Kansas City Royals: Top all-time home run hitters
By Joel Wagler
player. 7. . 2B. Kansas City Royals. Frank White. 6
Kansas City Royals all-time run leaders: 6. Frank White (160)
Longevity certainly played its role in Frank White being in fifth place among all home run hitters who have donned a Kansas City Royals uniform.
A bigger reason is the dearth of legitimate power hitters in team history, especially a lack of big hitters that played more than just a few years in blue.
No one ever called Frank White a power hitter as he hit below ten home runs in eleven seasons. Still, he has a stretch of six seasons, from 1982 through 1987, when he hit 11 or more.
In four of those seasons, from 1984 through 1987, he hit 78 total home runs, nearly half of his career 160 dingers.
White hit 22 in back-to-back seasons, in 1985 and 1986, and drove in a career-high 84 RBI in 1986, winning the Silver Slugger award.
Frank White is without a doubt, the second-best player in franchise history, and with 18 seasons worth of stats, he is going to appear high on nearly every list of statistics.
Even taking these things into consideration, sitting sixth in home runs for the Royals is just another reason to love Mr. White.
7. . DH. Kansas City Royals. Hal McRae. 5. player
Kansas City Royals all-time run leaders: 5. Hal Mcrae (169)
Hal McRae wasn’t much of a slugger, as he put together only two seasons with more than 20 home runs in his career. He also wasn’t a consistent source of home runs as he has six full seasons with less than ten round-trippers.
In 1982, he hit a career-high 27 homers and drove in a career-high 133 runs. Just two years later, he recorded just three dingers and 42 RBI.
Despite this relative up and down nature of his career, he spent a decade and a half in a Kansas City Royals uniform, and he put up solid numbers for most of his seasons.
He is without a doubt an all-time Royals great, and his place with 169 home runs, easily secures his place his team history.
McRae stands out even more in some other statistical categories as he hit 449 doubles as a Royal and drove in 1,012 runs.
Here is an interesting note: McRae’s 169 home runs would have put him 22nd on the Yankees all-time list and 13th since 1969. New York has been able to pay for power, while the Royals have not.