Most career postseason home runs

To rack up a lot of home runs in the postseason, a hitter needs plenty of chances and the ability to come through on the biggest stage.

These elite October performers have had both, each producing at least 18 big flies in their playoff careers. Here is a look at the top postseason home run hitters of all time.

1. Manny Ramírez: 29 HR
Manny played in 11 postseasons for the Guardians, Red Sox and Dodgers, got 493 plate appearances (third all time) and slugged a typically robust .544. His first two postseason homers, in Game 2 of the 1995 American League Championship Series, helped Cleveland reach the World Series. He was still raking as a 36-year-old for the 2008 Dodgers, when he went 13-for-25 with four big flies in eight October games. In between, Ramírez was MVP of Boston’s victory in the 2004 World Series.

2. Jose Altuve: 27 HR
Altuve has been one of the best postseason tone-setters, clubbing a playoff-record eight first-inning homers. Altuve’s first three postseason homers all came in the same game, as he turned in a three-homer performance in Game 1 of the 2017 ALDS against the Red Sox. While Altuve has had his share of first-inning home runs, his most memorable blast came in Game 6 of the ’19 ALCS, when he sent Houston to the World Series with a pennant-clinching walk-off shot against Aroldis Chapman.

Altuve’s homer to help Houston clinch in Game 4 of the 2021 ALDS gave him at least one big fly in five straight postseasons. He then got to the 20-homer mark for his postseason career with a two-run shot in ALCS Game 1 against the Red Sox before clobbering a solo home run in Game 4 to set the record for most career postseason home runs by an infielder. But Altuve wasn’t done yet, smashing two more home runs in the World Series against the Braves, a solo shot in Game 2 and another solo homer in Game 4.

While the Astros won the World Series in 2022, Altuve failed to hit a home run, which was his first homerless October since 2015; however, he was right back on the board with a leadoff shot in his first at-bat of the 2023 ALDS against Minnesota. He then smashed a solo shot in Game 3 of the ALCS against the Rangers, a huge go-ahead three-run blast in the ninth inning of Game 5 and another solo shot late in Game 7.

3. Bernie Williams: 22 HR
Williams wasn’t known as a huge power hitter, topping out at 30 homers in a season. But as a key member of the Yankees in the 1990s and 2000s, he got lots of October opportunities and took advantage. The center fielder was MVP of the 1996 ALCS against the Orioles, when he homered twice, including an 11th-inning walk-off shot in Game 1. He finished that year’s championship run with six long balls and wasn’t done coming through in the clutch. Williams hit another extra-inning walk-off in Game 1 of the 1999 ALCS against the Red Sox, making him one of three players (along with David Ortiz and Carlos Correa) to end two different postseason games with a homer.

4. Kyle Schwarber: 21 HR
Schwarber clubbed a solo home run in his second postseason at-bat as a rookie in 2015, which helped the Cubs defeat the Pirates in the NL Wild Card Game. It was a harbinger of things to come for the slugger, who finished his first playoff run with five dingers and has continued to mash in subsequent postseasons, setting a record for the most playoff home runs by a left-handed batter. Schwarber also owns the record for most leadoff postseason homers with five.

Schwarber has really flown up this leaderboard since joining the Phillies prior to the 2022 season, crushing 12 postseason homers in a Philadelphia uniform. The first of those was an awe-inspiring tater in Game 1 of the 2022 NLCS against the Padres. It came off his bat at 119.7 mph — the hardest-hit postseason homer in the Statcast era (since 2015) — and traveled a projected 488 feet. Schwarber ended up with three homers against San Diego in that series and hit another three in the 2022 World Series against the Astros.

Schwarber went deep five more times during the 2023 postseason, all of them coming against the D-backs in the NLCS. He led off the Phillies’ first game of the 2024 postseason with yet another homer, taking Mets starter Kodai Senga out of the park in the bottom of the first inning of NLDS Game 1. That broke a tie with Hall of Famer Derek Jeter for fourth place on the all-time postseason home run list.

5. Derek Jeter: 20 HR
Jeter’s postseason batting average (.308) was two points lower than his regular-season mark, but his .465 slugging percentage was 25 points higher. The five-time World Series champion, who had three 20-homer campaigns in his career, essentially had a fourth if you combine his playoff production over 158 games. The damage included two homers in the 2000 World Series against the Mets, which led him to MVP honors. Then there was his famous 10th-inning walk-off in Game 4 of the 2001 Fall Classic against the D-backs, after the clock struck midnight at Yankee Stadium and the calendar flipped to November for the first time in World Series history.

T-6. Corey Seager: 19 HR
For his age, Seager has played in a ton of postseason games. The shortstop, who debuted in 2015, made his seventh postseason appearance in nine seasons in 2023. He slugged eight homers in the 2020 playoffs alone — tied for the second most in a single postseason — and hit two each in 2016 and 2021, plus one in 2017. He crushed six more in the 2023 postseason: one in the ALDS, two in the ALCS and three in the Fall Classic. His Game 3 homer had an exit velocity of 114.5 mph, making it the hardest-hit World Series home run tracked by Statcast (since 2015).

T-6. Albert Pujols: 19 HR
Pujols slugged 19 home runs and picked up two World Series titles across his 20 career postseason series. He was MVP of the 2004 NLCS (four homers) and is one of only 11 players to go deep three times in a postseason game — one of four to do it in the World Series (2011, Game 3). And yet, his most famous homer remains one that came in a series his team lost. That was the 2005 NLCS, when the Cardinals superstar hushed the Houston crowd by annihilating a ball off All-Star closer Brad Lidge for a go-ahead, three-run shot in the top of the ninth. Pujols could have climbed to the top of this list, but only made the postseason three times in the back half of his career (2014 with the Angels, 2021 with the Dodgers, 2022 with the Cardinals).

T-6. George Springer: 19 HR
Springer’s hit multiple home runs in four of his six career postseason appearances, highlighted by a five home run World Series in 2017. He failed to collect a home run in the ’22 and ’23 postseasons — his first two with the Blue Jays.

T-6. Alex Bregman: 19 HR
Bregman began his climb onto this list in his first postseason at-bat as he drove a Chris Sale pitch 400 feet out to left field in Game 1 of the 2017 ALDS against the Red Sox. He has homered in each of his first seven postseasons and has recorded multiple dingers in all but two of those years. Six of his homers have come in the World Series. That’s highlighted by a grand slam in Game 4 of the 2019 Fall Classic.

T-10. Giancarlo Stanton: 18 HR
Although he spent his first eight seasons with the Marlins, Stanton has hit all of his 18 postseason home runs with the Yankees. He moved into a tie for 10th place with his second homer of the 2024 World Series, which came in Game 5 at Yankee Stadium. It was the slugger’s franchise-record seventh homer of the 2024 postseason, with the four he hit in the ALCS against the Guardians earning him series MVP honors. Stanton also had four homers in the 2020 ALDS against the Rays after hitting two against Cleveland in the AL Wild Card Series.

T-10. Reggie Jackson: 18 HR
Well, his nickname is Mr. October for a reason. Reggie slugged .527 over 11 postseasons and is one of three players — and the only hitter — to win multiple World Series MVP Awards, doing so for the 1973 A’s and ‘77 Yankees. In the latter Fall Classic, against the Dodgers, Jackson set a record for a single World Series with five homers (since tied by Chase Utley in 2009 and George Springer in ‘17). The barrage included three big flies in the Yankees’ clinching victory in Game 6 at Yankee Stadium, with Jackson driving in five of the team’s eight runs.

T-10. Mickey Mantle: 18 HR
Mantle played his entire career before the postseason expanded to multiple rounds in 1969, but his 18 World Series home runs are three more than any other player (Babe Ruth, 15). Nine of Mantle’s homers came off Dodgers pitchers, his most of any opponent. That’s tied for the second-most postseason home runs by a player against a single opponent, with Jackson (also against the Dodgers). Only Duke Snider hit more against an opponent — with 10 against the Yankees. Mantle hit one walk-off home run in his postseason career, in 1964 World Series Game 3, off the Cardinals’ Barney Schultz.

T-10. Nelson Cruz: 18 HR
Cruz’s 18 career postseason homers include six in his first postseason in 2010, and eight in 2011, when he set a record for a single series with six in the ALCS. That performance included a walk-off shot in Game 2, off the Tigers’ Ryan Perry in the bottom of the 11th inning. In 2021, he became the 11th player to hit at least one postseason homer after turning 40, swatting a solo homer off Nick Pivetta of the Red Sox during Game 1 of the ALDS as a member of the Rays.

T-10. Carlos Correa: 18 HR
Correa got off to a historic start in the postseason home run department, as he became the first player to hit more than 13 postseason home runs before their 27th birthday. Correa got things started with a multi-homer effort in Game 4 of the 2015 ALDS and has continued to provide October power in the years since. His six big flies in the 2020 playoffs included a walk-off shot in Game 5 of the ALCS against the Rays, which staved off elimination for Houston and made Correa the third player with multiple postseason walk-offs. He then went deep in Game 1 of the 2021 ALCS against the Red Sox, launching a go-ahead solo homer in the seventh inning at Minute Maid Park for the 18th postseason homer of his career.