A number of MLB’s biggest names are on the verge of reaching career milestones.
Staying healthy for a 162-game schedule, for many players, is a roll of the dice. But there are seven players who—as long as they remain healthy and in the lineup regularly—will be joining exclusive hitting and pitching company.
New York Yankees’ designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton, 36, is entering his 17th MLB season with 453 home runs. Smashing 47 round-trippers isn’t out of the question for the three-time MLB All-Star. During the 2017 season, his eighth and final with the Miami Marlins, Stanton slugged a career-high 59 home runs.
Last season with New York, Stanton was hampered by injuries and appeared in only 77 games. By clubbing a 500th home run in 2026, Stanton would become just the 29th player in MLB’s 150-plus year history to reach that plateau. Only three players in Yankees history have belted their 500th home run while wearing pinstripes—Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, and Alex Rodriquez.
Late last season, after Stanton connected for his 450th home run on the road in Baltimore, he quickly addressed the possibility of hitting 50 more, to a reporter from The Athletic.
“A lot of swings away from 500,” Stanton said after a 6–1 win at Camden Yards over the Orioles. “Of course you think about it. You understand that if you bear down, I’m capable of doing it. One at a time. That’s all I can do.”
Aaron Judge, the 2025 American League MVP, needs 32 home runs to join the 400 club. Judge, a teammate of Stanton’s for eight seasons in New York, has been in manager Aaron Boone’s lineup in 150-plus games in three of the last four seasons.
This season could also send the three-time AL MVP over the 900 RBI total. Judge is just 70 RBIs short, a highly attainable number for the 2025 AL batting champion. Now in his 11th MLB season, all with the Yankees, Judge still has a long way to go on the all-time RBI-leader list, which is topped by Hank Aaron with 2,297.
Relief pitcher extraordinaire Kenley Jansen, newly signed by the Detroit Tigers to a one-year contract, can make MLB history quickly in 2026. With two more saves, Jansen ties Hall of Famer Lee Smith with 478; good for a third-place tie among relief specialists. Beginning with 476 saves at the start of his 17th MLB season, Jansen should soon be trailing only Mariano Rivera (652) and Trevor Hoffman (601), Hall of Famers both, on the all-time saves list. Pitching for the Los Angeles Angeles in 2025, Jansen was asked in May about what it will mean to him to surpass Smith.
“It’s going to take me all the way back to that first save, how special it is,” the closer said to The Athletic when reminiscing on a 1–0 win in 2010 against the New York Mets.
The Los Angeles Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman has been a hitting machine for much of his 16-season career. When the Dodgers have their home opener on March 26 against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Freeman will enter the season 33 home runs shy of 400. The three-time World Series champion is also knocking on the door of his 2,500th hit. He begins the season with 2,431 hits, currently good for 120th place in MLB history. With 15 hits, Freeman passes Mark Grace into 119th position. Also, Freeman is looking at reaching his 1,400th career RBI—knocking in 79 runs will get him there.
The San Diego Padres’ Manny Machado needs only 31 home runs to be welcomed into the 400 club. Already with 2,000 hits to his credit, Machado rarely misses an inning of work. Once he appears in his 106th game in 2026, Machado will reach his career’s 2,000th game. In 10 of his 14 MLB seasons, Machado appeared in 150 or more games. During his career, Machado has homered off 272 different pitchers. His first round-tripper came on Aug. 10, 2012, in Baltimore off Luke Hochevar of the Kansas City Royals.
Add Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper to the list of those in line to join the 400 home run club. Harper is 37 homers short. The two-time National League MVP has topped the 30 home run mark in five of his previous 14 seasons. But Harper has a history of battling to remain healthy for a full season, and in 2025 he missed 30 games. Harper, the 2012 National League Rookie of the Year, hit 27 home runs in 2025.
In eight years, Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani has appeared in 1,000-plus games, has amassed 1,000-plus hits, and can add to two more individual milestones during the 2026 season. When Ohtani registers 20 home runs, he reaches the 300 plateau. With 31 RBIs, Ohtani will have collected 700. He also needs just one pitching win to run his record to 40–20.
In a recent Bleacher Report article, Ohtani told reporters via an interpreter that his main goal for 2026 is to play his first fully healthy season of his Dodgers career.
“Just being healthy, the whole year, as a pitcher and as a hitter. I think that’s good for me, obviously, but also good for the team.”
Records are made to fall, and there’s ample reason to believe that in MLB’s 2026 season, possibly early on, all-time lists will be shuffling names with new leaders.
