Baltimore Orioles: Top 5 home run hitters in franchise history

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The Baltimore Orioles have a long history of production at the plate, but who are the top five home run hitters in franchise history?

From Frank Robinson to Chris Davis, the Baltimore Orioles have employed some prolific home run hitters over the course of their long history.

With three world championships and seven pennants, the Orioles are one of the more decorated organizations in baseball, and their power has been a big reason for that. Including their years as the St. Louis Browns, the team has hit over 13,000 home runs in 118 seasons, good for seventh among MLB franchises.

Birds fans have witnessed plenty of majestic home runs over the years, but when it comes to advancing on the franchise leaderboard, longevity is just as important as power. Every one of the Orioles’ top five home run hitters had a lengthy career in Baltimore. That’s why younger stars like Davis and Manny Machado just missed out, as did some players who spent significant time with other organizations, such as Rafael Palmeiro and Ken Singleton.

In the following slides, we’ll take a look at five names that are synonymous with Baltimore baseball. Together, they have 54 All-Star Game appearances, three plaques in Cooperstown and a staggering 1,597 home runs in an Orioles uniform. Per Wins Above Replacement, all rank among the most valuable players in franchise history.

Those accolades make for a fairly famous bunch, but who knows — some of them may surprise you. Without further ado, here are the top five most prolific home run hitters in the history of the Baltimore Orioles.

5. Adam Jones — 252 home runs

The fifth man on this list is also the longest tenured player on the 2018 Orioles. Jones has been a model of consistency and durability over the course of his six-year, $85.5 million contract extension, and it’s shown up in the box scores.

Jones’ 255 career home runs rank sixth among active players under the age of 33. The center fielder has never hit 35 dingers in a season, but with seven consecutive campaigns of 25 or more, he has been one of the Birds’ offensive rocks.

Jones burst on to the national scene back in 2009, when he earned an All-Star selection and a Gold Glove as a free-swinging 23-year-old. He had his most productive season at the plate in 2012, slugging .505 and finishing sixth in the MVP balloting.

The one major damper on Jones’ career as an Oriole has been a lack of playoff success — the Birds have taken only one series since he joined the team. No one player can do it alone, but his listless postseason slash line of .155/.206/.207 over 63 plate appearances never helped matters.

With a .230/.238/.389 line through May 3, Jones’ run of strong seasons may come to an end this year, and he’s set to be a free agent during the offseason. The O’s may be bad this year, but if this is his last go-round in Baltimore, we need to enjoy it while it lasts.

4. Brooks Robinson — 268 home runs

Robinson is most famous for his glovework, but Orioles fans know that this 1983 Hall of Fame inductee could be a menacing presence at the plate. The legendary third baseman had a number of solid power seasons during an era when runs were difficult to come by.

Signed by the Orioles out of a Little Rock high school in 1955, Robinson went on to play in 23 big league seasons and make a whopping 18 All-Star appearances. He trails only Cal Ripken Jr. in terms of games played for Baltimore, and amazingly enough, the discrepancy is tiny: only 105 appearances.

Ultimately, it is this longevity that put Robinson on this list. His 268 home runs may rank fourth in franchise history, but his .401 slugging percentage is simply unexceptional. Among players with 1,500 plate appearances, it ranks behind even contemporaries like Curt Blefary and Don Buford.

But when Robinson did show consistent power, the results were tremendous. He was the slam-dunk choice for MVP in 1964, when he slashed .317/.368/.521 and led the American League with 118 RBIs. He was also a postseason hero, winning the 1970 World Series MVP by hitting .429 with 2 home runs.

Robinson may not have been the most powerful player in franchise history, but he’s still Baltimore baseball royalty. No wonder he sailed into Cooperstown on the first ballot.

3. Boog Powell — 303 home runs

He may not be in the Hall of Fame, but very few Orioles have reached the highs achieved by Boog Powell. The burly first baseman was among the most feared hitters in the American League for much of the late ’60s and early ’70s.

Born John Wesley Powell in 1941, Boog was a star on Florida’s high school baseball scene before signing with the Orioles in 1959. He had his best offensive season in 1964, when his .606 slugging percentage led the league, but he didn’t earn his first All-Star berth until four years later.

Along with greats like Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson and Jim Palmer, Powell was a part of the core that drove the Orioles to World Series titles in 1966 and 1970. A .262/.324/.437 hitter in October, his playoff resume was nothing special, but he did launch some timely home runs.

Speaking of 1970, that was the year Powell won his MVP Award, becoming the first American League first baseman to get the honor since Jimmie Foxx in 1938 (I’m not counting Harmon Killebrew’s 1969 win — he started most of his games at third that year). At 28, Powell’s star had never been bigger.

He wasn’t so fortunate in the next few years — his playing time shrunk considerably thanks to Earl Weaver’s penchant for platoons. He was traded to the Indians in 1975, enjoying one more good season before declining and hanging up his spikes at age 36. The sudden fizzle prevented him from reaching major hitting milestones, but for a few years, no player in the AL East was as feared as Boog Powell.

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2. Eddie Murray, 343 home runs

The only player with over 500 career home runs to make this list, Murray did his best work in Baltimore, amassing 56.6 Wins Above Replacement over 13 strong seasons. The Los Angeles native enjoyed a lengthy second act as a hired gun, playing for the Dodgers, Mets, Indians and Angels, but nothing ever came close to his production in Memorial Stadium.

Drafted in the third round of the 1973 draft, Murray broke camp in 1977 after a red-hot spring training and wound up appearing in 160 games. His 27 home runs were enough to edge the Athletics’ Mitchell Page for AL Rookie of the Year honors, and with that, a prolific career was born.

Like Adam Jones, Murray was remarkably consistent, hitting 25 or more home runs in eight of his first nine seasons — the exception was the strike-shortened 1981 season, in which he led the league with 22 round-trippers. He never won an MVP Award, but he did make it to the All-Star Game on eight occasions.

In 1988, after 333 home runs as an Oriole, Murray was traded to his hometown Dodgers, but he returned to Baltimore at the 1996 trade deadline for one last pennant race. The Birds ultimately fell to the Yankees in the ALCS, but their veteran first baseman had a strong postseason, hitting .300 with a pair of extra-base hits.

Murray played his final game in 1997, finishing his career with 3,255 hits and 504 dingers. Hank Aaron and Willie Mays are the only other players in history who reached both figures.

1. Cal Ripken Jr. — 431 home runs

You don’t appear in 2,632 straight baseball games without hitting some dingers along the way. Ripken led the Orioles in home runs in only a few of his 21 seasons, but his career total of 431 puts him nearly 100 round-trippers ahead of Murray on the franchise’s all-time list.

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The son of an Orioles farmhand and eventual skipper — Cal Sr. managed Cal Jr. during the dismal 1987 season — Ripken was born to play baseball. After being taken with the 48th pick of the 1978 draft, the shortstop spent four seasons tearing up the minors before joining Baltimore for good in 1982. On May 30 of that year, he began his legendary run of consecutive games, appearing in every single one of the Orioles’ contests until September 1998.

But Ripken was a lot more than just steady and durable. He wasted no time establishing himself as one of the best hitters in the game, leading the American League in runs, hits and doubles en route to MVP honors in 1983. Eight years later, he posted career highs with 34 round-trippers and a .566 slugging percentage, winning the award once again.

On September 6, 1995, Ripken broke Lou Gehrig’s hallowed record of 2,130 consecutive games. His celebratory lap around Camden Yards amid a 22-minute ovation from the fans remains one of the most emotional moments in Baltimore Orioles annals.

Ripken never had light-tower power, but his incredible longevity allowed him to hit more home runs than anyone else in franchise history — and for an organization that dates back to 1901, that’s no small feat.

Next: Why the O's need to trade Manny Machado this month

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