Dean's MLB Top 10 All-Time Second Basemen
A Blog By Dean
Welcome back to my Top 10 All-Time rankings. I already regret making these lists as they have caused more of a headache than I realized. Not only was I criticized for not having negro league players, but I am now being targeted for not having Japanese players. So, I am going to lay out some new rules.
No players who have been banned from MLB.
You will see that Roberto Alomar is not on this list. You will not see Pete Rose, Shoeless Joe, etc.
No players who took steroids.
Argue with me all you want on this, but if they took steroids, I am keeping them off these lists. Need to be consistent.
No Negro League/International players.
Frankly, I don’t feel like arguing with both sides. If I have them, people are going to go after me. If I don’t have them, people are going to go after me. I plan instead on doing Negro League rankings, where I can dive deeper into more players.
I am going off of Baseball Reference for the majority of my stats. So, the rankings I give players might be different than other sites. For example, on Baseball Reference, Rogers Hornsby is 3rd All-Time in batting average. On MLB’s website, he is 4th.
That being said, I will list players as they are listed on Baseball Reference. Someone like Rod Carew is listed as a 2B even though he played just as many games at 1B. I want to be consistent across all my Top 10s, so these are my rules.
Second base is interesting because you have four players at over 100 bWAR, and then there is a relatively significant drop off. Even when you go to WAR7 or JAWS, the Top 5 doesn’t change at all. I’m not going to lie, there are many old players on this list. Robinson Cano would have cracked the Top 10 if it wasn’t for his steroid use.
Here we go.
10: Lou Whitaker
bWAR: 75.1
WAR7: 37.9
JAWS: 56.5
Key Stats: 2,369 Hits, 244 Home Runs, 1,084 RBIs, .276 Batting Average
Accolades: 5x All-Star, 3x Gold Glove, 4x Silver Slugger, 1984 World Series Champion
Why: Whitaker is one of the biggest HOF snubs at the moment. With the WAR movement in the last decade, Whitaker’s exclusion has become more and more apparent. Just some justifications for Top 10: he is 8th in WAA, 13th in dWAR (2nd best on this list), 13th in JAWS, and 7th in WAR.
9. Frankie Frisch
Key Stats: .316 AVG, 105 HR, 1,244 RBI, .801 OPS, 2,880 H
bWAR: 70.8
WAR7: 44.4
JAWS: 57.6
Accolades: 8x World Series appearances, 4x World Series Champion, 3x Top-3 MVP finishes
Why: Frisch was a superb athlete, and when going off dWAR (I know you can’t just do that), he is the best on this list and fourth all-time with 21.6 dWAR among second basemen. He is 8th in bWAR, 12th in WAR7, and 9th in JAWS. He was very productive into his 30s and never really fell off. Was his MVP kind of a sham? Yeah, if you look at his numbers, it is odd, but they won the World Series that year, and he led in stolen bases (kind of a stretch, I know.)
8. Ryne Sandberg
Key Stats: .285 AVG, 282 HR, 1,061 RBI, .795 OPS, 2,386 H
bWAR: 68.0
WAR7: 46.9
JAWS: 57.5
Accolades: 1x MVP, 10x All-Star, 9x Gold Glove, 7x Silver Slugger
Why: One of the few “modern” players on this list, Sandberg is a sneaky five-tool player who is often overlooked. By “overlooked,” I mean from a five-tool perspective. 2,300 hits, 280 home runs, 344 stolen bases, and a plethora of Gold Gloves.
He took home one MVP, but he also had a pretty impressive streak of nine straight Gold Gloves, where he also set the streak for most games by a second baseman without committing an error.
The only knock on him was no World Series, but that is what you get for playing on the Cubs your entire career.
7. Charlie Gehringer
Key Stats: .320 AVG, 184 HR, 1,427 RBI, .884 OPS, 2,839 H
bWAR: 83.8
WAR7: 50.6
JAWS: 67.2
Accolades: 1x MVP, 6x All-Star, 1x World Series Champion
Why: Gehringer was known for his remarkable consistency and offensive production. He spent his entire career with the Detroit Tigers, where he received MVP votes 13 years in a row. Ten of those years, he was in the Top 10 and won once in 1937. In 1942, Gehringer opted to go into the military, where he would remain until 1945. At the age of 42, he realized his baseball career was over and walked away.
6. Rod Carew
Key Stats: .328 AVG, 92 HR, 1,015 RBI, .822 OPS, 3,053 H
bWAR: 81.3
WAR7: 49.7
JAWS: 65.5
Accolades: 1x MVP, 18x All-Star, 7x Batting Title
Why: I have been grabbing Rod Carew's autographs whenever I can. Carew was one of the purest hitters in baseball history, winning seven batting titles. His high batting average and over 3,000 hits underscore his offensive excellence. While he played both first and second base, his impact at second secures his spot on this list.
5. Nap Lajoie
Key Stats: .338 AVG, 82 HR, 1,599 RBI, .846 OPS, 3,243 H
bWAR: 107.3
WAR7: 60.2
JAWS: 83.8
Accolades: Triple Crown (1901), 5x Batting Title
Why: Lajoie was a dominant figure in the early 20th century, boasting one of the highest career batting averages. His career WAR and JAWS are among the best for second basemen. Leading the league in WAR six times, it is easy to believe that he would have taken home a number of MVPs. The World Series was implemented right during his prime, but he never took home the trophy, so I bumped him back a spot from my initial rankings.
4. Jackie Robinson
Key Stats: .313 AVG, 141 HR, 761 RBI, .883 OPS, 1,518 H
bWAR: 61.7
WAR7: 52.3
JAWS: 57.0
Accolades: 1x MVP, 6x All-Star, Rookie of the Year, 1x World Series Champion
Why: I struggled with where to put Robinson and switched him around multiple times. Of course, his impact on the game is unrivaled in all of baseball, but when looking at statistics, there is much to consider. He didn’t break the color barrier until he was 28, so his 63.9 bWAR only puts him at 16th all-time for 2B. This is why JAWS and WAR7 are so important when making lists like this. Robinson’s WAR 7 is 6th All-Time for 2B, with his 57.7 JAWS placing him 10th. Robinson was productive all of his career, with two of his best seasons coming at age 32 and 33. Unlike many players who regress after age 30, Robinson continued to improve.
3. Eddie Collins
Key Stats: .333 AVG, 47 HR, 1,300 RBI, .853 OPS, 3,315 H
bWAR: 124.4
WAR7: 60.0
JAWS: 92.2
Accolades: 6x World Series Champion, 4x Top-5 MVP finishes
Why: I decided to write about Eddie Collins last as he is another early 20th-century player that you could argue should be #1 on this list, or shouldn’t be on it at all. It is so difficult to compare eras with the game changing so drastically over the decades. I look at Collins and he is still leading the league in stolen bases with 48 at 37 years old. Is that impressive? Or just a product of the time? But are home runs and 105 mph pitches in 2024 just a product of the time? Either way, Collins’ stats are sick, so I am putting here at #2.
2. Joe Morgan
Key Stats: .271 AVG, 268 HR, 1,133 RBI, .819 OPS, 2,517 H
bWAR: 100.5
WAR7: 59.4
JAWS: 80.0
Accolades: 2x MVP, 10x All-Star, 5x Gold Glove, 2x World Series Champion
Why: Initially, I had Morgan at three. However, I decided to pivot and put a more modern player at two. Collins is here if you are going strictly off of WAR/WAR7/JAWS. Really, that is the only stat that Morgan tops him in his home runs, but I am trying to balance the different eras of baseball the best I can. Their peak years are very close, which gives me leeway to do this.
Morgan was a key component of the "Big Red Machine" Cincinnati Reds, contributing significantly to their back-to-back World Series titles. He dominated in 1975 and 1976, leading in WAR and taking home the MVP in both years. As I said yesterday, a player leading the league in WAR and actually winning was a rarity. These also were the two seasons that the Reds would go back-to-back.
1. Rogers Hornsby
Key Stats: .358 AVG, 301 HR, 1,584 RBI, 1.010 OPS, 2,930 H
bWAR: 127.1
WAR7: 73.0
JAWS: 100.1
Accolades: 2x MVP, 7x Batting Title, 2x Triple Crown, .400+ BA in 3 seasons
Why: To me, Rogers Hornsby is the undisputed greatest second baseman of all time. His career .358 batting average is the highest in MLB history for a right-handed hitter( 3rd All-Time), and his 1.010 OPS is astronomical for a middle infielder (10th All-Time.)
Something I did not realize about Hornsby was how significant regression after 1929. When looking into it I found he had a broken ankle, boils (ew), and a frankly just a broken body. Hornsby led the league in WAR an astounding eleven times between 1917 (age 22) and 1929 (age 33.) He would finish with the second-most WAR all-time for an infielder only trailing Honus Wagner.
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