Reach 30 stolen bases?

In August, I watched a baseball game on TV and a player stole 2nd base easily. During the regular season, he has more than 30 swipes. While seeing him steal bases easily this season, I began to think about a question.

Is it rare to see a player reach 30 stolen bases? To learn a little bit more, I went to check on the MLB website.

 

I’m not going too far. So, I take a look at the stats from 2011 to 2022.

 

In 2011, Michael Bourn played 105 games for the Astros and 53 games for the Braves. Over 158 games, he had 61 stolen bases. He was the only player who recorded 60+ steals in 2011. In total, there were 20 players who had at least 20 stolen bases in 2011. The next season, Mike Trout won the AL Rookie of the Year award. In 2012, he hit .326/.399/.564 with 30 home runs, 83 RBI and he led the majors with 49 stolen bases. However, since then, Trout hasn’t run that much. It’s probably the only time that Trout reached 40+ steals in a single season. In 2012, the number of players with 30+ steals was higher than the number in 2011.

In 2013, there were fewer players to reach 30+ steals. The leader in stolen bases was Jacoby Ellsbury, who had 52 steals. In 2014, the number didn’t change much. Dee Strange-Gordon played for the Dodgers, and he stole 64 bases. At the same time, Jose Altuve and Billy Hamilton each had 56 steals this year.

Things began to change in 2015. In the 2015 season, there were fewer than 10 players who had at least 30 steals. Nonetheless, Dee Strange-Gordon and Billy Hamilton each had 50+ swipes again this year. The next season, the number bounced back a bit. Jonathan Villar led the majors with 62 stolen bases and in total, there were 14 players to reach at least 30 SB.

Nevertheless, stealing became rare in 2017. In total, there were only 6 players who had at least 30 steals. The leader in SB of this season was Dee Strange-Gordon and he had 60 steals. In 2018, no player had more than 50 steals. However, there were more than 10 players with 30+ steals. But in 2019, again, there were fewer than 10 players with at least 30 stolen bases. And, the 2020 season was a shortened one, thus, it’s reasonable to see that no player reached 30+ swipes.

Finally, how about the last 2 seasons? Well, in 2021 and 2022, there were fewer than 10 players to reach at least 30 steals each season.

As we can clearly see, from 2017 to 2022, there was only 1 season that there were more than 10 players to reach 30 stolen bases or more. In 2023, there are some new rules. And, most importantly, the bases are bigger. The MLB would like to see more steals in baseball. Does the league reach its goal? Well, by far this season, there are 10 players who have already stolen 30 bases or more.