Here are the hardest-hit home runs in MLB
If you turned away -- or even blinked for a second -- you may have missed these home runs. They're the hardest-hit homers that Statcast has tracked since its 2015 debut, and they got out of stadiums in a hurry.
Two names have been most closely associated with the home run exit velocity leaderboards: Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge. The current Yankees teammates have combined to hit 13 of the 21 hardest homers in Statcast history.
Below is a quick look at the top 30 -- including the postseason -- as well as the best of the non-Stanton/Judge group.
1) Stanton: 121.7 mph
Date: Aug. 9, 2018, vs. TEX
Stanton picked up the Yankees' offensive responsibilities with Judge sidelined with a chip fracture in his wrist, seemingly pounding pitch after pitch with authority. His record-setting home run -- which gave him three straight games with a dinger -- was hit hardest of all, slicing through the warm Bronx night and into the second deck of the left-field seats at Yankee Stadium.
Only one ball of any kind has been hit harder under Statcast tracking, and that also belonged to Stanton. He hit a 122.2 mph single on the final day of the 2017 season, when he was chasing his 60th homer of the campaign.
2) Stanton: 121.3 mph
Date: July 25, 2020, vs. WSH
"You can't hit a ball any harder," FOX broadcaster Joe Buck marveled while calling Stanton's epic shot off Washington's Erick Fedde at Nationals Park in the Yanks' second game of the abbreviated 2020 season.
Buck wasn't far off. Stanton nearly tied his record for the hardest-hit homer tracked by Statcast by decimal points, and the 483-foot projected distance on the homer was Stanton's longest since joining the club in December of 2018 and his second-longest ever.
3) Ronald Acuña Jr.: 121.2 mph
Date: Sept. 2, 2023, at LAD
Acu?a made history by creating the 30-60 club just two days before this laser of a homer at Dodger Stadium. The Braves star hammered a pitch from L.A.'s Emmet Sheehan 454 feet to dead center field, recording the hardest-hit ball by a Braves player under Statcast tracking -- by 2.6 mph.
4) Judge: 121.1 mph
Date: June 10, 2017, vs. BAL
Judge's hardest homer came amid an offensive deluge for the Yankees, who sent 10 men to the plate against Orioles starter Chris Tillman in the first inning. The blast -- along with Judge's performance in the 2017 Home Run Derby -- helped the outfielder establish himself as a superstar in the game.
5) Stanton: 119.9 mph
Date: May 8, 2024 vs. HOU
Stanton slugged his way onto the leaderboard for the second time in as many days -- his 118.8 mph home run on May 7 checks in further down the list -- with this 447-foot shot against the Astros' Spencer Arrighetti.
6) Stanton: 119.8 mph
Date: June 11, 2022 vs. CHC
Stanton built on his legend with this shot off Cubs right-hander Matt Swarmer, which was hit so hard that it caromed off the second-deck signage at Yankee Stadium, 436 feet from home plate, and right back into the field of play.
7) Kyle Schwarber: 119.7 mph
Date: Oct. 18, 2022, at SD
This was the hardest-hit and second-longest homer in the postseason since Statcast began tracking, and it also gave Schwarber the hardest homer hit by anyone not named Stanton, Judge or Acu?a. Even more importantly, it put a run on the board for the Phillies in Game 1 of the NLCS against the Padres' Yu Darvish.
8) Manny Machado: 119.6 mph
Date: Aug. 20, 2021, vs. PHI
Machado ripped this laser beam off Phillies lefty Matt Moore that left his bat at just a 15-degree launch angle. That gave it just enough height to skip off the top of the left-field wall at Petco Park and bounce over for the homer.
9) Judge: 119.4 mph
Date: April 28, 2017, vs. BAL
Judge's damage against the Orioles wasn't limited to tape-measure home runs. His 1.637 OPS against Baltimore in 2017 finished as the second-best in history by any player against a single opponent (min. 85 plate appearances), behind only Babe Ruth's 1.720 OPS against the Indians in 1921.
10) Stanton: 119.3 mph
Date: June 6, 2018, vs. TOR
Stanton's personal hardest homer before his record-setter was both crushed and timely; the 416-foot laser beam came just after Judge's 13th-inning homer that broke a scoreless tie with the Blue Jays. Stanton's follow-up provided welcome insurance in the Pinstripes' 3-0 win.
11-T) Elly De La Cruz: 119.2 mph
Date: Sept. 26, 2023, at CLE
The electric rookie crushed one of the hardest-hit home runs in the Statcast era and the hardest by any Reds player. The 21-year-old Statcast darling -- who's also one of the league's fastest players with one of the best throwing arms -- demolished this 467-foot home run.
11-T) Stanton: 119.2 mph
Date: June 23, 2015, vs. STL
Stanton's hardest tater in a Marlins uniform was majestic in every sense of the word. Hit up toward the glass windows at the back of Marlins Park, Stanton's shot off the Cardinals' Carlos Martinez went a projected 479 feet.
13) Stanton: 118.8 mph
Date: May 7, 2024, vs. HOU
Another Stanton addition to the leaderboard -- his first of the 2024 season -- came against a likely future Hall of Famer in the form of Justin Verlander. And while it traveled a mere 421 feet, it had more than enough power behind it to electrify the home crowd at Yankee Stadium.
14-T) Shohei Ohtani: 118.7 mph
Date: April 23, 2024, at WSH
It took Ohtani until his ninth game as a Dodger to hit his first home run with the club, but after that, they started coming fast and furious. On this ninth-inning solo shot, Ohtani demolished a center-cut splitter from Matt Barnes into the right-field stands. It was the hardest tracked home run by a Dodgers hitter, passing Manny Machado's previous record of 115.6 mph by quite a bit and traveling 450 feet on the dot.
14-T) Ohtani: 118.7 mph
Date: July 27, 2024, at HOU
Ohtani tied his own record from earlier in his first season with the Dodgers, socking a 118.7 mph dinger in Houston. He teed off on a fastball from Ronel Blanco, reaching a part of Minute Maid Park few hitters ever find on a 461-foot solo shot.
14-T) Stanton: 118.7 mph
Date: Sept. 28, 2017, vs. ATL
Few hitters in recent memory can claim they were as locked in as Stanton was late in 2017, when he went on a blistering pace to approach 60 home runs. Even more remarkable was how hard Stanton was hitting some of those homers, none harder than his 59th and final dinger, off Braves pitcher Rex Brothers.
17-T) Matt Olson: 118.6 mph
Date: April 11, 2023, vs. CIN
Olson demolished a Luis Cessa sinker in the first inning that went a projected 448 feet to right-center field at Truist Park to give Atlanta a 1-0 lead over Cincinnati. It was the hardest-hit home run Statcast had ever tracked for a Braves hitter, surpassing Jorge Soler's 117.9 mph shot off then-Mets right-hander Noah Syndergaard at Truist Park on Oct. 3, 2021.
17-T) Judge: 118.6 mph
Date: June 11, 2017, vs. BAL
Part three of Judge's dominance against the Orioles on this list is a blast that no one in Yankee Stadium that day is likely to forget. Struck with both elite exit velocity and an ideal 28-degree launch angle, Judge's rocket sailed over the left-center concourse at Yankee Stadium for a projected 495-foot distance reading from Statcast. It tied Kris Bryant for the second-longest homer tracked by Statcast at the time, behind only Stanton's 504-foot blast at Colorado's Coors Field on Aug. 6, 2016.
"I've seen him hit homers, but that one from today is just incredible," said Yankees catcher Gary Sánchez. "I've never seen anything like that."
17-T) Franchy Cordero: 118.6 mph
Date: May 23, 2021, at PHI
Cordero temporarily took over the top of the non-Stanton, non-Judge leaderboard when he blasted a Zack Wheeler fastball a projected 474 feet, onto the right-center field concourse at Citizens Bank Park. It was Cordero's first homer with the Red Sox, who had acquired him from the Royals in the offseason and seen him get off a slow start with his new club. But the man himself wasn't overly impressed with the numbers on his noteworthy bomb. ˇ°I feel like it kind of went a little bit further, but if that's what they got it at, then it is what it is,ˇ± Cordero said through an interpreter.
20-T) Stanton: 118.5 mph
Date: April 23, 2015, vs. PHI
Stanton broke in the Statcast technology with force in the first month of the '15 season, pulverizing an offering from Phillies pitcher Justin De Fratus and sending a heat-seeking laser to left with an incredibly low 13-degree launch angle. This is one of a small handful of homers tracked with a launch angle below 15 degrees in Statcast history.
20-T) Stanton: 118.5 mph
Date: Sept. 21, 2021 vs. TEX
Stanton tied his own 118.5 mph mark, set six years prior, with a low laser to left field against the Rangers in 2021. It's hard to hit a ball 415 feet to left field at Yankee Stadium without reaching the second deck -- unless you hit it as hard as Stanton did.
Hardest home runs hit by players other than Stanton or Judge:
1) Acu?a: 121.2 mph
Date: Sept. 2, 2023, at LAD
2) Schwarber: 119.7 mph
Date: Oct. 18, 2022, at SD
3) Machado: 119.6 mph
Date: Aug. 20, 2021, vs. PHI
4) De La Cruz: 119.2 mph
Date: Sept. 26, 2023, at CLE
5-T) Ohtani: 118.7 mph
Date: April 23, 2024, at WSH
5-T) Ohtani: 118.7 mph
Date: July 27, 2024, at HOU
7-T) Olson: 118.6 mph
Date: April 11, 2023, vs. CIN
7-T) Cordero: 118.6 mph
Date: May 23, 2021, at PHI
9-T) Alonso: 118.3 mph
Date: April 11, 2019, vs. ATL
9-T) Aquino: 118.3 mph
Date: Aug. 8, 2019, vs. CHC
9-T) S¨˘nchez: 118.3 mph
Date: May 3, 2019, vs. MIN
12) Jake Burger: 118.2 mph
Date: April 18, 2023, vs. PHI
13) Ohtani: 118.1 mph
Date: Sept. 11, 2024, vs. CHC
14) Ohtani: 118.0 mph
Date: June 25, 2022, vs. SEA
15-T) Vladimir Guerrero Jr.: 117.9 mph
Date: April 10, 2022, vs. TEX
15-T) Jorge Soler: 117.9 mph
Date: Oct. 3, 2021, vs. NYM
17) Luis Robert Jr.: 117.7 mph
Date: Oct. 3, 2021, vs. DET
18) Jorge Soler: 117.6 mph
Date: April 29, 2022, vs. SEA
19-T) Guerrero Jr.: 117.5 mph
Date: Sept. 20. 2022. vs. BOS
19-T) Oneil Cruz: 117.5 mph
Date: Aug. 29, 2022, at MIL
19-T) Joey Gallo: 117.5 mph
Date: June 5, 2018, vs. OAK
19-T) Hanley Ramirez: 117.5 mph
Date: April 11, 2018, vs. NYY