With a few notable exceptions, it’s been a rough year for the Twins’ Bomba Squad members

It is clear that something was going on with the balls used by Major League Baseball in 2019. That was the year that MLB set a record by hitting 6,776 home runs in the regular season, a whopping 9.9% higher than its previous record. Half the teams in the league set franchise home run records, with the Twins breaking their old franchise mark by the end of August and clipping the Yankees by a single dinger for the MLB record with 307.

A study showed that the 2019 baseballs had inconsistent height on their seams, likely due to “manufacturing variability” by Rawlings, and MLB has since course-corrected. The 2020 season was abbreviated by the pandemic, but the total of 2,303 over 60 games for every team projected to only 6,218 over a 162-game season, and since then the total has come up short of 6,000 every year and figures to do so again this year.

So it’s with that backdrop that we turn our attention back to what has happened to the members of the Bomba Squad, the Twins team that produced an MLB record that has since been tied by Atlanta last year. Sure, five years have passed, and a few of the 2019 Twins have retired from playing ball. But almost everyone from that 2019 team still in the majors is having a rough 2024, at least through two-thirds of the season (all 2024 statistics through July). We’ll go through the 17 players who hit a home run for the Twins in 2019, in the order of their home run totals from five years ago.

Nelson Cruz (41 home runs in 2019), Jason Castro (13), Ryan LaMarre (2)

Cruz took his last nap in a big-league clubhouse last year with San Diego, as the Padres released him at age 43 in July; the seven-time All-Star officially retired over the offseason having hit 464 career home runs, including 76 with the Twins. Castro, who hit the 307th home run of 2019 to give the Twins one more than the Yankees, ended his career as a World Series champion, albeit one on the injured list for Houston in 2022. LaMarre, who returned to the Twins late in the 2019 season after opening the 2018 season with them before getting claimed off waivers by the White Sox, was with the Saints last year but didn’t get called up for a third stint with the Twins.

2019 home run total: 36 2024 home run total: 6

Kepler, 31, is one of only two position players from the 2019 Twins who remains with the team today. He’s not having an outright awful year, but it’s hardly been one that makes one believe the Twins are likely going to retain him when his contract expires after the season. Specifically, his power has all but disappeared. On June 14 Kepler became the all-time home run leader at Target Field with his 81st there, and he added to that total with another homer four days later. He hasn’t homered in 29 games since. This isn’t the first time this has happened to him; he didn’t go deep the entire second half of the 2022 season, and he bounced back to hit 24 homers last year. But his current power rut leaves one wondering what awaits him this offseason when he becomes a free agent.

2019 home run total: 34 2024 home run total: 2

The 31-year-old Sanó's ups and downs with the Twins have been well-documented. After hitting some of the most critical home runs for the Twins in 2019, he hit 43 more in 188 games the next two seasons, but in 2022 he had left knee surgery after a brutal April, came back for three games in July and then went on the IL again before his Twins contract expired that offseason. After sitting out last year, he returned 58 pounds lighter this spring with the Angels and made the team out of spring training. That feel-good story took an absurd turn in May, when Sanó landed back on the IL for that same left knee, then, while on a rehab assignment, burned said left knee by removing the protection from a heating pad and leaving it on too long. After nearly two months out, the Angels activated him June 25, but they released him in July after he went 1-for-22 upon his return (the one hit was a home run, of course).

2019 home run total: 32 2024 home run total: 10

A member of both the 2019 Twins and the 2023 Braves team that also hit 307 homers, Rosario will always be considered a hero in Atlanta, where his bonkers 2021 postseason after getting picked up from Cleveland helped the Braves end a 26-year championship drought. For those heroics, which included NLCS MVP honors, the Braves rewarded him with a two-year, $18 million contract. Neither of those two years amounted to much, though, and he signed with Washington this year on a $2 million deal. He hit only .183 in 67 games with the Nationals before getting designated for assignment last month. The Braves picked him up again — as with 2021, needing outfield depth after losing Ronald Acuña Jr. to injury — and Rosario at age 32 found himself at CHS Field facing the Saints for Class AAA Gwinnett for a few games before rejoining the majors. It’s been mostly more of the same with Atlanta, though he did go deep in both games of a doubleheader July 20 against St. Louis, with his first homer giving the Braves a seventh-inning lead and his second tying the score with his team’s third home run of the sixth inning. Rosario still has a flair for the dramatic.

2019 home run total: 31 2024 home run total: 12

Another guy who will forever be known as a World Series champion; his RBI single broke a scoreless tie in the seventh inning of Texas’ championship-clinching Game 5 victory at Arizona last year. Seattle, seemingly starved for offense for years, gave the 33-year-old a two-year, $24 million contract to be its designated hitter, with the thought that keeping Garver from behind the plate would help keep him healthy. Instead, though, his hitting seemed to suffer, and Garver finally started catching at the end of May. That still hasn’t helped get Garver’s bat going; in his 13 games as a catcher this season, typically with George Kirby starting, Garver is hitting .158 with zero homers and one RBI. In 73 games as a DH, it isn’t much better, as he’s hit .168 with 12 homers and 37 RBI. He’s not the only member of the Bomba Squad having a hard time getting going in the Pacific Northwest this year, though.

2019 home run total: 25 2024 home run total: 0

Now we’ll get into some of the guys who have fallen out of sight. Cron, now 34, has hit some absolute tanks during his big-league career, was selected as an All-Star in 2022 for Colorado and then was picked up by the Angels from the Rockies at the trade deadline last year. But he hit only one homer in 14 games with the Angels before landing on the injured list because of a back injury, returning for only one game the rest of the season, and he appears to have not played anywhere this year after Boston released him in spring training. Judging by his sporadic tweets about hockey and soccer, he does not appear to be in a rush to get back on the field.

2019 home run total: 23 2024 home run total: 0

With Luis Arraez emerging as an everyday second baseman, Schoop was relegated to a role player on the 2019 Twins, albeit one that still hit 23 home runs. Schoop left for Detroit after the season, and he played well enough with the Tigers to get resigned for 2021, then a two-year, $15 million extension for 2022 and ’23. That didn’t go so well, as he hit .202 with 11 home runs in 131 games in 2022 and was released in July 2023 after hitting .213 without any homers in 55 games that season. This year, the 32-year-old Schoop has been playing for Laguna in Mexico, where his teammates have included former Twins farmhand Daniel Palka.

2019 home run total: 22 2024 home run total: 10

It’s a trade that has yet to really pan out for either team. The Mariners, who as previously mentioned always seem to be looking for offense, acquired Polanco, an All-Star starter at shortstop in 2019, as part of a five-player trade with the Twins in January, a deal that sent pitchers Anthony DeSclafani and Justin Topa to the Twins. While DeSclafani and Topa have spent the entire season on the injured list, Polanco hit .195 in his first two months in Seattle before getting placed on the IL due to a tight right hamstring. Since returning, the 31-year-old switch-hitting second baseman has shown some signs of his old form, hitting .269 with five home runs and 12 RBI over his past 18 games.

2019 home run total: 15 2024 home run total: 0

We were completely oblivious to the fact that Gonzalez, 35, has been playing in Japan for the Orix Buffaloes, who lost the championship Japan Series to the Hanshin Tigers in seven games last November; Gonzalez was the starting second baseman. Gonzalez, who last played in the big leagues in 2022 for the Yankees, hit what we maintain was the biggest home run for the 2019 Twins, a three-run shot in Milwaukee off Josh Hader that helped the Twins take the AL Central lead for good.

2019 home run total: 10 2024 home run total: 13

And here we come to the central thesis of this entire piece. If there’s one position player from the 2019 Twins who is having a better time of it in 2024, it’s the 30-year-old Buxton, who has already exceeded his homer and plate appearance total from five years ago. After last year’s DH-only experiment ended with yet another season-ending injury — he played his final game of 2023 a year ago on Aug. 1 — Buxton has not only managed to mostly stay healthy in 2024, but he’s also producing at a level we haven’t seen from him in years. At least, he has of late. Over his past 25 games, Buxton has hit .364 with a .424 on-base percentage and .796 slugging percentage — a 1.220 OPS, as he’s hit nine home runs and 11 doubles while driving in 21 runs during that span. His home run Wednesday was his 13th of the season, giving him the solo lead among 2019 Bomba Squaders still in the big leagues. We do not know if Buxton will remain healthy and productive for the rest of the season, but he at least has reminded us of the player he can be over these past six weeks.

2019 home run total: 8 2024 home run total: 3

As we finish up here, we’re just going to point out that Cave, 31, has been playing nearly every day as Colorado’s right fielder. With 87 games, he’s already played more big-league games this season than any other year since the 91 he played in his rookie year with the Twins in 2018. But despite playing half his games at Coors Field, he has not hit for much power at all, although his most recent homer was a go-ahead, three-run bomb in the eighth inning vs. San Francisco on July 19.

(Editor’s note: Cave did this in his 88th game Thursday night: With two out and two strikes in the ninth inning, he hit a tying two-run homer in a game the Rockies won in the 10th inning.)

2019 home run total: 5 2024 home run total: 1

Adrianza’s 2019 home run total was sparse, but his first of the year was notable in that it came off Justin Verlander and was the only run in a 1-0 victory over Houston on April 29. Since then? Well, like Rosario, Adrianza won a World Series with the Braves in 2021, briefly went to Washington and returned to Atlanta. And like Sanó, Adrianza showed up with the Angels this season before getting released and is now a free agent; he played in eight games in April and May, and his lone homer came off Philadelphia ace Zack Wheeler.

2019 home run total: 4 2024 home run total: 3

At age 27 Arraez is still a unicorn, a Wade Boggs/Tony Gwynn type in a land of 100 Pete Incaviglias. He’s trying for his third consecutive batting title, albeit with his third team, but while Shohei Ohtani is attempting to earn an NL triple crown, Arraez remains pretty much a singles hitter — one of the best in recent memory. He also remains a joy to watch, and the Twins will be reunited with him later this month when they head to San Diego for a three-game series.

2019 home run total: 4 2024 home run total: 0

What has happened to the much-beloved La Tortuga? Like Schoop, he has been in the Mexican League, playing for Aguascalientes; his team just lost a series to Schoop’s team earlier this week. Astudillo, 32, hasn’t played in the major leagues in three years, having played the last of his 22 games for the Marlins on July 27, 2022.

2019 home run total: 2 2024 home run total: 3

The last player on this list might be having the second-best season of any Bomba Squader besides Buxton, even though the 30-year-old Wade, too, has not hit for much power at all this year. (His WAR on Baseball Reference through the end of July was 2.3; it was 0.8 for Arraez.) Wade — who turned into “Late Night LaMonte” after repeatedly delivering in late-game situations for San Francisco in 2021 — is now the regular first baseman for the Giants, with a .292 batting average and .815 OPS. He has power — hitting 18 homers in 2021 and 17 in 2023 — but it just hasn’t shown this year.