He hasn’t homered, but is still a good run producer.
Nico Hoerner isn’t a power hitter, not at all, but the last three seasons has been good for at least a few baseballs that left the yard: Ten in 2022, nine in 2023 and seven last year.
Through 61 team games this year, in which he’s played in 57 (all starts), Nico has not homered — at all.
Nevertheless, he’s still having a productive offensive season, batting .296/.343/.372. The .715 OPS is pretty much right on with his career OPS of .718. He’s stolen 13 bases, perhaps heading for another 40-steal season. Nico had a career-high 35 doubles in 2024 and could hit 30 or more again, as he’s doubled 15 times.
All of this has produced a 2.3 bWAR season that could be a 4 WAR or better year when the final story of 2025 is written.
What I want to focus on here is his RBI count. Now, yes, I know RBI aren’t that meaningful a stat, but Nico has 28 RBI with no home runs. If he keeps up that RBI pace he’d wind up with 74, which would be a career high (currently 68 in 2023).
How would that stack up historically, if Hoerner doesn’t homer this year?
I limited this search to the live-ball era (since 1920), because there were 97 player-seasons from 1900-19 when a player had at least 50 RBI with no home runs.
Since 1920, though, there have been just 81 such seasons, the last by Jason Kendall in 2005. Kendall had 53 RBI with no home runs that year. In fact, this has been a rare feat since the leagues expanded in the early 1960s — just eight such seasons have happened in the expansion era, two of those by Ozzie Smith.
The live-ball era record for most RBI without a home run is 79, set by Luke Appling of the White Sox in 1940. Smith, with no homers and 75 RBI in 1987, has the most in the expansion era.
For the Cubs, the franchise record in the live-ball era is 67, by someone you’ve likely never heard of — Zeb Terry, in 1922. Terry, like Hoerner, was the Cubs second baseman that year. He hit just two home runs in a seven-year career of 2,667 plate appearances.
What about a more recent Cubs player? In more modern times, in the expansion era the most RBI by a Cubs player without a home run is 46, by Don Kessinger in 1975. Kessinger also had almost no power, hitting 14 home runs in a 16-year career where he came to the plate 8,530 times. Kessinger also had 42 RBI without a homer in 1967. Those are the only two Cubs seasons in the expansion era where a player had at least 40 RBI without a home run.
Nico Hoerner is very likely to drive in more than 46 runs this year. Over the last three seasons he’s averaged 57 RBI. But will he do it without hitting a ball out of the yard? As always, we await developments.