The 2025 World Series begins today, and it is chock-full of players who have yet to win a World Series (well, mostly just Toronto players).
Back when the playoffs started, we entered the discourse of Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge being two of the best players in baseball history. I am not going to sit here and argue about that right now. However, one thing clearly missing from Judge’s resume is a World Series ring. Lucky for him, some of baseball's all-time greats don’t have it either.
Here are my Top 10 MLB Players Without A Ring.
10. Mike Trout
For most of the 2010s, Mike Trout was widely regarded as the best player in baseball. A five-tool phenom for the Los Angeles Angels, Trout won three AL MVP awards by age 27 (2014, 2016, 2019) and four 2nd place finishes. Now in his early 30s, Trout has surpassed 350 home runs and compiled a career OPS close to 1.000. Simply put, in terms of talent and peak performance, Trout is already an all-time great.
Yet for all Trout’s individual brilliance, team success has eluded him. The Angels have reached the playoffs only once during his tenure—an AL West title in 2014—only to be swept in the Division Series. Trout’s postseason stat line consists of just three games (in which he did hit a home run, his lone playoff highlight).
9. Carl Yastrzemski
Few players are as synonymous with one franchise as Carl Yastrzemski is with the Boston Red Sox. “Yaz” patrolled left field at Fenway Park for 23 seasons (1961–1983). An 18-time All-Star and winner of the 1967 AL Triple Crown, Yastrzemski amassed 3,419 hits and 452 home runs in his career. He won seven Gold Gloves for his defensive prowess and was known for his gritty, clutch play. Yaz’s 1967 season brought him his lone MVP. He hit .326 with 44 homers and 121 RBI, almost single-handedly carrying the Red Sox to the pennant.
Yet for all his heroics, Yastrzemski never won a World Series title. He twice led Boston to the brink of glory, only to suffer agonizing defeats in seven-game Fall Classics. In 1967, Yaz’s Triple Crown season, the Red Sox lost a tight World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games (despite Yastrzemski hitting .400 with three homers in the Series). Then in 1975, Boston famously fell to Cincinnati’s “Big Red Machine” in seven games, a Series best remembered for Carlton Fisk’s dramatic Game 6 home run. Yastrzemski was again superb, batting .310 in that Series, but the Red Sox fell just short.
8. Ernie Banks
They called him “Mr. Cub” for a reason. Ernie Banks was the heart and soul of the Chicago Cubs through the 1950s and ’60s and is one of the most beloved figures in franchise history. A pioneer as a power-hitting shortstop, Banks clubbed 512 career home runs and earned back-to-back National League MVP awards in 1958 and 1959. Banks was an 11-time All-Star who later moved to first base, and he finished with over 2,500 hits in a Hall of Fame career.
Incredibly, despite all his personal success, Ernie Banks never even got the chance to play in the postseason. The Cubs teams of his era never finished in first place (this was before the introduction of divisions and playoffs beyond the World Series, something our friend Brett did not know), so Banks holds the unfortunate record for most games played (2,528) without a playoff appearance. The North Siders perpetually languished in the standings, often undermining Banks’ heroics.
7. Ichiro Suzuki
No player’s journey to MLB stardom was quite like Ichiro Suzuki’s. Already a superstar in Japan, Ichiro arrived in Seattle in 2001 and immediately took baseball by storm, winning AL Rookie of the Year and MVP in the same season while leading the Mariners to a record-tying 116 wins. With his distinctive slap-hitting style, lightning speed, and laser-guided throws, Ichiro became one of the game’s premier leadoff hitters. He amassed 10 straight 200-hit seasons and set the single-season hits record with 262 in 2004. Between MLB and Japan, Ichiro totaled an astounding 4,367 hits. Along the way, he picked up 10 Gold Glove Awards for his defensive brilliance in right field.
Yet team glory eluded Ichiro. In his rookie year 2001, Seattle seemed destined for the World Series after that magical 116-win season, but they fell in the ALCS. It turned out to be the closest Ichiro would get. The Mariners never returned to the playoffs during his tenure there, often failing to build a contender around him. Ichiro eventually returned to postseason action in 2012 after a midseason trade to the Yankees, but that, too, ended in an ALCS defeat.
6. Tony Gwynn
When it comes to pure hitting, Tony Gwynn is one of the greats. The late San Diego Padres outfielder won eight batting titles (tied for the second-most in history) and finished his 20-year career with a .338 batting average. Gwynn struck out only 434 times in over 9,000 plate appearances, even in an era of rising strikeout totals. He collected 3,141 hits, all in a Padres uniform, and was a 15-time All-Star.
Despite his brilliance, the Padres as a team had limited success. Gwynn did have two chances on the World Series stage, but both ended in disappointment. In 1984, a young Gwynn helped lead San Diego to its first pennant, but they were overwhelmed by the Detroit Tigers in the World Series. Then in 1998, late in his career, Gwynn and the Padres reached the World Series again, only to be swept by the New York Yankees.
5. Nap Lajoie
In the dead-ball days of the early 1900s, Cleveland’s baseball club was literally named after its biggest star. Yet, the Cleveland Naps were unable to ever capture a championship during the tenure of Nap Lajoie.
Over 21 seasons from 1896 to 1916 Lajoie posted a career .338 batting average and amassed 3,252 hits – at the time of his retirement, that was the second-most in baseball history.
The World Series began in 1903, but Lajoie’s prime years with Cleveland never yielded a pennant or even a postseason berth. The closest he came was in 1908, when the Cleveland Naps finished just a half-game behind Ty Cobb’s Detroit Tigers – a heartbreak largely blamed on a rain-out the Tigers never had to replay. Lajoie hit “only” .289 that year (well below his lofty standards) and later shouldered some blame for the club falling short. In an era with no wild cards or extra playoff rounds, finishing second meant going home.
4. Ken Griffey Jr.
Griffey captivated fans and inspired countless kids to emulate him. He crushed 630 home runs (7th all-time) and was a 13-time All-Star, all while patrolling center field with athleticism that earned him 10 Gold Glove Awards.
However, team success largely evaded Griffey. In Seattle, he helped lift the Mariners from obscurity—most memorably in 1995, when his heroics (including scoring the winning run in the ALDS on an iconic dash around the bases) pushed the M’s to their first-ever playoff series win. But Seattle never reached the World Series during his tenure (and still has yet to make it).
Unfortunately, injuries struck in Cincinnati, and the Reds never made the playoffs during his time there. By the time Griffey made it back to Seattle, he was a shell of his former self.
3. Barry Bonds
Bonds holds MLB’s all-time records for home runs (762) and walks, won an astonishing 7 National League MVP awards. At his peak, Bonds was reached base at an unfathomable .609 clip and slugged .812. Even before his late-career (steroid fueled) power surge, Bonds was a perennial 30–30 threat and a multiple Gold Glove outfielder in Pittsburgh.
His postseason frustrations in Pittsburgh are well-documented: the Pirates lost three straight NLCS trips from 1990-92, including a heart-wrenching Game 7 loss in 1992 (with Bonds’ throw to the plate just missing Sid Bream, who scored the pennant-winning run for Atlanta). Bonds then moved to the San Francisco Giants, where in 2002 he finally got to the World Series. That year Bonds was magnificent in the postseason, batting .356 and clouting 8 home runs. In the World Series against the Anaheim Angels, he hit 4 homers and had a staggering 1.994 OPS, often being walked intentionally in key spots. Despite his performance, the Giants squandered a late Game 6 lead and lost the series in seven games. Outside that 02 year, Bonds struggled mightily in the postseason, hitting only one more home run across 30 games.
2. Ted Williams
Ted Williams got on base better than anyone in the modern era, with a career .344 batting average (the highest of anyone post-1920) and a career .482 on-base percentage. Williams twice won the Triple Crown, twice was AL MVP, and famously hit .406 in 1941, becoming the last player to top .400 for a full season.
If Williams had not lost nearly five prime seasons to military service, a conservative projection would place him at around 670 home runs and 2,400 RBIs, while still batting .344. That would place him firmly in the top 5 all-time home run hitters and likely challenge the RBI record.
His lone World Series appearance came in 1946, right after returning from military service. Boston won the AL pennant and faced the St. Louis Cardinals. Williams, playing with an injured elbow, struggled (going 5-for-25), and the Sox lost the series in seven games when Enos Slaughter of the Cardinals made his famous “Mad Dash” home in Game 7.
The Red Sox narrowly missed the World Series in 1948 and 1949 as well. By the time Boston returned to the Fall Classic in 1967, Williams had retired.
1. Ty Cobb
Cobb owns the highest career batting average in MLB history at .366 and claimed 12 batting titles, including an astonishing nine in a row from 1907 to 1915. By the time he retired in 1928, Cobb held dozens of records, including the most hits (4,189) and runs scored. He was among the first five Hall of Famers inducted (and received the most votes of that inaugural class).
However, Cobb’s Detroit Tigers never captured a World Series championship. In the early part of his career, Detroit won three straight AL pennants (1907, 1908, 1909), giving the young Cobb multiple shots at the title. But they lost each time: twice to the Chicago Cubs and once to Honus Wagner’s Pittsburgh Pirates in 1909. Across these series’ Cobb hit .262, with 17 hits, 9 RBIs, and 7 runs scored across 17 games.
If you haven’t already, please consider subscribing below!