Yankees 2019 season review: The five longest home runs

What do you get when you take a Yankees team that hit 267 home runs in 2018 and juice the baseballs? You get 306 home runs, trailing only the Minnesota Twins, who blasted an MLB-record 307 regular season home runs. Even with Giancarlo Stanton absent for most of the season, the Yankees still featured some of MLB’s most dangerous long ball threats. These are the five longest home runs the Bombers hit during the 2019 season.

5. Gio Urshela - August 12th
Distance: 462 ft. | Exit Velo: 111.4 mph | Pitcher: Gabriel Ynoa

Raise your hand if you expected to see Urshela on this list back in April. Judge also hit a 462-foot home run in August, but how can you not give Urshela his rightful place on this list? Judge will be all over home run lists for years to come, but there’s no telling if the future holds many more 462-foot bombs for the third baseman from Colombia. It’s this kind of power that leads many to believe Urshela might be the real deal, and not just a one-hit wonder. Urshela showed impressive bat to ball skills, but if he can mix in light-tower power, he could be the third baseman of the Yankees’ present and future.

4. Gary Sanchez - April 27th
Distance: 467 ft. | Exit Velo: 110.8 mph | Pitcher: Derek Holland

Sanchez was in an 0-for-11 skid coming off his first IL stint of the season, but made up for lost time by blasting this 467-foot grand slam to give the Yankees a 6-0 lead in San Francisco. Among Sanchez’s 34 home runs in 2019, 12 were 430-feet or longer, backing his reputation as one of MLB’s Statcast standouts. Sanchez led the Yankees for the second year in a row with an average home run distance of 417 feet in 2019, an improvement over his average home run distance of 413 feet in 2018.

3. Aaron Judge - August 20th
Distance: 467 ft. | Exit Velo: 116 mph | Pitcher: Joakim Soria

Much was made of Judge’s inability to pull the ball out of the park to left field after his return from an oblique injury. It took him until August 20th, but his first home run to left field came in style. Judge absolutely annihilated a 1-0 fastball from Joakim Soria for his longest home run of the 2019 season. Judge went yard against Soria again just over a week later, this time a 371-foot shot to right field.

2. Luke Voit - May 25th
Distance: 470 ft. | Exit Velo: 109.1 mph | Pitcher: Scott Barlow

Voit broke a 3-3 tie in the seventh inning in Kansas City with this monster 470-foot blast off right-hander Scott Barlow. It’s the longest home run of Voit’s career by a pretty wide margin. Voit’s second longest home run came a few months later off Tigers left-hander Matthew Boyd, a 449-foot bomb. Everybody knows Voit’s country strong, but he took it to another level in Kansas City.

1. Gary Sanchez - June 21st
Distance: 481 ft. | 113.4 mph | Pitcher: Brad Peacock

Sanchez put the Yankees on the board with an absolute rocket on a 1-0 changeup from Brad Peacock. These are the types of moments that make Sanchez such a tantalizing talent. How many players, let alone catchers, can hit a low ball out of the strike zone 481 feet? The list is short. The 481-foot blast was MLB’s eighth longest home run of 2019 and had the lowest height of any of the top 12 longest home runs. With a maximum height of 86 feet, Sanchez basically hit a 481-foot line drive. As good as Sanchez has been in his young career, this level of power leaves the imagination to wonder just how good he could be with a bit more consistency and good health.