Red Sox: This stat shows how impressive Hunter Renfroe’s career year has been

Red Sox outfielder Hunter Renfroe reached an impressive milestone

It’s clear that Hunter Renfroe is having a career year at the plate in his first season with the Boston Red Sox but let’s take a moment to appreciate how impressive he has been in the context of franchise history.

With the Red Sox clinging to their playoff lives, Renfroe blasted a three-run game-winning home run to deep center field in the sixth inning against the Washington Nationals.

Boston would go on to win the game 4-2 to climb within a game of the New York Yankees, who lost to the Tampa Bay Rays, in the race for the top Wild Card spot. A Seattle Mariners loss later that night put the Red Sox in sole possession of the second Wild Card with two games remaining.

The clutch home run was the 31st of the season for Renfroe, two shy of the career-high he set in 2019 with the San Diego Padres. He obliterated his career-high in RBI long ago and has now reached 96 this season.

These power production milestones put Renfroe in elite company for this franchise. He’s only the 15th Red Sox outfielder to reach 31+ home runs and 96+ RBI in a season.

That’s quite a list. It includes Ted Williams, the greatest hitter who ever lived. Jackie Jenson earned the AL MVP when he made the list in 1958. Carl Yastrzemski did it several times, including his Triple Crown season in 1967 when he won the MVP. Jim Rice was the MVP in one of the years he made this list. Mookie Betts was the runner-up the year he made it in 2016, then he took home the hardware two years later when he set his career-high with 32 homers but drove in only 80.

Several of these players are in the Hall of Fame or potentially on their way to Cooperstown. All of them have made at least one All-Star appearance with the Red Sox – except for Renfroe.

Renfroe was barely in the conversation when All-Star ballots were cast this summer but his exclusion is glaring in the wake of his scorching second half. Renfroe’s .571 slugging percentage since the break ranks fifth in the American League and he’s tied for eighth with 18 home runs during that span.

If we exclude the brief 11-game sample from when he debuted in 2016, Renfroe is on the verge of setting career-highs with a .264 average, .320 OBP, .510 SLG and .829 OPS. He’s already set personal bests with 135 hits, 89 runs scored, 33 doubles, plus the aforementioned RBIs.

Escaping the pitcher-friendly environments in San Diego and Tampa Bay for the cozy confines of Fenway Park certainly unlocked more of his production but credit Renfroe for making the leap from being a role player to a borderline star.

The Red Sox are in a tight race for a playoff spot that will go down to the wire. While the odds appear to be currently in their favor, they wouldn’t be here without the second-half surge from Renfroe.