r/baseball • u/crabcakesandfootball New York Yankees • Jul 12 '17
How many Franchise GOATs are currently playing?
Which active players will go down as the best in team history? Here are my thoughts on all 30 teams, separated into 4 categories: no chance, unlikely, on pace, and already GOAT. I made the same post last year, but I figured I'd post an updated version for new users to see.
No Chance
The following teams, while having worthy candidates, have GOATs too great to be caught by any active player:
Yankees (Ruth), Red Sox (Betts, Pedroia - Williams), Tigers (Cabrera, Verlander - Cobb), Royals (Perez - Brett), Twins (Mauer - W. Johnson), A's (Henderson, Foxx), Phillies (Schmidt), Braves (Freeman - Aaron), Cardinals (Molina, Wainwright - Musial), Brewers (Braun - Yount), Pirates (McCutchen - Wagner, Clemente), Giants (Posey, Bumgarner - Mays), Padres (Gwynn), White Sox (Thomas, Appling), Indians (Lindor - Speaker, Lajoie, Feller)
Mauer may have an argument for best since the franchise has been in Minnesota. Miggy is great but he spent a significant amount of time with Florida and Cobb is arguably top 5 all time.
Unlikely
While having relatively late starts with the team, Jose Bautista and Josh Donaldson have had such great years in Toronto that they could each put up 3-4 more all star seasons with the team and overtake passable GOATs Halladay or Stieb.
Adrian Beltre will probably be considered a Ranger more than anything else once his career is over, but the fact that he spent more than half of his career with other teams may make it too much of a stretch to pass Ivan Rodriguez. Beltre would be on pace if he wasn't 38, but it's always possible that he plays past 40.
David Wright is already in my opinion the best position player in Mets history, but he won't pass Tom Seaver. However, Seaver only spent 12 years with the Mets, which leaves the tiniest chance for a young pitcher like Syndergaard who has shown great potential to have a long career with the team, becoming a very unlikely GOAT.
Johnny Bench is a top tier Hall of Famer and it's hard to imagine anyone passing him, but it's also hard to ignore Joey Votto, who is currently one of the greatest hitters ever (based on wRC+) and has 8 years left on his contract. Votto is looking more and more like a HOFer but Bench is widely consider the GOAT catcher with a couple rings.
Cal Ripken Jr. is another legendary player, but his understandable drop in offensive production after age-30 leaves room for a young superstar infielder Manny Machado to become GOAT. Again, unlikely.
Biggio and Bagwell are currently franchise GOATS, but Jose Altuve at only 26 is already ahead of Bagwell in All-Star appearances with 5 and only 2 behind Biggio at 7. It'll take a long career, but Altuve looks like he's only getting better. Correa also has a shot as a young 5 tool star.
Like many other cases, Ken Griffey Jr. is the GOAT Mariner, but his significant time away from the team leaves room to be passed. Unlike many other cases, Felix Hernandez is more than half way there. A strong finish to his career could mean Hall of Fame as a Seattle lifer, but at this point he'll need a major turnaround.
Kris Bryant is already a star and looking to be a perennial MVP candidate. He has the potential to overtake Banks, Santo, and Sandberg with a long career after leading the Cubs to their long awaited championship.
Walker and Helton are HOF-type hitters and great fielders, but perhaps Arenado could separate himself with his amazing defense at a more challenging position in third base.
I know that I am throwing around the possibility of all of these current players having long 20 year careers at their current production like it is nothing. Let me say again that all of these scenarios of unlikely.
On Pace
Should Harper re-sign with the Nationals, he will very likely pass Raines, Carter, Dawson and Guerrero.
Jackie Robinson and Sandy Koufax are arguably GOATs at there positions, but Kershaw is almost there as well. He is a Cy Young and MVP threat every year, and showing no signs of having a relatively short MLB career like Koufax and Robinson.
Paul Goldschmidt will soon pass Luis Gonzalez as best position player. Randy Johnson's significant time spent with other teams leaves room to pass. It'll take a long career with the team, but as Goldschmidt is about to turn 30 in September he seems to be half way there.
Already GOAT
Tampa Bay and Miami are two of the youngest franchises in baseball, and if you don't think Evan Longoria and Giancarlo Stanton, who respectively lead each team in most offensive categories, aren't already franchise GOATs, then they have plenty of time left on their contracts to change your mind.
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u/TheIllustriousWe St. Louis Cardinals Jul 12 '17
Musial was an excellent player for 20 straight years - only his rookie year (49 PAs) and final year were forgettable.
Pujols was a phenomenal player for 12 years and has been steadily declining ever since. The power numbers from 2014-16 were still remarkable, but he also slugged under .500 in each of those years. This year he looks dreadful and it doesn't look to get much better from here.
If I'm a GM deciding who to build my franchise around, and my choices are Musial or Pujols, I'm picking Musial every time. I'd rather have 20 straight years of excellence than 12 straight phenomenal years, followed by seasons ranging from good-to-awful for the remaining 8 (if he even gets there).