Last Updated: September 18th, 2026 by Shaiel Ben-Ephraim
Right field is without a doubt a crazy position. It has one major challenge: you have a runner on first, there's a hit to right field, and you have to throw to third base. It's the longest throw any outfielder can make, and it's a very, very common situation. That's why right field is the arm position. You can't hide your arm. Every runner in the league will soon find out, in the first month up in the Bigs, if you have what it takes or you don't, and that determines if they stop at second or they keep running.
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But, of course, right fielders also have to hit. It's a corner outfield spot, so you have to do two very different things at opposite ends of the athletic spectrum at the same time in order to be a great right fielder. And interestingly enough, because of that tension, a lot of the best baseball players of all time have played that position, because once you have those things, you've got it made. Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemente, Mel Ott, Frank Robinson, Reggie Jackson, Tony Gwynn, Vladimir Guerrero. You can build an all-time fantastic lineup just out of the players on this list.
And there's something else that you need to know about right field. Right field is usually where the weirdest quirks in the ballpark are gathered. That's where Fenway's bullpens are and Pesky's Pole. That's where the short porches and Yankee Stadium, Camden's warehouse, right field is usually spilled around city blocks.
And that's where the ballparks get weird. So you also have to know the ballparks; you have to know the quirks of the ballparks you're visiting. It's a very demanding and unique position. So let's talk about who the best ones ever in it are.
How We Made This List
Building this list was not easy. You have to take into account how different the eras are. First of all, Babe Ruth, for example, wasn't playing against all the best players of his time because of racism. Some players were playing in fields that allowed them to hit more home runs, and some in places that buried their power completely.
And then we have a problem with the arm. The best arms are the guys who weren't tested. Like Roberto Clemente didn't throw out that many runners because no one ran on him, and it becomes hard to sort of measure who has the best arm when that's such an important part of the job.
And then, of course, this is a list, not a ranking, so don't worry too much about what number your favorite is in. We're just giving you the best here.
20. Bobby Abreu: The Patient Five-Tool Producer
Bobby Abreu is an interesting one. His hidden credentials are definitely there. We're talking about a guy who got 60.2 WAR and 128 OPS+, so well above average- 19th all-time among right fielders, or more or less, in overall offensive productivity. 288 home runs, 2470 hits, very good there. He was also rarely injured. He had two seasons with 162 games, and just about every other season he had 150-plus.
But the defense was just not there, and it's in a position where that's so important. His career defensive WAR is minus 10.9. He did somehow win the Gold Glove in 2005, but it seems like that was more of a popularity thing. Nothing in the stats deserves it; the highlights don't deserve it either, and his main problem is that he handled the wall. You would never run at it; he didn't get the balls that bounced off it properly, and while his arm was fine, it certainly wasn't the weapon that you want there.
The main thing he's remembered for is the 2005 Home Run Derby where he hit 24 in a single round, but that's kind of an exhibition thing. So I think it's fair to say that Abreu was a fantastic player, not necessarily a great right fielder.
| Bobby Abreu — Career | Total |
|---|---|
| G | 2425 |
| AB | 8480 |
| H | 2470 |
| HR | 288 |
| RBI | 1363 |
| SB | 400 |
| AVG | .291 |
| OBP | .395 |
| SLG | .475 |
| OPS | .870 |
| All-Star selections | 2 |
| Gold Gloves | 1 |
| Silver Sluggers | 1 |
19. Sam Crawford: The Dead-Ball Era Power Source (HOF)
We might have forgotten all about Sam Crawford if it wasn't for Ty Cobb, and that's ironic because Ty and Sam absolutely despised each other when they played together in the Tigers outfield, but it looks like Ty really, really respected him.
Now Crawford has the all-time record for triples, 309 career triples, and today triples are a bit of a curiosity, but in this dead-ball era that was where the power was. You hit the ball into the gap 450 ft away, and you ran like hell. And Crawford was functionally the Aaron Judge of 1911, and it shows in his advanced stats. He has a batting average of .309, which is respectable, but the advanced stats really show why he belonged in the Hall. 75.9 WAR, 144 OPS Plus, 367 stolen bases.
Now, Cobb campaigned so much to get Crawford into the Hall of Fame, and most people believe that's why he got in in '57, because when you're judging him on batting average alone, he just looks good; he doesn't look phenomenal. Today we know how good he was.
And one of the ways that he's remained immortal is because of what he said in Lawrence Ritter's Glory of Their Times. And at that time, Crawford had been forgotten. Ritter had to track him down in the laundromat somewhere, and he turned out to be one of the greatest interviews that any book of baseball has ever graced. So thank goodness for Cobb and for Ritter that the glory of Sam Crawford is remembered today.
| Sam Crawford — Career | Total |
|---|---|
| G | 2517 |
| AB | 9570 |
| H | 2961 |
| HR | 97 |
| RBI | 1525 |
| SB | 366 |
| AVG | .309 |
| OBP | .362 |
| SLG | .452 |
| OPS | .814 |
18. Reggie Smith: The Switch-Hitting Star
Reggie Smith was, statistically speaking, one of the absolute best switch hitters ever. His OPS+ of 137 is tied for 93rd all-time, and among switch-hitters, he is only two better than Mickey Mantle and Chipper Jones. Not bad. Of course, he also had the 314 home runs, seven All-Star teams, one Gold Glove, and 60a. He won the World Series four times with three different franchises, so he certainly knew how to be part of a winning team.
Now, early on, he had that arm that you need for the position; he had an absolute cannon, but it's important to remember that he played a bit more of his games in center field than in right field. And when he won his Gold Glove, he won it mostly as a center fielder. Starting in '71, his arm began to decline, so up until then he was sort of the ultimate right fielder, but he lost it.
He also never led the league in putouts, and that might just be because people were afraid to run on him, but later on people ran on him quite freely. Also important to remember, he was playing for the Red Sox as a Black star at a time when that involved getting a lot of racial heckling, so he was doing this under extremely adverse conditions.
| Reggie Smith — Career | Total |
|---|---|
| G | 1987 |
| AB | 7033 |
| H | 2020 |
| HR | 314 |
| RBI | 1092 |
| SB | 137 |
| AVG | .287 |
| OBP | .366 |
| SLG | .489 |
| OPS | .855 |
| All-Star selections | 7 |
| Gold Gloves | 1 |
| World Series titles | 1 |
17. Enos Slaughter: Country Hardball (HOF)
Let's start by acknowledging what a great name Enos Slaughter has, and then talk about him as a player. So before we start, he lost three of his absolute prime years to the war: 43, 44-45, ages 27 to 29. And you always have to take that into consideration when you lose your prime years like that.
He still had a very impressive career: he hit .300, got 2,383 hits, and his OPS+ is under 24; his WAR isn't quite Hall of Fame level at 55.3, but again, missing those prime years, he definitely would be over it. 10 All-Star selections, eight of them consecutive, four World Series rings, and I don't think it's a coincidence that he won the World Series that often. He was known for his hustle; no one was known as much for it until Pete Rose.
Apparently, when he was in the minor leagues, he was chewed out for walking off the field, and he took it to heart and ran everywhere- out to his position, back in every inning- for 20 years, and he got that reputation. And the Mad Dash, the most famous play he ever played on, was also a great example of hustle. It was game 7 of the 1946 World Series, 8th inning, tied three-three, Slaughter was on first base, and on a hit, Slaughter scored from first, ignoring the third base coach's stop sign. And that is the run that won the World Series.
So that's his legacy. There is an uncomfortable part of his legacy that has to be mentioned. He allegedly helped organize a Cardinals plot to strike rather than take the field against Jackie Robinson in 47, and Jackie insisted that he spiked him as well, though Enos denied it. So, with someone like you to celebrate, you have to take the good with the bad.
| Enos Slaughter — Career | Total |
|---|---|
| G | 2380 |
| AB | 7946 |
| H | 2383 |
| HR | 169 |
| RBI | 1304 |
| SB | 71 |
| AVG | .300 |
| OBP | .382 |
| SLG | .453 |
| OPS | .835 |
| All-Star selections | 10 |
| World Series titles | 4 |
16. Tony Oliva: The Cuban Comet (HOF)
We know him as Tony Oliva, but that's not his real name. In 1961, he tried to defect from Cuba. It wasn't easy then; it's still not easy now. He had to use his brother Antonio's papers, since the passport said Antonio; he remained Tony for the rest of his life.
It was worth it. His debut was unmatched. In 1964, he won not only the batting title with 323, but he also won Rookie of the Year, the first player ever to do both in the same season. He won the batting title again in 65.
And he led the American League five times.
Eight All-Star selections, one Gold Glove as well, and it's important to note that he was known to be a very weak defender when he started, but he built it up through sheer grit and improved himself. That's how he got his career batting average of .304, 220 home runs, and 132 OPS+.
| Tony Oliva — Career | Total |
|---|---|
| G | 1676 |
| AB | 6301 |
| H | 1917 |
| HR | 220 |
| RBI | 947 |
| SB | 86 |
| AVG | .304 |
| OBP | .353 |
| SLG | .476 |
| OPS | .829 |
| All-Star selections | 8 |
| Gold Gloves | 1 |
| Rookie of the Year | 1 |
15. Harry Hooper: The Dead Ball Era Star (HOF)
Harry Hooper should be remembered a lot more than he is. One thing that is worth knowing about this guy is that he basically created Babe Ruth the hitter. At that time, Ruth was a massive ace for the Red Sox, but Hooper wouldn't have it. He saw how good Ruth was and said that it was a waste to have him as a pitcher, and that's when they started him in right field, and that's when he became the Babe Ruth we all know and love.
He was a very good hitter himself. He had 2,466 hits, 53.3 WAR, and 114 OPS+, and he was part of the amazing Red Sox outfield that won the World Series four times: 1912, 15, 16, and 18. They were known as the million-dollar outfield: Hooper in right, Tris Speaker and Duffy Lewis in left. Speaker called his game eight catches against Larry Doyle the greatest that he ever saw, and Speaker saw a lot of catches.
In game five of the 1915 World Series, he hit two home runs and became only the second player to homer twice in a World Series game. So that is quite the legacy in one of the greatest outfields ever seen.
| Harry Hooper — Career | Total |
|---|---|
| G | 2311 |
| AB | 8785 |
| H | 2466 |
| HR | 75 |
| RBI | 817 |
| SB | 375 |
| AVG | .281 |
| OBP | .368 |
| SLG | .387 |
| OPS | .755 |
| World Series titles | 4 |
14. Dwight Evans: The Underrated Champion
Dwight Evans played right field for 19 years in the most difficult place to play. Doesn't get harder than Fenway's right field, 302 ft down the line at Pesky's Pole, and then the wall runs away from the hitter. It's the deepest corner of the park, 420 ft in right center.
Evans played for almost two decades and made it look like just another right field. He won eight Gold Gloves there with a .987 fielding percentage at the position. And the arm, which defines the position, he led the American League in outfield assists twice and finished with 155 career assists. A defensive marvel, no question about it.
If you want to see one play of his, look at the one in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series in the 11th inning, when he managed to catch the ball from Joe Morgan on a dead run and double Ken Griffey off at Indian. That sealed it, and they went up to win the game.
Another great thing about Evans is that his bat kept improving as he got older. In 1981, he led the American League in total bases, OPS, and walks. He still hasn't gotten into the Hall of Fame, even though advanced stats show that he does belong there.
Usually the cutoff for a hitter is around 60 career WAR. He has 67.1, but he's been off the ballot before that stat was well understood, and unfortunately that has really haunted his legacy.
| Dwight Evans — Career | Total |
|---|---|
| G | 2606 |
| AB | 8996 |
| H | 2446 |
| HR | 385 |
| RBI | 1384 |
| SB | 78 |
| AVG | .272 |
| OBP | .370 |
| SLG | .470 |
| OPS | .840 |
| All-Star selections | 3 |
| Gold Gloves | 8 |
| Silver Sluggers | 2 |
13. Vladimir Guerrero: The Bad Ball Hitter (HOF)
There will never be another player like Vladimir Guerrero, and what really makes him stand out is his ability to hit truly bad balls. The guy swung at 45.5% of the pitches outside the strike zone; no other hitter in baseball has ever tried so many of them, and he hit .318 in his career doing it. He knew which ones to go after, and he got them.
There was no such thing as a wasted pitch against Vladimir Guerrero. Pitchers would bounce a slider a foot outside, and he'd double it into the gap. The strike zone basically meant nothing to him, and he did the whole thing with no batting gloves.
His hitting stats are fantastic. .318, 449 homers, 140 OPS+, 9 All-Star teams, eight Silver Sluggers, MVP once, Hall of Fame in 2018, only guy with an Angels cap in Cooperstown.
He was one of the great right fielders, partly because he had the most important element in this package: the arm. Look at his July 7th, 2001 throw, the one from deep right field, 300 feet to home plate on one bounce, with the ball never going higher than 2 feet off the ground.
Absolutely incredible, and he had those cannon numbers. 15 assists in 99, 14 in 2001, 126 for his career, and very quickly runners just stopped testing him. They knew when they were dealing with Vlad, there was no hope at all.
Now, he wasn't necessarily the best fielder. Aside from that, he made a lot of errors; he had a .963 fielding percentage, a little bit lower than the league average, but he got some of the balls that no one else would get, and his arm was an artillery piece, and he could hit. Absolutely elite right fielder.
| Vladimir Guerrero — Career | Total |
|---|---|
| G | 2147 |
| AB | 8155 |
| H | 2590 |
| HR | 449 |
| RBI | 1496 |
| SB | 181 |
| AVG | .318 |
| OBP | .379 |
| SLG | .553 |
| OPS | .932 |
| MVP | 1 |
| All-Star selections | 9 |
| Silver Sluggers | 8 |
12. Paul Waner: Big Poison (HOF)
They called Paul Waner "Big Poison," and the reason is hilarious. He said "big person" in an interview, and because he had that thick Brooklyn accent, it sounded like "big poison," and he was called that for the rest of his career.
Now the guy could straight-out hit. 333 batting average, over 3,000 hits, 3,152, 72.8 or 134 OPS plus. He hit over 300 fourteen times. His best season was 1927 when he hit 380 and won the National League MVP, leading the Pirates to the pennant. Unfortunately, they lost to the '27 Yankees, but what are you going to do?
Now he had the arm, possibly the greatest arm until Clemente. In '31 he led the National League with 28 outfield assists. No one gets those numbers anymore; that's like Dwight Evans's two best seasons combined.
And his brother was also pretty good, Lloyd. Together they hit 5,611 hits. They're the only set of brothers in the Hall of Fame.
Now he did all this without being able to see the ball. He was nearsighted, and until Casey Stengel dragged him to an optometrist, he couldn't see the ball. He said the ball looked like a grapefruit. After that it looked smaller but clearer. So he had 333 without being able to see the ball.
And he also said that drinking helped him hit. He would walk up there with half a pint of whiskey, quote, "fresh in my gut," and the ball came in looking like a basketball. No one does that anymore, but there you go, it worked for him.
Now it took a long time until he got into the Hall of Fame. It took until 1952, which is shockingly long considering what a career he had. Waner, one of the ultimate right fielders.
| Paul Waner — Career | Total |
|---|---|
| G | 2550 |
| AB | 9459 |
| H | 3152 |
| HR | 113 |
| RBI | 1309 |
| SB | 104 |
| AVG | .333 |
| OBP | .404 |
| SLG | .473 |
| OPS | .877 |
| All-Star selections | 4 |
11. Dave Winfield: The Athletic Marvel (HOF)
Dave Winfield was king of the draft, and when I said king of the draft, I meant all the drafts. In 1973, four professional teams drafted him: the Padres 4th overall in the MLB, the Atlanta Hawks for the NBA, the Utah Stars for the ABA, and the Minnesota Vikings for the NFL. He never even played a single down of college football, but they drafted him anyway on the theory that a six-foot-six athlete like that could probably do okay.
He's one of three people in history drafted by four leagues. And he never had to play a single game in the minors. He went straight from the University of Minnesota to the major leagues, and I guess he was ready because he was an All-Star for 12 years straight. He got 3,110 hits and 465 home runs. His 130 OPS+ definitely warrants Hall of Fame consideration.
But of course he's mostly remembered for fighting with George Steinbrenner, Billy Martin, and that entire circus. Steinbrenner signed him for 10 years and 23 million in 1980. He apparently thought he was signing him for 16 million because he misread the contract and held that against him. He told reporters that Winfield is Mr. May, comparing him, of course, to the great Reggie Jackson. And in 1990, he went so far as to pay a gambler to dig up dirt on his own outfielder and got banned from running the Yankees for doing that.
At the age of 41, Winfield answered all his critics when, in Game 6 of the 1992 World Series, in the 11th inning, he won with the run driven in that got Toronto the first title for a non-US team.
And then of course there's the famous seagull story. August 4th, 1983, warming up in Toronto, he killed the seagull with a ball that he threw. He was arrested after the game; charges were dropped, but Billy Martin said it was the first time he'd hit the cutoff man. For years afterward, Toronto fans slapped their arms at him.
He was the first ballot Hall of Famer, and rightly so, and the first one ever inducted as a Padre.
| Dave Winfield — Career | Total |
|---|---|
| G | 2973 |
| AB | 11003 |
| H | 3110 |
| HR | 465 |
| RBI | 1833 |
| SB | 223 |
| AVG | .283 |
| OBP | .353 |
| SLG | .475 |
| OPS | .828 |
| All-Star selections | 12 |
| Gold Gloves | 7 |
| Silver Sluggers | 6 |
| World Series titles | 1 |
10. Larry Walker: The Five-Tool Canadian (HOF)
Larry Walker was a Canadian kid, so of course he played hockey. Grew up in British Columbia; he was a goalie, and he tried out for the juniors but got cut.
He was on a trip to Swift Current, Saskatchewan, when he asked himself, what am I doing here? So he switched to baseball. Signed with the Expos in '84. No other team was interested in this Canadian kid who could barely play baseball at the time. Turned out quite well. Hit .313, 383 home runs, 12th all-time in slugging percentage, 72.7 WAR, 141 OPS+.
'97 was his best season. Hit .366 with 49 home runs and 130 RBIs. Classic. Now, of course, Coors is the reason that he's underrated. 29 of those 49 home runs that year came on the road, though, so he could hit away as well. In '99 he had .379. He had four batting titles as well, and his arm was the best of his generation, rivaled only by Vlad Guerrero.
Now, he was always doubted because, of course, that's why it took him 10 years to get in. He started off with 20.3%, ended up with 76.6, so he just got in by four writers. But I think he deserved it. He was good enough, of course, to warrant it, and also a tremendous fielder and a good guy.
In 1994, he caught a fly ball and thought it was the third out and handed it to a six-year-old in the stands, but it was just the second out and the runner advanced. He got the ball back from the kid and later made sure that he got another one. A class act in Cooperstown.
| Larry Walker — Career | Total |
|---|---|
| G | 1988 |
| AB | 6907 |
| H | 2160 |
| HR | 383 |
| RBI | 1311 |
| SB | 230 |
| AVG | .313 |
| OBP | .400 |
| SLG | .565 |
| OPS | .965 |
| MVP | 1 |
| All-Star selections | 5 |
| Gold Gloves | 7 |
| Silver Sluggers | 3 |
9. Ichiro Suzuki: The Hit Machine (HOF)
No one had a better rookie season than Ichiro Suzuki. Of course, he came in at his peak, 27, already played 9 years in Japan, but still he won MVP and rookie of the year in the same year. Only Fred Lynn had done it before him. He also won a Gold Glove, Silver Slugger, and started in the All-Star Game- the whole nine yards.
In 2004, he had 262 hits, a single-season record, breaking Sizzler's record that he held for 84 years. He had 200 hits in each of his first 10 major league seasons; nobody else had ever done that. When you combine it with his Japanese total, we're talking about 4,367 professional hits, more than anybody at the top level of the sport.
Now, he also had an incredible arm and was a great overall fielder, but is best remembered for the throw of April 2001, when Terrence Long tried to go first to third on a single. Ichiro threw on the line, no arc, from right field, and got him. Japanese media named it the throw, and it stuck after that. Very few people tested him. 2007, he had the first inside-the-park home run in All-Star Game history.
Now, if you look at him with advanced stats, he barely has a hole in advanced territories. OPS plus is 107, not much above average, and his WAR is 60. He was a singles and speed player. He said more than once he could have hit for power and chose not to.
Today maybe there'll be people questioning his candidacy, but he made it with 99.7% of the votes. A fine, fine player, and it shows you that sometimes the advanced stats don't tell you the full story.
| Ichiro Suzuki — Career | Total |
|---|---|
| G | 2653 |
| AB | 9934 |
| H | 3089 |
| HR | 117 |
| RBI | 780 |
| SB | 509 |
| AVG | .311 |
| OBP | .355 |
| SLG | .402 |
| OPS | .757 |
| MVP | 1 |
| All-Star selections | 10 |
| Gold Gloves | 10 |
| Silver Sluggers | 3 |
| Rookie of the Year | 1 |
8. Tony Gwynn: The Pure Hitter (HOF)
There is no greater pure hitter than Tony Gwynn. We're talking about a guy who hit 338 for his career and never hit below 309. He was tied with Honus Wagner for the most batting titles in National League history with eight, topped 3,000 hits with 3,141, and had respectable events; that's despite being a single-hitter: 132 OPS+, 69.2 WAR.
He was an All-Star 15 times, and one of the most incredible things behind all that is his strikeouts: only 434 in over 10,000 plate appearances; that's one in every more or less 24 at-bats. Never struck out more than 40 times in a season, and he might have hit 400 in 1994 if it hadn't been for the strike ending the season; he was at 394.
Play basketball first. He was also drafted by the San Diego Clippers. He invented modern video study; he started traveling with VCRs, taping his own at-bats and opposing pitchers, breaking them down in his hotel rooms. Then everybody started doing it; it gave him an advantage, a massive advantage. He also had five Gold Gloves in right field, so he could also field.
So no question, he was a first-ballot Hall of Famer, and, what, he belongs there.
| Tony Gwynn — Career | Total |
|---|---|
| G | 2440 |
| AB | 9288 |
| H | 3141 |
| HR | 135 |
| RBI | 1138 |
| SB | 319 |
| AVG | .338 |
| OBP | .388 |
| SLG | .459 |
| OPS | .847 |
| All-Star selections | 15 |
| Gold Gloves | 5 |
| Silver Sluggers | 7 |
7. Reggie Jackson: Mr. October (HOF)
Reggie Jackson earned his reputation as Mr. October on Game 6 of the 1977 World Series, the greatest single performance in the history of October.
The details are actually greater than the legend, for a change. Three homers, three swings, three different pitchers; everyone came on the first pitch. And here's the kicker: in Game 5, in his last at-bat, he hit off Don Sutton. So it was four homers and four consecutive swings across two games, five for the series overall, a record.
At the time, he was criticized a lot for his low batting average of .262, but you look at the stats: 563 homers, 74 WAR, and 139 OPS+, 14 All-Star selections, and five World Series rings, including two World Series MVPs; that tells the full story. But of course, he was famously always being struck out; he has the all-time record with 2,597 strikeouts, 13 more than his career hits. So great a slugger, but pretty easy to strike out.
And the nickname started as an insult during the '77 postseason. Thurman Munson was asked a question he wasn't in the mood to answer, so he said sarcastically, "Go ask Mr. October." Reggie loved it, and it's stuck.
And of course there's the candy bar. In Baltimore in 1976, he said, "If I played in New York they'd name a candy bar after me." The Reggie bar was handed out to the fans at the 1978 home opener, and they threw them onto the field after he homered.
Now, he never won a Gold Glove, and he wasn't a particularly good fielder, so he is here for the bat. In October, we're not going to pretend he was some kind of great right fielder or that he had a great arm, but no one will doubt that he deserves to be on this list anyway.
| Reggie Jackson — Career | Total |
|---|---|
| G | 2820 |
| AB | 9864 |
| H | 2584 |
| HR | 563 |
| RBI | 1702 |
| SB | 228 |
| AVG | .262 |
| OBP | .356 |
| SLG | .490 |
| OPS | .846 |
6. Al Kaline: Mr. Tiger (HOF)
Al Kaline overcame childhood adversity and disease to become Mr. Tiger. He had osteomyelitis as a kid; that's a bone infection that requires surgery, and he had to have it done on his left foot, and it always left a mark on how he played. But he won 10 gold gloves while playing on that same foot.
Mickey Mantle had the same disease and almost lost his leg at age 14. Fair to say they both overcame it.
In 1955, at age 20, he won a batting title with 340, younger than Ty Cobb was by one day when he won his first title. And his career batting average is .297; he got those 3,000 hits and 399 home runs, so he's just one short of 400, but his WAR is just fantastic.
He was very much appreciated in his time cuz he was an All-Star selection 15 times, 10 Gold Gloves as well, so you could certainly feel he had to battle with injuries his whole career: 594 games that he missed.
And in '68 Kaline had broken his arm and lost part of the season, and Detroit's outfield was set without him, but Mayo Smith moved his center fielder Mickey Stanley to shortstop, where Stanley had barely played, just to let out his bat, and it worked.
The man hit 379; the Tigers won the World Series in seven. He spent 25 years as the Tigers broadcaster, and he was entering the Hall of Fame on the first ballot in 1980, an absolute legend who did it all.
| Al Kaline — Career | Total |
|---|---|
| G | 2834 |
| AB | 10116 |
| H | 3007 |
| HR | 399 |
| RBI | 1583 |
| SB | 137 |
| AVG | .297 |
| OBP | .376 |
| SLG | .480 |
| OPS | .856 |
| All-Star selections | 15 |
| Gold Gloves | 10 |
| World Series titles | 1 |
5. Mel Ott: Master Melvin (HOF)
When Melott came up to the majors at age 17, he had a really funny swing, and because of that funny swing, John McGraw refused to send him to the minors. He wanted to protect that swing; it was going to work for him, and he knew a lesser coach would mess with it. So he sat on the bench, protected until he was ready.
He lifted his front leg high before every pitch. No one taught him that; everyone thought it was wrong, but McGraw knew it would work, and it did. He got the .304 career average, 511 home runs, 1558.
His 511 homers were the National League record until Willie Mays passed him in '66. Now those numbers were definitely somewhat inflated because of the Polo Grounds; right field was 257 ft down the line, and so 323 of his home runs, about 63%, came at home.
So you can easily imagine that he probably would have gotten 400 and something without it. But he had more ballpark road home runs than any hitter in National League history when he retired, so he was going to be great no matter what; that just inflated his numbers somewhat.
Now here's an interesting thing you might not know about him. The saying "nice guys finish last" was about him. He managed the Giants from '42 to '48. Leo Durocher, who was known as a bit of a not-nice guy, was talking about how Ott was such a lovely individual and said, "Where did that get him? He's in seventh place." That was later changed to "nice guys finish last," inspired by Mel Ott.
Sadly, Mel died in a car accident when he was just 49, but his legend will remain.
| Mel Ott — Career | Total |
|---|---|
| G | 2730 |
| AB | 9456 |
| H | 2876 |
| HR | 511 |
| RBI | 1860 |
| SB | 89 |
| AVG | .304 |
| OBP | .414 |
| SLG | .533 |
| OPS | .947 |
| All-Star selections | 11 |
| World Series titles | 1 |
4. Frank Robinson: Breaking Barriers (HOF)
Frank Robinson grew up among royalty. He grew up in West Oakland and went to McClymonds High School, where he played alongside Bill Russell (yep, that Bill Russell) and Curt Flood and Vada Pinson, legends from the same block who changed their sports forever.
In '56, he was Rookie of the Year at age 20, with 38 home runs; that was a record at the time. And he remains the only player in the history of baseball to win MVP in both leagues: the National League in 61 and the American League in 66.
Now, his greatest season was the Triple Crown of 66, when, of course, he won the MVP. And what you might want to remember is that Cincinnati had traded him the year before because their general manager decided he was an old 30 and past his prime. That didn't work out so well for him.
And maybe the crowning achievement of it all, in 75 he became the first African American manager in MLB history. Bill Russell, by the way, was the first African American manager in the NBA. And in his first at-bat as manager, he pinch-hit for himself and hit a home run into the left-field bleachers.
He was the '89 Manager of the Year. Hall of Famer, first ballot in '82. Left his mark in every way, historically and as one of the greatest players of her generation.
| Frank Robinson — Career | Total |
|---|---|
| G | 2808 |
| AB | 10006 |
| H | 2943 |
| HR | 586 |
| RBI | 1812 |
| SB | 204 |
| AVG | .294 |
| OBP | .389 |
| SLG | .537 |
| OPS | .926 |
| MVP | 2 |
| All-Star selections | 12 |
| Gold Gloves | 1 |
| World Series titles | 2 |
| Rookie of the Year | 1 |
3. Roberto Clemente: The Great Humanitarian (HOF)
The heart of this position is the arm, and no one had a better arm than Roberto Clemente. 266 career outfield assists, 19 in a season four separate times: 60, 61, 62, and 67. 12 consecutive Gold Gloves, tied with Willie Mays for the most ever by an outfielder. Dwight Evans had 155, Guerrero at 126, Abreu at 130. Clemente has more than double what most of them have; only Dwight Evans has more than half.
The arm has an origin, of course. He threw the javelin in high school in Puerto Rico, so throw that javelin, kids. And he would have had a lot more assists if runners hadn't simply stopped running on him. It would be insane to run out Clemente past the mid-1960s, although some people occasionally still did.
And of course the bat: 317, 3000 hits. There's really no question that he would have gotten there on his bat alone.
And he was a great humanitarian; that's why he has an award with his name on it. He spent his whole career being condescended to because of his race, and he died while carrying earthquake relief to Nicaragua, in a plane that went down off Puerto Rico at just 38. His body was never recovered. There was no waiting time; he was elected to the Hall in 1973, and he's one of its brightest lights.
| Roberto Clemente — Career | Total |
|---|---|
| G | 2433 |
| AB | 9454 |
| H | 3000 |
| HR | 240 |
| RBI | 1305 |
| SB | 83 |
| AVG | .317 |
| OBP | .359 |
| SLG | .475 |
| OPS | .834 |
| MVP | 1 |
| All-Star selections | 12 |
| Gold Gloves | 12 |
| World Series titles | 2 |
2. Hank Aaron: Hammerin' Hank (HOF)
Everyone thinks of Hammerin' Hank as a hitter, and there's good reason to do that. The number that defines him isn't those 755 home runs, as impressive as they are.
The number that defines him is the 6,856 total bases. It's an all-time record, and it's a margin of 645 over anyone else. So he just got way more bases than anyone else.
And isn't that what offensive baseball is all about? It's the sum of everything: singles, doubles, triples, homers. He also has the career records for RBI and extra-base hits.
No one did more. But we're here to also talk about the right field position, and people forget he was a genuinely good right fielder. He had three Gold Gloves, three in a row, actually, '58, '59, '60, and 201 career outfield assists. So he was truly excellent, at least in his prime, and very few people talk about it because he was so darn good offensively.
And yeah, he had not only 755 home runs and over a .300 career batting average, but 143.1 WAR and 155 OPS+, and 21 consecutive All-Star selections. So certainly about as good as the right fielder gets. And he also had speed; in '63, he stole 31 bases as well, hitting 44 home runs.
So we are talking about a true legend, and he received thousands of letters a week with racial slurs and death threats, and none of it stopped him from getting the most bases of anyone in the history of the sport.
| Hank Aaron — Career | Total |
|---|---|
| G | 3298 |
| AB | 12364 |
| H | 3771 |
| HR | 755 |
| RBI | 2297 |
| SB | 240 |
| AVG | .305 |
| OBP | .374 |
| SLG | .555 |
| OPS | .929 |
| MVP | 1 |
| All-Star selections | 21 |
| Gold Gloves | 3 |
| World Series titles | 1 |
1. Babe Ruth: The Sultan of Swat (HOF)
Babe Ruth. You might have heard of this next guy. There are so many numbers to deal with with this guy, but the real clincher is the OPS+ of 206, the highest in baseball history. And that means that he was more than twice as productive as the average hitter of his time.
Even Ted Williams only had 190 there, so no one is even close. And 162.3 WAR as a batter. So advanced statistics really agree with conventional statistics; that is, a .342 batting average and 714 home runs were absolutely incredible.
Let's not forget that he was one of the best pitchers of his era: 94 wins and 46 losses with a 2.28 ERA, and 29 consecutive scoreless World Series innings- that was a record that stood for 43 years. He's the only man on this list who could have made a completely different list.
What else is there to say about that? Let's talk a little bit about him as a fielder. You may have seen some of those films of him running around as a heavy older man trying to catch a ball, small legs; that's kind of how we imagine him, but the truth is he was a very good fielder in his prime. He has 204 career outfield assists; that's about 11 a season, with 20 in 1923 and 18 in 1924, 17 and 21.
That means he had a cannon of an arm in those years. That's more than Evans had, more than Guerrero had. Ruth beat those out in three separate years, and remember, he was a major league pitcher, so he could really throw the ball.
He was a fairly good fielder; his average was 968 against the league average of 966, so slightly above average. So, as a fielder, he seems to have been very good; his arm was exceptional, and as a hitter, my goodness, and he could even pitch a little bit.
| Babe Ruth — Career | Total |
|---|---|
| G | 2504 |
| AB | 8399 |
| H | 2873 |
| HR | 714 |
| RBI | 2213 |
| SB | 123 |
| AVG | .342 |
| OBP | .474 |
| SLG | .690 |
| OPS | 1.164 |
| All-Star selections | 2 |
| World Series titles | 7 |
Final Thoughts
Doing this list was so much fun, going from Sam Crawford all the way to the modern era, to Ichiro's last game. 120 years on one patch of grass. Ruth invented the modern game there. Aaron broke his record there. Frank Robinson became baseball's first black manager from there. Ichiro showed that you could come from Japan and dominate the game there.
You can tell the entire history of baseball from there, and there's a reason for that. You have to be absolutely exceptional to shine there, with an arm and a bat that tower above everyone else.
And that's why some of the greatest people also arrived from there; people who overcame those challenges tend to be exceptional. Roberto Clemente, who died carrying earthquake relief. Frank Robinson, who wrote himself into a lineup after being the first African-American manager. Tony Gwynn spent his last months telling kids to put down the tobacco. Ruth came out of a Baltimore orphanage to become the ultimate baseball immortal.
The position asked for the most complete athletes on the field, and it also produces some of the most complete and startlingly amazing individuals in sports.
