Tommy Edman isn’t a big dude.
The Dodgers’ super-utility man stands just 5-foot-9 and weighs 193 pounds. He’s not someone you’d expect to see anywhere near the top of MLB’s home run leaderboard.
Yet after Friday night, Edman is tied for the major league lead in homers.
He launched his sixth homer of the season against the Cubs, putting him in some truly elite company. The other players with exactly six home runs? Aaron Judge, Mike Trout, Kyle Schwarber and Tyler Soderstrom.
“It’s a lot of guys who kind of look the same –– and then there’s me,” Edman told reporters after Friday’s game.
The contrast couldn’t be more stark. Judge is a 6-foot-7 Yankees slugger with 62- and 58-homer seasons on his resume. Trout, built like an NFL linebacker, is one of baseball’s all-time greats and is on an absurd tear with all six of his homers coming in the Angels’ last eight games. Schwarber, while not as tall, is built like a brick house and consistently crushes balls out of the park for the Phillies.
Soderstrom is the only other surprising name on this list. The Athletics’ young hitter doesn’t have much big league experience, but at 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds with high draft pedigree, his power potential has always been there.
Then there’s Edman.
His career high for homers in a season is just 13. Last year, he hit six in an injury-shortened 37-game campaign with the Cardinals before being traded to the Dodgers. He’s already matched that total in just a fraction of the games.
What makes Edman’s power surge so fascinating is how unexpected it is. His compact frame and contact-oriented approach have typically produced doubles rather than homers. But something’s clearly clicking for him in Los Angeles.
The way I see it, Edman’s early-season power display shows how baseball can still surprise us. It’ll be fascinating to see if he can maintain this pace or if he’ll eventually settle back into his usual production profile.
For now, though, the smallest guy on the home run leaderboard is standing just as tall as some of the game’s biggest sluggers.
