Yankees News: Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge Favored To Lead MLB In Home Runs In 2019

The New York Yankees set the home-run record last year, and the team might have a real chance to even top that number in the 2019 MLB season. With two weeks left until Opening Day, Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge are the favorites to lead the league in homers.

Stanton leads the way with 6/1 odds, and he’s followed by Judge at 7/1. Tied for third on the list is Boston Red Sox slugger J.D. Martinez and Oakland Athletics outfielder Khris Davis.

Davis and Martinez finished first and second in the majors with 48 home runs and 43 home runs, respectively, in 2018.

In the season before the Yankees traded for Stanton, he and Judge were the top power-hitters in baseball. Staton won the 2017 NL MVP award when he led MLB with 59 home runs, posting the sport’s highest single-season total in 11 years. Judge was second in the majors and first in the AL that season, hitting 52 home runs as a rookie.

Even as he struggled to adjust to New York in his first season with the Yankees, Stanton hit 38 home runs, which would’ve tied him for the NL lead. Judge was limited to 27 home runs as an injury forced him to miss 50 games.

No current MLB player has been a more prolific home-run hitter over the course of their career. Stanton ranks fourth all-time with a home in every 13.75 at-bats. That puts him behind only Mark McGwire, Babe Ruth and Barry Bonds.

Judge doesn’t have enough career at-bats to qualify for the all-time list. In two seasons as New York’s starting right fielder, he’s averaging a home run in every 12.06 at-bats. He became the fastest player in MLB history to hit 70 career home runs last year, doing so in his first 231 games.

Bryce Harper, whom the Yankees might have signed in free agency if they hadn’t traded for Stanton, is tied for the seventh-best odds to be the MLB home-run leader.