19 milestones possibly within reach during 2019
Baseball is a game of numerical milestones: 3,000 hits, 500 home runs and 300 wins, to name a few, are shorthand for epic careers. Most of those milestones are unlikely to be met this year, but here’s a look at 19 milestones in play for the 2019 MLB season:
Edwin Jackson, free agent
14 franchises
Jackson’s midseason signing by the Athletics tied him with Octavio Dotel for most teams all time. The 35-year-old will break the tie if he signs with someone other than the Dodgers, Rays, Tigers, Diamondbacks, White Sox, Cardinals, Nationals, Cubs, Braves, Marlins, Padres, Orioles or A’s.
Bryce Harper, Phillies
200 home runs
Harper needs 16 to join the 200-home run club. He will not be the youngest member, though; Mel Ott did it at 25 years, 144 days. Harper will be at 25 years, 163 days on opening day (March 28).
Mike Trout, Angels
200 steals
The two-time MVP needs 11 steals for 200 (he has averaged 23.6 over his eight-year career). Trout, 27, would also need 10 more homers to become the 39th player with 250 homers and 200 steals.
Zack Greinke, Diamondbacks
200 wins
Arizona’s ace needs 13 to become the 118th player with 200 victories. The five-time All-Star has at least 13 wins in each of the past eight seasons.
Bartolo Colon, free agent, and CC Sabathia, Yankees
250 wins
Two of baseball’s heftiest pitchers are on the edge of joining the 250-win club. Colon, who started his career before the Rays and Diamondbacks existed, is the active leader in wins at 247, with Sabathia right behind at 246.
Craig Kimbrel, free agent
368 saves
In a year in which two closers (Lee Smith, Mariano Rivera) will enter the Baseball Hall of Fame, Kimbrel needs 35 saves to move into the top 10 all time. In his eight years as a closer, Kimbrel has missed that mark just once.
Miguel Cabrera, Tigers
500 home runs
Cabrera is 35 homers from becoming the 28th member of the 500 club. Just one problem: The soon-to-be 36-year-old has hit more than 25 homers once in his past five seasons (38 in 2016).
Nick Markakis, Braves
500 doubles
The 35-year-old needs 26 doubles to become the 64th player with 500. He hit 43 in 2018 and has just two seasons (2006, 2013) with fewer than 26 in his 13-year career.
Albert Pujols, Angels
2,000 RBI
Pujols needs 18 RBI to become the fifth player with 2,000. The others: Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Alex Rodriguez and Cap Anson. (Pujols, 39, also needs 28 home runs to pass Willie Mays for fifth all time at 661.)
2,000 strikeouts
Playing time is the obstacle here. The 35-year-old first baseman signed a minor league deal in January. If he makes the bigleague squad, he’ll need 14 strikeouts to move into the top 10 all time and 130 to become the seventh player with 2,000.
Bruce Bochy, Giants
2,000 wins
Bochy needs at least 74 wins from his Giants to become the 11th manager with 2,000. The other 10 are Hall of Famers. (And if the Giants win 83, Bochy will move into 10th in wins, passing Leo Durocher.)
Bruce Bochy, Giants
2,000 losses
Just 56 losses by the Giants will make Bochy, who will retire after this season, the sixth manager to reach 2,000. Bochy appears in line to become the fifth manager with both 2,000 wins and losses.
2,500 hits
The longtime Yankee, back in New York after an offseason trade from the Mariners, needs 30 hits to become the 101st player with 2,500. Three thousand hits could be on the horizon in 2021 (he’s under contract through 2023).
Ichiro Suzuki, Mariners
3,090 hits
The Japanese star, who has 3,089 MLB hits, re-signed with the Mariners for their Japan series on March 20-21. He would be the oldest with a hit since Omar Vizquel did it at 45 years, 162 days in 2012.
Royals, Brewers, Padres and Nationals
8,000 games
The expansion class of 1969 turns 50, meaning they all are within 40 regular-season games of 8,000 played: The Royals are 37 away, the Nationals 32, the Brewers 28 and the Padres 24. Only the Royals have won a World Series.
St. Louis Cardinals
10,000 losses
Eight franchises (Giants, Cubs, Dodgers, Cardinals, Braves, Reds, Pirates, Yankees) have won 10,000 games, but just five (Phillies, Braves, Cubs, Pirates, Reds) have 10,000 losses. The Cardinals will become the sixth with their eighth loss of the season.
Aaron Judge, Yankees
100 home runs
Judge has 83 homers in his first 294 games If he can pick up 17 more in his first 30 games, he’ll break Ryan Howard’s record for 100 home runs in the fewest games (325) to begin a career.
Max Scherzer, Nationals
300 strikeouts Washington’s ace hit this number exactly last season. If he can do it again, he’d be just the sixth pitcher since 1961 with back-to-back seasons of at least 300 strikeouts, and the first since Randy Johnson did it from 1998 to 2002.
CC Sabathia, Yankees
3,000 strikeouts Sabathia, who has said he’s retiring after the season, will need to wait a few extra days to become the 17th pitcher with 3,000 strikeouts. He’s just 14 away, but he’s suspended for the first five games of the season after plunking Jesus Sucre in a late September game against the Rays last year.