Individual and Team-level Franchise Records Set in 2024
Shohei Ohtani. Bobby Witt Jr. Ryan Helsley. Emmanuel Clase. Which other players—and entire teams—tied or set new franchise statistical records in 2024?
Issue #206
Every season there are at least some individual and franchise records that are tied or broken. 2024 was no different, with new hallmarks driven in part from current trends in the game, and others from some truly standout individual achievements.
As I did for the 2023 season, this article is my round-up of most of these new franchise records from 2024. In 2023 there were 10 teams that didn’t have any new records set for the statistics I considered. This year, there were 8 such teams:
Philadelphia Phillies - Kyle Schwarber’s 197 strikeouts is fifth all-time, behind his 2022 and 2023 seasons and Ryan Howard in 2007 and 2008.
Miami Marlins
New York Mets - Pete Alonso came close, as his 172 strikeouts trail only 183 from 2019.
Washington Nationals
New York Yankees - Aaron Judge’s AL MVP season in 2024 appears in many of the Yankees all-time top-ten lists… but didn’t set any records for the stats I considered.
Baltimore Orioles
Minnesota Twins
Houston Astros
What follows is a division-by-division look at the other teams, starting with National League.
Braves
In 2023 the Braves had several new franchise records set, such as Matt Olson’s 54 HR and 139 RBI, and Spencer Strider’s modern-era 281 strikeout record. In 2024, not so much:
Fewest errors in a full season. Leaving aside the shortened 2020 campaign, the Braves this year set a new franchise record with only 68 errors—yes, even fewer than other shortened seasons like 1981, 1994, and 1995, and fewer than years before the schedule expanded to 162 games. As a result, they also tied their franchise record for highest overall fielding percentage at .988 (also achieved in 2021.)
Brewers
Stolen base percentage. Although he only played in 73 games, Christian Yelich swiped 21 bases in 2024—and was caught only once. That equates to a 95.46% success rate, higher than his 93.75% in 2019 (though that year he had 30 SB with only 2 CS in 130 games played.) For his career Yelich has 205 SB vs. only 36 CS, which is a 85.06% success rate—good for 14th all-time, and 3rd all-time for players with 200 or more attempts (behind only Carlos Beltrán and Trea Turner.)
Reds
Strikeouts by a batter. Elly De La Cruz is an exciting player, but in 2024 he did set the all-time Reds franchise record with 218 strikeouts. That far exceeded Drew Stubbs’ 205 in 2011.
Cardinals
Strikeouts by a batter. Paul Goldschmidt had a down year, and that included setting a new, but relatively modest, franchise record with 173 strikeouts. That was five more than Tyler O’Neill’s 168 in 2021.
Saves. Ryan Helsley’s total of 49 saves in 2024 not only led all of Major League Baseball, it also set a new franchise record, edging out the 48 that Trevor Rosenthal posted in 2015.
SO/9 ratio. Sonny Gray had 28 starts and 166.1 IP in 2024, the latter being enough to qualify for leaderboards for rate statistics. He notched 203 strikeouts, giving him a 10.98 K/9 ratio, a bit better than Jack Flaherty’s 10.59 in 2019.
Cubs
Fewest errors in a full season and highest team fielding percentage. As noted for the Braves above, the Cubs this year also set a new all-time franchise record for committing the fewest errors (ignoring the shortened 2020 season.) Their 76 official mishaps were five less than the 81 they had during the shortened 1994 season, and 10 less than the 86 they had in 2004. Their resulting .987 team fielding percentage was also a new team record.
Pirates
Most strikeouts by team hitters. The Pirates’ offense was generally lacking in 2024, and one problem was strikeouts. They set an all-time franchise record with 1,506, nine more than the 1497 they had in 2022.
Dodgers
HR and Extra Base Hits. Shohei Ohtani’s NL MVP 2024 season appears in lots of top-10 all-time Dodgers franchises lists. But most prominent are the two records he set, with 54 HR (Shawn Green had 49 in 2001) and 99 extra-base hits (Babe Herman had 94 in 1930.)
Strikeouts by a hitter. Teoscar Hernández was an important part of the 2024 World Series champions, hitting 33 HR with 99 RBI and a 137 OPS+. But he does continue to struggle with strikeouts, and his 188 this year set a new Dodgers franchise record, seven more than James Outman’s 181 in 2023.
Diamondbacks
Triples. Corbin Carroll had 14 triples in 2024, which tied the 14 that Tony Womack had in 2000.
Padres
Hit-by-pitch for a batter. In 2024, Jurickson Profar surprised many by having his career year at age 31. He set new career highs with 25 HR, 84 RBI, 95 runs, and a .280/.380/.459 slash line. He was also hit by pitch 18 times, not only a new career high for himself, but a new San Diego Padres franchise record, surpassing the 17 that Carlos Quentin had in 2012.
Giants
Team strikeouts by pitchers. The Giants pitchers posted 1,436 strikeouts in 2024, eleven more than the 1,425 they had 2021. It was an overall staff effort, as the team leader was Logan Webb with a relatively modest 172. Blake Snell contributed 145 in his 104 IP, and several relievers averaged more than one strikeout per inning.
Rockies
It was another rough year for the Rockies, as all of the below are negative records tied or set.
Strikeouts by a batter. Ryan McMahon set a new record with 198 strikeouts in 2023, but Ezequiel Tovar surpassed that with 200 in 2024 (McMahon had 185.)
Team runs scored. The Rockies scored only 682 runs, the fewest in franchise history if you ignore strike-shortened seasons. And their 4.21 runs per game in 2024 is also their lowest mark.
Team lowest hits, batting average, and OBP. Hard to score runs if you don’t get many hits, and in 2024 the Rockies set a new low franchise record with a .242 batting average. They had 1,319 hits, lower than any previous season other than the shortened 2020 and 1994 campaigns. They also set a new team record with a paltry .304 OBP, six points lower than the .310 mark in 2023. A few HR here and there saved them from also setting a new low in SLG, as they managed a .400 mark compared with the .398 they had in 2022.
Team lowest triples. They only managed 25 triples in 2024, three fewer than the 28 they had in 2008.
Team most strikeouts by batters. After setting a franchise record in 2023 with 1,543 strikeouts, they went well past that with 1,617 strikeouts in 2024. That is the third most by any team, ever—only the 2023 Twins (1,654) and, stealing some of my own thunder from below, the 2024 Mariners (1,625) have ever had more.
Red Sox
Team most strikeouts by batters. Although not quite as high as the Rockies just noted, the Red Sox hitters did set their own franchise record with 1,570 strikeouts. That total obliterated the former high of 1,386 strikeouts in 2021.
Rays
Most times caught stealing. José Caballero stole an AL-leading 44 bases in 2024, but he also led the AL with 16 CS—and that matched the 16 CS that Carl Crawford had in 2009 and B.J. Upton had in 2008.
Stolen base percentage. In 2023, Taylor Walls had 22 SB and only 1 CS, which established a new franchise record 95.65% success rate. Josh Lowe was also efficient on the bases in 2023, with 32 SB vs. only 3 CS—but was even more so in 2024 as he swiped 25 bags with only 1 CS—a 96.15% success rate. Also of note, Richie Palacios had 19 SB and only 1 CS for a 95% mark.
Fewest team runs scored. What a difference a year can make! In 2023 the Rays scored 860 runs, the most in franchise history. In 2024, that total dropped to 604, the fewest in franchise history (not counting the shortened 2020 season of course.)
Fewest hits and lowest batting average, OBP, and SLG. Hard to score a lot of runs when you set new franchise lows in hits and all three slash line stats. Their 1,241 total hits in 2024 set the new low bar for the franchise, and was far below the 1,293 they managed in 2012. The team’s batting average of .230 was a full eight points lower than 2020’s .238 mark. Their OBP of .302 was five points lower than the .307 low they managed in 2016, and their SLG of .366 was just a hair below the .367 they put up in 2014.
Blue Jays
Most batters hit by a pitcher. Chris Bassitt plunked 16 batters in 2024, tying the franchise record set by Chris Carpenter in 2001 and matched by Alek Manoah in 2021.
Guardians
Saves. Like Helsley for the Cardinals, in 2024 Emmanuel Clase led both his league in saves and set his franchise’s all-time record. His 47 saves was one more than José Mesa notched in 1995. Clase led an outstanding overall bullpen for the Guardians in 2024, with the team as a whole recording 53 saves, also a franchise high mark.
Tigers
Stolen base percentage. Zach McKinstry had a perfect 100% SB success rate in 2024 as we swiped 16 bags and was never caught. By rate that ties Quintin Berry’s 100% in 2012, though Berry had 21 SB that year (his rookie season).
Royals
Total bases and extra base hits. Bobby Witt Jr. had a truly outstanding season in 2024, including setting two new franchise records. His 374 total bases surpassed the 363 that George Brett had in 1979, and his 88 extra base hits were two more than the 86 that Hal McRae had in 1977 (George Brett had 85 in 1979.)
Strikeouts per 9 IP. Cole Ragans had 223 strikeouts in 2024, which on the all-time Royals franchise list is behind only Dennis Leonard’s 244 in 1977 and Zack Greinke’s 242 in 2009. But Ragans pitched only 186.1 innings in 2024, so his 10.77 K/9 IP rate is by far the best in Royals history.
White Sox
Team wins and losses. Obviously. Ignoring shortened-seasons, this club’s 41 wins in 2024 are the lowest total in the 162-game era, and correspondingly their 121 losses are the highest total. Their 3.13 runs scored per game is actually only fifth worst in team history, with three dead-ball era teams scoring less, and the 1968 White Sox (the famous “year of the pitchers”.) Their batting average of .221 is the lowest they’ve had in a long time—since 1910 in fact, when they hit only .211.
Fewest team triples. The White Sox as a team hit an amazingly low 9 triples. But that merely tied their 2022 output of nine also.
Rangers
Fewest team triples. They had more than the above-mentioned White Sox, but the Rangers’ 15 triples 2024 is the lowest total for this franchise (ignoring the shortened 1981 and 2020 seasons).
Fewest double-plays turned. Again, if you ignore the shortened 1981, 1994, and 2020 seasons, then the 2024 Rangers’ total of only 106 double-plays turned on defense set a new low mark for the franchise—and by quite a lot, as the previous low was 133 in 2010.
Mariners
Stolen base percentage. Speedster Victor Robles stole 30 bases and was only caught once in 2024. That is a 96.77% success rate, surpassing James Jones’ 2014 96.43% (27 SB and 1 CS).
WHIP. Logan Gilbert posted a 0.887 WHIP (walks and hits per IP) in 2024, which was lower than the 0.915 WHIP that Félix Hernández had in 2014.
Fewest team hits and lowest batting average. The Mariners had only 1,195 hits in 2024, their lowest ever aside from the shortened 1981, 1994, and 2020 seasons. The low hit total also led to the franchise’s all-time lowest team batting average at .224.
Most team strikeouts by batters. As noted earlier, the Mariners’ batters struck out a whopping 1,625 times—the second most of any team ever, behind only the 2023 Twins.
Fewest double-plays turned. Like the Rangers, the Mariners set a new franchise low for fewest double-plays turned on defense (ignoring the shortened 1981, 1994, 1995, and 2020 seasons.) While the Rangers had 106 this year, the Mariners had only 95—well-under the 114 they managed in 2022.
Lowest WHIP, and fewest team hits or walks allowed by pitchers. The Mariners were a team of extremes in 2024—they didn’t hit much at all, but their pitchers also didn’t give up many hits. The 1,174 allowed is the least in their franchise history (ignoring the shortened 1981, 1994, and 2020 seasons)—and well under their previous low of 1240 in 2014. Ditto for walks allowed, as the 369 surrendered in 2024 is well below the 400 they allowed in 2018. As a result, the 2024 Mariners’ pitchers set a new franchise standard for lowest WHIP—a very stingy 1.077, well below the 1.173 from 2014.
Angels
Team wins and losses. Although not as woeful as the White Sox, the Angels also set a new low for wins (63) and a new high for losses (99) in 2024 (ignoring shortened seasons).
Athletics
Stolen base percentage. 24-year old Lawrence Butler drew attention in 2024 by hitting 22 HR in 125 games. But he also swiped 18 bases without being caught once. That 100% success rate tied what Jimmy Sexton did for the A’s in 1982 when he stole 16 bases with 0 CS in only 69 games.
Team strikeouts by batters. The sad A's in 2023 set a new franchise standard for strikeouts with 1,496. While the team won more games in 2024, the batters actually struck out even more with a total of 1,502.
All data is from Baseball-Reference.com, and also their subscription service Stathead.com. If you are a big sports fan, be sure to check out the latest features at Stathead and the Sports Reference family of sites.
Did you know? I wrote a book with the same title as this Substack newsletter / blog: Now Taking the Field: Baseball’s All-Time Dream Teams for All 30 Franchises. It was published in early 2019, by ACTA Sports, the publisher of the annual Bill James Handbook and other popular titles. You can learn more about it at www.NowTakingTheField.com, or buy directly at Amazon and other booksellers.
