count down to the most jaw-dropping slugger of the century.

Honorable Mentions

Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images

Jose Bautista

He hit more home runs than anyone between 2010 and 2015, and at least one of them would be a first-ballot entry into the Home Run Hall of Fame if such a thing ever comes to exist.

Chris Carter

Pretty much all he did was hit home runs, so it's a good thing he was pretty good at it for a while there.

Chris Davis

He more so specialized in effortless-looking homers, but the ball can go far when he gets all of his 6'3", 230-pound frame into it.

Edwin Encarnacion

While he's arguably more efficient than anything else, Edwin Encarnacion has definitely hit some eye-popping home runs as he's racked up an MLB-high 297 since 2012.

Troy Glaus

He was a 6'5", 220-pound behemoth whose slugging prowess is drastically undersold by what highlights survive at MLB.com.

Travis Hafner

Though his prime was tragically short-lived, "Pronk" sure could whack 'em when he put the full force of his 6'3", 240-pound body into his swing.

Bryce Harper

Only eight players have homered more times since 2012, and his best ones have been high-arcing shots that have reached upper decks.

Matt Holliday

Though he had only two seasons with 30 or more long balls, he had the body and the power of a Greek god.

Carlos Lee

He had 270 pounds on a 6'2" frame, and it served him well as he racked up blast after blast en route to 342 homers after 2000.

Wily Mo Pena

Let's just say there are good reasons why he's something of a cult hero despite only ever hitting 84 home runs in the majors.

Kyle Schwarber

He doesn't quite measure up to the titans of modern slugging, but he was dropping jaws even before he found his groove with 94 home runs between 2017 and 2019.

Trevor Story

He's only been around since 2016, and he's hit the bulk of his 123 homers at Coors Field. But it's to his credit that he has a higher percentage of 400-plus-foot homers than anyone since 2015.

Mark Trumbo

Though his major league career might be over, he's responsible for 218 overall homers and one of the best home run highlights of the last decade.

20. Pedro Alvarez

Career HR/FB: 22.8 percent

Pedro Alvarez never lived up to being the No. 2 pick in the 2008 draft, as he accumulated only 5.1 rWAR in nine seasons.

He did, however, have a moment in the sun as the National League's home run leader in 2013. And on balance, many of his 162 career homers were utterly demolished.

The 6'3", 250-pounder ranked in the top 15 for hard-hit percentage between 2000 and 2014. And though he was on his way out when Statcast arrived in 2015, the system still tracked his homers at stellar averages of 107.5 mph and 410 feet.

"When Pedro hits it, you don't have to ask if it's going out," former Pittsburgh Pirates manager Clint Hurdle once said of Alvarez. "You just wait for it to land."

19. Carlos Gonzalez

Career HR/FB: 18.0 percent

In light of how his last three seasons have gone, the 2019 campaign may prove to be Carlos Gonzalez's last in the majors.

It's a good thing, then, that he's left behind plenty of extraordinary wallops to remember him by.

Even before 2015, Gonzalez's reputation as a walloper was underscored by his elite 20.2 homers-per-fly-ball rate between 2010 and 2014. And within the Statcast era, the 98 homers he hit averaged 105.5 mph in exit velocity and 420 feet in distance.

Out of all hitters who have clubbed at least 50 homers over the past five seasons, the latter of those two figures ranks first by an average of three feet over the mighty Giancarlo Stanton.

18. Mike Trout

Career HR/FB: 21.4 percent

Mike Trout has been baseball's best player for almost a decade. But in recent years, his power has taken center stage as his top tool.

In the Statcast era alone, Trout has a higher rate of barrels (i.e. perfectly struck balls) than any other hitter who's put at least 1,500 balls in play. Moreover, the exit velocity (106.7 mph) and distance (412 feet) he averages on his home runs are both elite marks.

It helps that Trout is a sturdy 6'2", 235 pounds with a more or less perfect swing. He's quick to the ball with virtually no wasted movement.

With 285 home runs already to his name, there's no telling where the 28-year-old will end up if he stays healthy.

17. Prince Fielder

Career HR/FB: 17.6 percent

Prince Fielder was hitting balls out of Tiger Stadium when he was a mere 12-year-old, so it's little wonder that he went on to become one of baseball's most feared sluggers.

Fielder's heyday was certainly between 2007 and 2011; he peaked with 50 homers in '07 and hit 200 total. Courtesy of his 5'11", 275-pound frame and wicked swing, quite a few of those long balls were absolutely crushed.

To wit, Fielder's hard-hit and HR/FB for those five seasons ranked behind only four other hitters. He subsequently went into a decline, and injuries forced him to call it quits in 2016.

But even as Fielder faded, he was still dangerous. The 31 homers he hit in 2015 and 2016 were measured by Statcast at 409 feet a pop.

16. Richie Sexson

Career HR/FB: 22.1 percent

At 6'7", Richie Sexson is one of the tallest sluggers to ever come through Major League Baseball. That had its downsides, chief among them being a high strikeout rate and a higher risk for injuries.

It's not by accident, however, that Sexson hit 306 home runs in only 1,367 career games. He had a lot of, well, him to put into every swing. As a result, the ball would often go for a while when he caught it on the barrel.

Between 2003 and 2005, only David Ortiz, Jim Thome and Barry Bonds made hard contact at a higher rate than Sexson. Of those three, only Bonds was better at turning fly balls into home runs.

Hence why, even as short-lived as it was, Sexson's prime is so darn memorable.

15. Miguel Cabrera

Career HR/FB: 18.3 percent

By way of his .315 career batting average, one could make a compelling argument for Miguel Cabrera as the best pure hitter among active players.

He's also, of course, one of the century's best power hitters. And he made it look easy as the strength of his 6'4", 249-pound frame and the smoothness of his oh-so-sweet swing produced a seemingly endless supply of majestic clouts.

At his best, Cabrera creamed 88 home runs with easily the league's best hard-hit rate across 2012 and 2013. Since 2015, even his lesser self has still averaged 105.4 mph and 400 feet per homer.

Before long, Cabrera should become one of very few players with 500 home runs and a lifetime average over .300.

14. Albert Pujols

Career HR/FB: 17.4 percent

Name an offensive category and Albert Pujols is probably the active career leader in it. That includes home runs, of which he's hit 656 since 2001.

Pujols logged 445 of those in his prime between 2001 and 2011. He rarely struck out in those days, and he also matched his efficiency with a top-10 hard-hit rate. The result was some of the game's best pure power.

At the time, said power was indeed a beautiful thing to behold. Though Pujols seemed to put hardly any effort into swinging the bat, there wasn't a part of any ballpark to which he couldn't hit a ball.

Even now, the 103.5 mph and 406 feet Pujols has averaged on his home runs since 2015 show that some of his vintage power still lives.

13. David Ortiz

Career HR/FB: 18.7 percent

David Ortiz made it to 541 career homers in part because of his proficiency at flicking balls over the Green Monster.

But let's not kid ourselves here. He hit that many home runs mostly because he was a 6'3", 230-pound behemoth who put every last ounce of himself into his swings. When he connected, he hit balls that took a long time to come down.

Between 2002 and 2014, only five hitters made hard contact at a higher rate than Big Papi. And he was still going strong into the Statcast years, as over half of his homers in 2015 and 2016 traveled more than 400 feet.

Now that Edgar Martinez is in, Ortiz should be the next designated hitter to gain entry into Cooperstown.

12. Manny Ramirez

Career HR/FB: 21.1 percent

It's been nearly a decade since Manny Ramirez retired after multiple performance-enhancing drugs violations. Accordingly, his Hall of Fame chances aren't looking too great.

His home runs, however, remain legendary.

At 6'0", 225 pounds, Ramirez was a large but not exactly towering slugger. Yet he had a beautiful swing and a rare talent for hitting the ball on the barrel. When he got hold of one, it would leave the park as if fired from a cannon.

Alas, Ramirez surely would have been a Statcast darling. As it is, he tied for fifth in hard-hit rate with a 21.6 HR/FB rate during eight prime years between 2002 and 2009.

11. Alex Rodriguez

Alex Rodriguez: 21.8 percent

Love him or hate him, Alex Rodriguez is still the second-most prolific home run hitter of the 21st century.

Notably, only Ryan Howard and Jim Thome turned fly balls into home runs at a better rate than Rodriguez's 23.8 percent between 2002 and 2007. He averaged 46 homers per season during that stretch, many of which cleared the fence with plenty to spare.

Come 2015 and 2016, Rodriguez was past his prime and on his way out of baseball. Yet even then, he still mustered averages of 105.6 mph and 406 feet on his long balls with a pinnacle of 471 feet.

Albeit with a little help from banned substances, all this goes to show what a guy can do when he's 6'3", 230 pounds with a heaven-sent swing.

10. Gary Sanchez

Career HR/FB: 25.7 percent

Gary Sanchez is listed at 6'2", 230 pounds, and there have been times aplenty when his size has been an issue behind the plate.

It's been a different story when he's standing beside the plate with a bat in his hands. He's cranked 105 home runs since becoming an everyday player in 2016, and all those dingers boast averages of 107.8 mph in exit velocity and 413 feet in distance. 

Further, 44.8 percent of Sanchez's homers have traveled at least 420 feet. He's also topped out at 493 feet, which is tied for the sixth-longest home run of the Statcast era.

So while Sanchez's body of work is relatively small, he's definitely made his mark.

9. Miguel Sano

Career HR/FB: 26.5 percent

Miguel Sano has yet to top even 116 games in a single season since making his debut in 2015. That he's nonetheless clubbed 118 homers says a lot about the power he's packing.

At 6'4", 272 pounds, Sano has the kind of sheer size that isn't common even among sluggers. He also hits the ball about as hard as anyone in baseball today. His fly balls and line drives average 98.0 mph in exit velocity, and he keeps special company in barrels per batted ball:

• 1. Giancarlo Stanton: 17.5 percent
• 2. Miguel Sano: 16.7 percent
• 3. Mike Trout: 15.9 percent

With home runs, specifically, Sano's feel for barreling balls has translated to long balls that average 106.4 mph and 409 feet.

8. Joey Gallo

Career HR/FB: 30.3 percent

Joey Gallo is 416 games into his major league career, and he still owns more career home runs (110) than singles (105).

At 6'5", 235 pounds, Gallo is definitely built to hit home runs. His swing is likewise designed to hit balls over the fence as his 28.9 career ground-ball percentage is one of the lowest on record.

The fruits of Gallo's size-and-swing combination include 110 home runs with superior averages for exit velocity (108.1 mph) and distance (415 feet). He's also the only hitter who records 420-plus-foot homers more than half the time, with a max distance of 490 feet.

In all, pretty much the only knock against Gallo as a pure slugger is his relatively short track record.

7. Aaron Judge

Career HR/FB: 32.5 percent

There has literally never been a slugger like Aaron Judge.

If nothing else, this is true of his sheer size. There have been pitchers as large as 6'7", 282 pounds, but Judge is the only player with those measurements who's ever made a living as a hitter.

Primarily, Judge makes said living by absolutely annihilating baseballs. His average exit velocity of 95.1 mph is easily the highest mark of the Statcast era. And while he's averaged "only" 405 feet on his 110 homers, he's gone as far as 495 feet. By exit velocity, he also owns five of the era's 11 hardest-hit homers.

And remember, Judge has done all this despite battling strikeouts and injuries for most of the last three seasons.

6. Nelson Cruz

Career HR/FB: 21.0 percent

Nelson Cruz was already 28 when he became a full-time player in 2009, yet he's still hit 31 more homers than anyone since then.

And while it was obvious that Cruz, who stands at 6'2", 230 pounds, was one of baseball's most powerful sluggers even beforehand, he's only bolstered his reputation during the Statcast era.

Only Aaron Judge has Cruz beat in average exit velocity since 2015, and the latter's oomph has translated into averages of 107.2 mph and 412 feet on 204 total homers. Cruz has also hit 16 homers of at least 450 feet, a mark topped only by Giancarlo Stanton.

Even though he's now 39, Cruz's 41 long balls from 2019 indicate he may still have a few more good seasons left in him.

5. Adam Dunn

Career HR/FB: 22.0 percent

Throughout all of baseball history, only two sluggers have tipped the scales at 6'6" in height and more than 280 pounds in weight. 

The first was Adam Dunn, who put his size to good use by launching 462 home runs between 2001 and 2014. Included among those was the one in the attached video, which was estimated (albeit without the help of modern tools) at 515 feet.

That was neither the first nor the last of Dunn's fabled clouts, and in retrospect, he looks like a hitter who arrived ahead of his time. In 13 seasons between 2002 and 2014, his ground-ball rate never once escaped the 30s.

Alas, if only Statcast had been around for Dunn's heyday.

4. Ryan Howard

Career HR/FB: 25.8 percent

Of the 382 homers Ryan Howard hit between 2004 and 2016, an untold number of them simply involved him flicking his wrists for a line drive over the left-field fence.

Yet those same wrists were attached to a massive 6'4", 250-pound frame that, when put to proper use, could do unspeakable things to a baseball.

Notably, Howard was the No. 1 purveyor of hard contact between 2002 and 2014. Though Statcast wasn't around to measure his biggest blasts, it wasn't uncommon for him to hit balls into assorted upper decks and onto various concourses.

Even in the two post-prime years Howard played in the Statcast era, he still topped out with a 455-foot grand slam in 2016.

3. Jim Thome

Career HR/FB: 27.8 percent

Jim Thome was already pushing 30 at the turn of the millennium, yet it was between 2000 and 2012 that he racked up 416 of his 612 career home runs.

Because of the raw strength contained within his 6'4", 250-pound body, Thome didn't have to get all of a ball to send it over the fence. But when he did, it was liable to end up in parts unknown.

Though Thome unfortunately missed out on Statcast, evidence of his raw power is apparent in how his 27.8 HR/FB rate was the high mark for hitters between 2002 and 2014. Even now, that mark still ranks behind only Aaron Judge and Joey Gallo.

As the voters proved in 2018, power like that will get you into the Hall of Fame.

2. Barry Bonds

Career HR/FB: 25.1 percent

When you're both the single-season and the all-time home run king, you're pretty much granted automatic entry into a list of powerful sluggers.

To be sure, not everything Barry Bonds did between 2000 and 2007 was on the level. Even still, it would be folly to suggest the 317 home runs he hit in those eight seasons came entirely out of a syringe.

In addition to bulk, Bonds had a lightning-quick swing and a batting eye worthy of a T-800. He put these things to use hitting home runs that often made a mockery of outfield fences.

Between 2002 and 2014, only Ryan Howard made hard contact more frequently than Bonds. But courtesy of his ahead-of-its-time 32.9 ground-ball percentage, more of Bonds' loud contact was in the air.

1. Giancarlo Stanton

Career HR/FB: 26.7 percent

Divide Giancarlo Stanton's 1,162 games by his 308 home runs and you get one homer every 3.8 games. That's a better rate than even Barry Bonds and Hank Aaron.

As for how Stanton has done this, well, it's really quite simple: He's a 6'6", 245-pound leviathan who's specialized in hitting both lasers and moonshots during his 10 seasons in the majors.

Just in the Statcast era, Stanton stands alone in averaging 109.4 mph and 417 feet on his home runs, not to mention his 25 total long balls of at least 450 feet. He also owns the hardest-hit homer (121.7 mph) and the third-longest homer (504 feet).

How far Stanton ultimately takes his act will depend on his health. But for the time being, someone could make a case for him as the best pure slugger baseball has ever known.

Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant. All videos courtesy of MLB, via YouTube.