Kansas City Royals: Top all-time home run hitters

While the Kansas City Royals have few big pure power hitters in their history, they’ve had numerous players with steady home run power.

The Kansas City Royals are the weakest home run hitting franchise in Major League Baseball. Since their inception in 1969, the only teams with fewer round-trippers than the Royals are the four that entered the majors in the 1990s.

Even Seattle and Toronto have more home runs than the KC Royals, and they did not begin play until 1977, eight seasons after the Royals.

Kansas City finished last in the majors in home runs in 2014 but it did not deter them as they reached game seven of the World Series. They hit just 95 homers in2014, ten fewer than the team ranked 29th, and 116 less than the MLB leaders, according to FanGraphs.com.

To make up for the lack of historical power, the KC Royals do lead the majors in triples over the same time period. Not only that, but the top two triples hitters in the big leagues since 1965 are Royals. Still, this is little consolation.

The Royals only have one player with more than 200 home runs over the course of the last 45 years, and a Royals player has hit 30 or more home runs just twelve times in the team’s history. Mike Moustakas set the single-season record with 38 homers in 2017. Prior to that, Steve Balboni held the mark at 36 for 32 years.  In 2019, Jorge Soler crushed the ball and the record, notching 48.

The Kansas City Royals set their franchise record for home runs in 2017. As a team, they hit 193 round-trippers, breaking the mark of 168, set in 1987.

Let’s take a look at the names that make up the top 18 home run hitters in KC Royals history. Any guesses?

Kansas City Royals all-time run leaders: 18. Jermaine Dye (85)

Jermaine Dye was the last Royal to breach the 30-home run plateau when he blasted 33 in 2000 until Kendrys Morales did so in the 2016 campaign. That is also the eighth-best total any player has accumulated while in a Kansas City uniform.

Dye was the everyday right fielder for just two years, but he hit 60 homers total in 1999 and 2000. He went on to hit 325 career dingers, including 44 for the White Sox in 2006.

Dye was named an All-Star for the Royals in 2000 but was traded away during the 2001 season. The Royals received superstar shortstop Neifi Perez in return. Dye hit 228 home runs after the trade. Perez hit four for the KC Royals.

If the Royals could have spent some money of Dye, as well as his outfield running mates Johnny Damon and Carlos Beltran, and signed him to a long-term deal, who knows how many dingers Dye might have belted for the franchise.

Kansas City Royals all-time run leaders: 17. Joe Randa (86)

If only the Royals had someone as steadfast as Joe Randa still playing third! While Randa never had the power potential that third baseman Mike Moustakas had, he was a steady bat in his years with the Royals, especially in his second stint with the team.

From 1999 through 2003, Randa averaged 14 home runs, 85 RBI, a .289 Batting Average, .341 On-Base Percentage, and a .776 OPS. There is still time for Moustakas to match these numbers, and even surpass them, but now, other than averaging just over 15 homers a season, Moustakas is lagging far behind Randa, when the latter was at his best.

There is still time for Moustakas to match these numbers, and even surpass them, but now, other than averaging just over 15 homers a season, Moustakas is lagging far behind Randa, when the latter was at his best.

Though it wasn’t that long ago, Randa didn’t pop into mind as being this steady or productive in this time with the Royals, but the numbers indicate that during this stretch of years, he was a strong enough hitter to make our list of Royals home run hitters.