Both Pittsburgh Pirates legend Andrew McCutchen and first baseman Anthony Rizzo of the New York Yankees are expected to accomplish a significant goal in the first half of 2024.
There will undoubtedly be many highlight-reel home runs when the 2024 MLB regular season gets underway, and some of those hits could soon go down in history.
Legendary Pittsburgh Pirates player Andrew McCutchen may smash his 300th home run as early as Opening Day on March 28. He has hit 299 home runs in his career. Anthony Rizzo, the first baseman for the New York Yankees, has played in 13 MLB seasons and has 295 career home runs.
This spring, if nothing goes wrong, the veterans will probably join the 300 home run club as the 160th and 161st members.
Although he added a few more bombs while he was with the Yankees, San Francisco Giants, Philadelphia Phillies, and Milwaukee Brewers, McCutchen performed the most of his heavy lifting while he was a member of the Pirates. Throughout his career, the 37-year-old former NL MVP has averaged 20 home runs per year; in 2023, he hit 12 home runs in 112 games.
In 2011, shortly after the Boston Red Sox dealt Rizzo to the San Diego Padres in exchange for All-Star Adrian Gonzalez, Rizzo hit just one home run in his rookie season. A year later, the Padres traded Rizzo to the Chicago Cubs, where he began to establish himself as an All-Star.
At 34 years old, Rizzo has hit 23 home runs on average in his career. He only scored 12 in 2023 after hitting 32 in 2022 while recovering from a concussion.
Only three other players are currently in the running for a lifetime total of 250–299 home runs.
José Abreu, a 37-year-old slugger for the Houston Astros, is currently ranked 261 despite only having hit 33 home runs in the last two combined seasons and never breaking 36. Aaron Judge, Rizzo’s teammate, has to hit 43 home runs to reach 300. Although he has had 50 and 60-home run seasons, those are the only two occasions in his eight seasons in New York that he has hit 40 or more.
