Jun 28, 2016; San Diego, CA, USA; Baltimore Orioles shortstop Manny Machado (13) hits a broken bat two RBI single during the sixth inning against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports
The American League East division has been home to arguably more iconic players than any other in all of Major League Baseball history. The teams in the AL East ooze tradition that traces back to the earliest years of the league. But which players did the most to build, and carry on, that tradition?
Today’s East division is the tightest divisional race in the American League, with the Baltimore Orioles riding a six-game winning streak going into play on Wednesday to claim a 4.5-game lead over the Boston Red Sox and a five-game lead over the Toronto Blue Jays. A division that throughout much of its history has been dominated by a certain club from the Bronx has become a beacon of parity in recent years, and that’s produced some excellent baseball.
The history of the teams that comprise the American League East is a veritable who’s who of baseball glory. They have accounted for 40 World Series championships, 47 members of the Baseball Hall of Fame, nine members of the 3,000 hits club, 12 members of the 500 home run club, five members of the 300 win club, four members of the 3,000 strikeout club, and an astounding 1,034 All-Star selections.
Three of the five franchises were founding members of the AL, with history dating back even farther. Names like Ruth, Gehrig, Williams, Robinson, and Yastrzemski, have given way to Ripken, Alomar, Jeter, Ortiz, and Price. There are countless records, unforgettable games, and moments both euphoric and dispiriting.
With that in mind, we here at Call to the Pen wondered which players have had the most historic seasons for each of these teams. As it turns out, the names are among the biggest the game has known, and span the course of MLB history.
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Toronto Blue Jays – Josh Donaldson (2015)
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It turns out we don’t have to look back too far to start off this list. The Blue Jays, the second-youngest team in the division after being founded in 1977 and a club with two World Series titles, saw the greatest individual season in their franchise’s history just last year.
Josh Donaldson was arguably the best acquisition during the 2015 offseason in all of baseball, finding his way to Toronto in a trade from the Oakland Athletics for Franklin Barreto, Kendall Graveman, Brett Lawrie and Sean Nolin. All he did was win the AL Most Valuable Player award and lead the Blue Jays to their first division title and trip to the postseason in 22 years, the longest active drought in the big leagues.
Teaming with proven sluggers Jose Bautista, who previously held the title of best individual season for a Jays position player, and Edwin Encarnacion, Donaldson made the Toronto lineup one of the most feared in baseball. At the age of 29, he slashed .297/.371/.568 with 41 doubles, 41 home runs, and a league-leading 123 runs batted in. Donaldson was also tops in the league with 122 runs scored, posted an OPS of .939, and put up a 153 OPS+ en route to an 8.8 bWAR total.
At this point in the 2016 season, Donaldson is on pace for nearly identical numbers and poised to make his third consecutive All-Star appearance. With a shot at another postseason berth and a second MVP, he could be rewriting the Blue Jays’ history books to put himself atop the list of greatest players in franchise history.
The history of Major League Baseball in Baltimore is an interesting one. Among the charter members of the AL was a team named the Baltimore Orioles, but that club went bankrupt and was replaced by the New York Highlanders, who would become the Yankees. The current Orioles franchise traces its roots back to the original Milwaukee Brewers and the St. Louis Browns.
Since the move to Baltimore in 1954, the O’s have won six AL pennants and three World Championships, and been home to Frank Robinson, Brooks Robinson, Jim Palmer and Eddie Murray. But the man that lays claim to the greatest individual season in Orioles history was the same one who broke Lou Gehrig’s supposedly unbreakable streak of consecutive games played, Cal Ripken.
At the age of 30, Ripken slashed .323/.374/.566 in 1991, making the ninth of his 19th consecutive all-star appearances and claiming his second AL MVP award. His .323 batting average was the highest of his career, as were his 34 home runs, 114 RBIs, .940 OPS, and 162 OPS+, and he added 210 hits and 46 doubles for good measure.
Ripken’s bWAR of 11.5 in 1991 is not only the greatest total in Baltimore’s franchise history, but ranks in a tie for 11th all-time among position players with Babe Ruth (1926) and Honus Wagner (1908), and was one of two times he reached double digits in his career.
Inducted into Cooperstown in 2007, Ripken is 25th all-time in position player bWAR after tallying 3,184 hits, 431 homers, 603 doubles, and 1,695 RBIs, and his consecutive games played streak of 2,632 may never be approached again.
Next: Maddon Men.
Tampa Bay Rays – Ben Zobrist (2011)
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Another recent entry on the list is Ben Zobrist’s 2011 season for the Tampa Bay Rays, which makes sense since the Rays, along with the Arizona Diamondbacks, are the most recently-founded franchise in MLB. Though the club’s history dates back to only 1998, Tampa Bay has seen its fair share of exceptional seasons.
On the surface, Zobrist’s numbers perhaps don’t appear so impressive as to warrant the title of greatest individual season in franchise history. In 2011, he slashed just .269/.353/.469 with 46 doubles, 20 homers, 91 RBI and 19 stolen bases in his age 30 season. But his versatility, hitting all over the lineup and splitting time defensively between second base and right field, made him a uniquely valuable player, worth 8.7 bWAR.
The Rays won 91 games that season and made the postseason for the third time in four years largely due to the production of Zobrist, Evan Longoria and Melvin Upton, Jr. As he proved then, last season with the world champion Kansas City Royals, and again this season with the Chicago Cubs, Zobrist will do whatever it takes to help his team win. Even if it doesn’t always make for a shiny stat line, his contribution is the most valuable kind there is in the game.
Recent history has been very good to the Boston Red Sox. Since ending the franchise’s 86-year World Series title drought in 2004, the Sox won two more World Championships and have been near-constant contenders in the AL East. From a team success standpoint, this is a new golden age for the club.
But during those 86 years of championship futility, several of the finest players in MLB history called Fenway Park home, including the last man to hit .400 in a season, Ted Williams. But the greatest individual season in Boston’s storied history belongs to Williams’ heir apparent, Carl Yastrzemski.
What Yaz did in 1967 was not only historic for the Red Sox franchise, but for the entire history of the game. In winning the triple crown and delivering an AL pennant, Yastrzemski led the league with a .326 batting average, 44 home runs, and 121 RBI, of course, but also topped the league with 189 hits, 112 runs scored, a .418 on-base percentage, a .622 slugging percentage, a 1.040 OPS, and a 193 OPS+.
Those stats equate to a 12.4 bWAR, which is not only the greatest individual season in BoSox history, but the fourth-highest mark in a single season ever in MLB. He followed it up in 1968 with a 10.5 bWAR that is tied for 30th all-time as well, and his total of 96.1 throughout a 23-year career is 24th all-time.
While Yastrzemski never led the Red Sox to that elusive World Series championship, he made 18 all-star appearances, won seven Gold Gloves, hit 452 home runs, drove in 1,844 runs, and is ninth all-time with 3,419 hits in his Hall of Fame career.
The Great Bambino. The Sultan of Swat. The Colossus of Clout. The man who said, “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” Babe Ruth is not only the man responsible for the greatest individual season in New York Yankees history, he is, according to the Wins Above Replacement metric, the greatest ballplayer who ever lived. There’s little that can be said about Ruth by this author that has not already been put forth by far more insightful and eloquent students of the game.
Ruth holds not only the top four and six of the top seven seasons in Yankees’ history, but the top three and five of the top ten seasons among position players in the annals of Major League Baseball. His career total of 163.1 as a position player and 183.7 overall are both the high-water marks in the game.
His finest season came in 1923 when he posted the all-time greatest single season bWAR total of 14.1. In leading the pinstripes to the first of 27 World Championships in franchise history, Ruth slashed a mind-blowing .393/.545/.764 while leading the league with 41 home runs, 130 RBIs, 151 runs scored, 170 walks, a 1.309 OPS, and a 239 OPS+, and winning the only MVP award of his career.
In his 22 seasons as a pro ballplayer, 15 of them with New York, Ruth had double digit bWAR totals nine times, won 12 home run titles and six RBI titles, and still holds career records with a .690 slugging percentage, 1.164 OPS, and 206 OPS+. He was, in short, the most dominant force the game has ever seen, and probably ever will.
