June 10, 2021

By Neil Munro

Canadian Baseball Network

When Tyler O’Neill (Maple Ridge, B.C.) blasted two home runs Wednesday night in the St. Louis Cardinals’ 8 - 2 victory over the Cleveland Indians, he joined Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (Montreal, Que.) as the second Canadian batter on track to club at least 40 home runs this year.

If that were to happen, it would mark the first time in MLB history that two Canadians belted 40 home runs in the same year.

Indeed, the 40-home run level has been reached just once by a Canadian in the previous 140 seasons of America’s pastime; when Larry Walker (Maple Ridge, B.C.) hit 49 round-trippers in 1997. In all, the 30-home run plateau has been reached on 14 different occasions by five different sluggers. That total actually increases to 16 times if you count the two seasons in which Atlanta’s Freddie Freeman hit 30 home runs (born in Villa Park Calif., Freeman has dual American-Canadian citizenship). The full list of Canadian-born players who have hit 30 or more homers in a season is given in the table below.

All-time Home Runs in a Season by Canadians

In the 16 seasons between 1995 and 2010, Canadian sluggers reached the 30-home run plateau on 13 different occasions. This time period obviously provides the top seasons in homers hit by a pair of Canadians. The following table lists all such seasons in which a Canadian duo accumulated at least 50 combined home runs. Walker and Matt Stairs (Fredericton, N.B.) are the runaway leaders in this combined statistic.

Canadian Duos with at Least 50 HR in the Same Season

From this list, you can see that two Canadian batters reached 30 or more home runs in the same year on three occasions – 1999, 2006 and 2009. Larry Walker and Jason Bay (Trail, B.C.) each had four seasons with 30 or more home runs. In fact, Walker’s second-best season (at least in terms of frequency of homers hit) could have been significantly better in that he missed a total of 35 games in 1999 from a variety of nagging injuries. That season, Walker belted 37 home runs in just 438 at bats, a rate of 1 HR per every 11.8 at bats.

Although it is still early in the season, Guerrero leads the American League in a number of important batting categories. He leads the AL in HR (18), RBI (48), on-base percentage (.438) and slugging percentage (.651). He also has the fewest at bats per home runs hit by any American League slugger (a rate of one HR per 11.6 at bats). Interestingly enough, O’Neill’s rate of hitting home runs is even better – he has clubbed one HR for every 10.1 at bats. However, O’Neill still ranks behind the National League leader in this frequency category; San Diego’s Fernando Tatis has managed to hit 1 HR for every 9.8 at bats to this point of the season.

Currently, Guerrero is projected to hit 49 home runs and O’Neill 40 round-trippers, if they continue on their respective current paces. Of course, there are at least 100 games left to play this year and injuries or prolonged slumps can still occur. In fact, O’Neill’s projected HR total may be an underestimate, in that he has missed 19 of his team’s first 62 games in 2021 as he spent significant time on the IL. On the other hand, Guerrero continues to be an iron man in the Blue Jays’ lineup, playing in all of his club’s first 59 games of 2021. This continues his consecutive game streak as Vladimir also played in all of Toronto’s 60 games in the COVID-shortened season of 2020.

O’Neill’s two-HR effort marked the third time in his career that he has achieved this feat. Guerrero already has four games in which he slugged two home runs and, of course, we can’t forget his memorable three-homer, seven-RBI performance on April 27. To date, five Canadians have hit three home runs in a game – Larry Walker and Joey Votto (Etobicoke, Ont.) accomplished the feat three times each. The details of those three home run games are outlined in the following chart.

Chronological list of Major League Canadian-born batters who have hit 3 HRs in a game

(x) Number of 3 HR games recorded to that point (if the player recorded more than one)

*Walker (April 5, 1997), Votto (June 9, 2015) and Guerrero Jr. (April 27, 2021) homered in three consecutive at bats.

Walker has the most two-home run contests, with 29 such games. Justin Morneau (New Westminster, B.C.) ranks second among Canadians with 19, two-home runs contests in his career.

For good measure, O’Neill also made an outstanding catch while patrolling left field on Wednesday when he slugged two home runs. This is not the first time that his defensive play has received accolades however. He won the National League Gold Glove Award for his outfield play in 2020. O’Neill thus joined Walker (seven-time winner), Russell Martin (Montreal, Que.) and Votto as the only other Canadians to be awarded the Gold Glove for their fielding prowess.

Barring a serious mishap, we can expect to see Guerrero and O’Neill move up significantly on the list of these outstanding home run hitting performances by Canadians, in their quest for each garnering a 40-HR campaign.