Shortstop rookie Home Run record: Nomar Garciaparra.

New Yankee SS rookie Home Run record set by Anthony Volpe. Sunday, August 13, 2023

This afternoon in Miami Yankee rookie Anthony Volpe hit home run number 16. All 16 have been hit as a shortstop.

__________________

So the next logical question: who has the rookie SS HR record for any MLB team?

Ernie Banks seemed like a logical candidate. So was Alex Rodriguez.

In his 1954 rookie season Banks hit 19 home runs. In 1955 Banks hit 44 home runs. Ernie Banks topped out with 47 HR in 1958.

Rodriguez had Plate Appearances (PA) of 59 and 149 in 1994 and 1995. "Rookie Status: Exceeded rookie limits during 1995 season"

1996 was the first full season for Alex Rodriguez. He hit 36 home runs. Here is the link for his 1996 splits: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.fcgi?id=rodrial01&year=1996&t=b

All 36 home runs in 1996 were hit by Alex Rodriguez while playing shortstop. But 1996 doesn't count as his rookie season. Rodriguez went on to hit more than 50 HR three times.

For single seasons, Played at SS, a rookie, in the regular season, requiring Home Runs >= 26, sorted by descending Home Runs.

Rk	Player	HR	Place	Season	Age	Team	Lg	G	PA	AB	R	H	1B	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+	TB	HBP
1	Nomar Garciaparra	30	ROY-1	1997	23	BOS	AL	153	734	684	122	209	124	44	11	30	98	22	9	35	92	.306	.342	.534	.875	123	365	6
2	Trevor Story	27	ROY-4	2016	23	COL	NL	97	415	372	67	101	49	21	4	27	72	8	5	35	130	.272	.341	.567	.909	122	211	5
3	Corey Seager	26	ROY-1	2016	22	LAD	NL	157	687	627	105	193	122	40	5	26	72	3	3	54	133	.308	.365	.512	.877	134	321	4

All three of these shortstops hit all of their rookie home runs while playing shortstop. But look at the At Bats of Trevor Story.

	AB	HR	AB/HR
Garciaparra	684	30	22.80
Story	372	27	13.78
Seager	627	26	24.12

Trevor Story had a much better home run rate. Of course, Story played his home games at altitude in Denver, Colorado.

Story	AB	HR	AB/HR
home	176	16	11.00
road	196	11	17.82

The shortstop rookie Home Run record is 30 by Nomar Garciaparra.