Thanks in part to the introduction of bigger bases and pickoff limits, we have witnessed tremendous feats of power and speed over the past couple of years.
MLB never had a player obtain 40 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single season until Ronald Acuña Jr. put up his absurd 41-73 line in 2023. And reaching 50-50 seemed impossible until 2024 with Shohei Ohtani, who often makes the impossible look routine.
A 20-homer, 20-steal season is rather mundane by comparison, but 19 players hit that mark in 2023 and '24, matching the all-time record that was set in 1999. Now it looks like that record could be surpassed in 2025. Actually, it could be demolished.
Entering Tuesday, 13 players had already recorded 20 homers and 20 stolen bases this season, and another twenty players are at 15-15 with about 15 percent of the season remaining.
Many of the players responsible for this 20-20 glut are names that we see often atop such homer-steal leaderboards. But they have company in the form of youngsters in the middle of breakout seasons, veterans returning to their former 20-20 ways, and a handful of players who we simply didn't know had this in them.
Here is a rundown of the players with at least 15 homers and steals who are leading the charge toward breaking another power-speed record in MLB.
THE USUAL SUSPECTS
Already at 20-20: Randy Arozarena (26 HR, 25 SB), Corbin Carroll (29 HR, 23 SB), Jazz Chisholm Jr. (28 HR, 26 SB), Francisco Lindor (26 HR, 27 SB), Zach Neto (25 HR, 24 SB), José Ramírez (26 HR, 36 SB), Julio Rodríguez (27 HR, 24 SB), Bobby Witt Jr. (20 HR, 34 SB)
Work to do: CJ Abrams (17 HR, 28 SB), Jackson Chourio (18 HR, 18 SB), Oneil Cruz (19 HR, 36 SB), Elly De La Cruz (19 HR, 32 SB), Gunnar Henderson (16 HR, 20 SB), Shohei Ohtani (46 HR, 17 SB)
Everyone here achieved 20-20 last season, and going 20-20 is old hat for most of this crew. Carroll and Lindor have done it in three consecutive seasons. On Aug. 3, J-Rod became the first player in MLB history to begin his career with four consecutive 20-20 seasons ... and then Witt joined him when he hit his 20th homer on Aug. 30. Arozarena has strung together five straight 20-20 seasons. And then there is Ramírez, who is up to seven such seasons. The only players in MLB history with more 20-20 years are Barry and Bobby Bonds (10) and Bobby Abreu (nine).
Cruz and De La Cruz will move into that top group once they hit their next home run. Although considering that the Reds' superstar shortstop is homerless over his previous 28 games, that's not quite a gimme. Ohtani isn't running nearly as much after undergoing offseason surgery to repair a shoulder injury he suffered while trying to steal a base during last year's World Series. But with just a few more bags, he will have his fourth 40-20 season, tying Alex Rodriguez for the most by any player. And no one has multiple 50-20 campaigns on their ledger.
SURPRISE, SURPRISE!
Already at 20-20: Byron Buxton (29 HR, 21 SB), Juan Soto (37 HR, 27 SB)
Work to do: Maikel Garcia (15 HR, 22 SB), Josh Naylor (16 HR, 23 SB), Geraldo Perdomo (16 HR, 24 SB), Brice Turang (17 HR, 22 SB)
Here are the real stars of this story -- the 20-20 candidates we really didn't see coming back in March. The supremely gifted Buxton has always had the talent to put together such a season, but his body has repeatedly failed him over the course of 11 seasons. A litany of lower-body ailments especially curbed his basestealing prowess. But after not recording double-digit steals in any year since 2019, Buxton is the first Twins player to have a 20-20 season since 2014. He leads the Majors with the most games with at least one homer and one steal (seven). And, somehow, he just stole third base for the first time a few days ago.
The expectations for Soto's first year with the Mets were obviously high from the moment he signed his record-breaking contract. But given that he had never stolen more than 12 bases in any of his seven prior seasons, no one would have expected him to nab 20 -- and he might get to 30! He stole 11 bases in August alone. By the end of the season, Soto and Lindor could become the third pair of teammates to enter the 30-30 club together, joining Darryl Strawberry and Howard Johnson from the 1987 Mets, as well as Dante Bichette and Ellis Burks from the 1996 Rockies.
Naylor's flirtation with a 20-20 season is even stranger. The slugging first baseman is one of the slowest players in The Show, with a sprint speed that ranks in the 2nd percentile of MLB. But that didn't stop him from racking up 11 steals with the Diamondbacks and then ripping off 11 more in his first 14 games with the Mariners following a trade to Seattle on July 24. If he gets to 25 stolen bases, Naylor will have doubled his career total from 2019-24.
Conversely, Garcia, Perdomo and Turang have always shown good wheels, but hitting for power was never really in their toolbox. Through nine combined big league seasons, no member of that trio hit more than seven long balls in a single year. Now they are all in the mid-teens and rising. Heck, Turang hit 10 home runs last month.
THE 25-AND-UNDER NEWCOMERS
Already at 20-20: Pete Crow-Armstrong (28 HR, 31 SB)
Work to do: Lawrence Butler (18 HR, 17 SB), Michael Harris II (17 HR, 15 SB), Wyatt Langford (21 HR, 18 SB), Ceddanne Rafaela (16 HR, 19 SB), James Wood (27 HR, 15 SB)
Garcia, Perdomo and Turang are all 25 years old, so you could place them in this category. But the key difference is that these six players have already proven to be legitimate power-speed threats. Butler needed just two more steals last year for a 20-20 season. Harris fell one homer shy in 2022 and two homers shy in '23. Rafaela posted a 15-19 line last season, which is identical to his current totals. Langford bashed 16 home runs with 19 steals as a rookie last year while Wood had nine homers and 14 steals in just 79 games during his 2024 debut.
This young crop has always had the skills to record a 20-20 season, and it looks like at least a few of them are raring to break through. PCA has already secured his spot in the club; he arrived at 20-20 before the season's midpoint. He has been mired in a deep slump, though, batting just .163 with a .448 OPS, one home run and two stolen bases since the start of August. Still, Crow-Armstrong is on the doorstep of becoming the second Cubs player to go 30-30. Sammy Sosa did that in 1993 and '95.
NICE TO SEE YOU AGAIN
Already at 20-20: Trevor Story (23 HR, 25 SB), Kyle Tucker (22 HR, 25 SB)
Work to do: Cedric Mullins (16 HR, 20 SB), George Springer (26 HR, 16 SB), Fernando Tatis Jr. (18 HR, 27 SB), Anthony Volpe (19 HR, 16 SB), Christian Yelich (27 HR, 15 SB)
Our fourth and final group contains seven players who know what it feels like to see 20-20 on the back of their baseball card. But it's been a minute since they were on that level. Most of these hitters are one season removed from a 20-20 year, but in Story's case, three full seasons have come and gone. After collecting 24 homers and 20 steals in 2021, he signed with the Red Sox as a free agent but played in just 163 games from 2022-24 due to numerous injuries. He's been able to stay off the IL this year, allowing him to experience his fourth 20-20 campaign.
Mullins has had an equally long wait; although his stolen base totals have remained solid, he hasn't hit 20 home runs in a season since '21, when he became the first Orioles player to go 30-30 since the franchise moved to Baltimore in 1954.
You have to go back to 2019 to find Yelich's most recent 20-20 line. He was the National League MVP runner-up that season as he tallied 44 dingers and 30 steals. But back issues soon appeared and lingered for years, capping his output. Back surgery during the second half of last season seems to have paid off for the 33-year-old, who has hit his most home runs since '19.
Sure, it's extremely unlikely that each of the 33 players mentioned above will achieve 20-20. But even if you raise the bar a little bit and look at the players with at least 17 homers and 17 steals -- about 85 percent of the season is behind us, and 17 divided by 20 is 0.85 -- you end up with 22 players, which would still be a new high mark for the most 20-20 seasons in a single year.
The full breadth of possibilities extends beyond that, too. If Jarren Duran, Trea Turner and/or Jeremy Peña -- all with 14 homers -- suddenly have a Turang-like power surge in September, they will be a part of the 20-20 crowd.
Over the past two seasons, a couple of individuals wowed us with their power and speed. In 2025, the number of players all across the league who are tapping into their dual-threat ability is unlike anything we've seen before.