The Twins’ 2026 season is in the books, and while the ending wasn’t what anyone in Minnesota wanted, the year still left behind plenty worth remembering. There were breakout moments, surprise production, big wins and, of course, a steady stream of home runs.
That last part matters here because the Twins finished third in the American League in runs scored and 12th in baseball with 187 homers. So as the dust settles, it’s a good time to revisit the biggest swings of the season - the five longest home runs, technically six because one distance showed up twice.
Ryan Kreidler gets the first nod. The Twins picked him up off waivers mainly for his glove, and that still feels like the right read, but he also managed a career-high eight home runs.
His longest came April 13 against the Red Sox, when he came up in the second inning with Minnesota already ahead 10-0 and made it 11-0 with a 438-foot solo shot. The Twins won 13-6, and Kreidler’s blast came with a 77.6-MPH swing, a 109-MPH exit velocity and a 29° launch angle.
That same 438-foot mark showed up again one day later, this time from Byron Buxton against Boston. Buxton’s third home run of the season came off a 2-0 slider from Jack Anderson, who later became a teammate, and he turned a pitch below the strike zone into a 108-MPH drive that traveled 438 feet.
The home run was part of one of Buxton’s best games of the year: he went 4-for-5, hit two home runs and scored four runs as the Twins rolled the Red Sox. Injuries interrupted his season again, but when he was on the field, he was still one of the game’s most impactful players.
Josh Bell shows up more than once near the top of the list, and his first entry came during a June 7 rally against the Royals. Minnesota trailed 6-1 entering the ninth before Bell stepped in with runners aboard and hammered a 442-foot shot into the right-field concourse at Target Field.
That homer cut the deficit to two and briefly turned a blowout into a comeback attempt. Bell’s swing came in at 78 MPH, the ball left at 112 MPH and the launch angle was 25°.
The Twins scored again in the inning but still lost 6-5.
Royce Lewis followed three days later against the Tigers, and his 444-foot blast was one of the clearest reminders of why the Twins remain so intrigued by him. Lewis took Framber Valdez deep in the second inning for a solo homer into the left-center-field seats.
The swing registered at 81 MPH, the ball came off at 108 MPH and the launch angle was 32°. Lewis ended the year with 15 homers, the second-highest total of his Twins career.
Bell then climbed even higher on July 1 against the Astros. His 11th homer of the season sailed over the batter’s eye in center field at Daikin Park and measured 452 feet.
The swing was 78 MPH, the exit velocity was 113 MPH and the launch angle sat at 26°. Bell finished with 21 home runs, fourth-most on the team, and three of them landed among the five longest blasts of the season.
And then came the longest of them all: another Bell homer, this one a 460-foot drive into the right-center-field concourse. Statcast had it at 114 MPH off the bat. Bell’s swing was a little slower this time at 76 MPH, but the contact was cleaner and the 30° launch angle helped send it farther than anything else a Twin hit in 2026.
So Bell claimed three of the five longest home runs, with Lewis, Buxton and Kreidler each adding their own huge swings to the mix. The season is over, but these are the kinds of moments that stick around.
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