No Giants player has hit 30 home runs or more since 2004. Do you think any of the 2025 players have a shot at turning that around this year?
Good morning, baseball fans!
Yesterday, we discussed the San Francisco Giants’ inability to maintain the same left fielder on more than one Opening Day, aka the left field curse. In keeping with that theme, there’s been another curse that has haunted the Giants over the years. No one on the team has been able to hit 30 home runs or more since Barry Bonds hit 45 in 2004.
I would say that’s a wild fact, but I was there and watched that baseball. It’s not wild at all. There are several seasons in there where no player hit more than 20.
Unsurprisingly to me, at least, the player to come the closest was Brandon Belt. He hit 29 in 2021, before being sidelined due to injury. Hell, I think he would have broken the curse in at least two other seasons as well if he didn’t have the injury luck of someone who stole gold from a sunken pirate ship.
After Belt, the two closest players were Hunter Pence in 2013 and Matt Chapman in 2024, with each hitting 27 home runs. Then it’s Aubrey Huff, who hit 26 in 2010, and Pablo Sandoval who hit 25 in 2009.
If forced to make a bet on which current Giants player could possibly break that curse, I would have to put my money on Chapman given his performance last season.
Who do you think will break the 30-homer curse?