In MLB history, there have been incredible pitchers from the right side. We count down the 15 best today.
As part of a series we will cover here at Call to the Pen on MLB history, today we will look at the top 15 right-handed pitchers in the game’s history.
We will cover all of MLB history, not just the first 100 years or the last 50 years, and this is not a consensus of all Call to the Pen authors and editors, but the opinion of the author of that list. This is a great list to debate and discuss!
Before we move to the top 15, let’s look at one current player who has a chance to break into this top 15 list!
Max Scherzer, 150 wins, 3.24 ERA, 1,976 2/3 IP, 2,269 strikeouts, 48.4 bWAR
What is incredible to consider is that as brilliant as Scherzer has been over his career to this point, he’s really only produced roughly half of the bWAR of the top 10 right-handed starters in MLB history.
Scherzer has ascended to the top pitcher in all of baseball presently. Beginning in 2013, he’s moved to incredible levels, averaging 6.5 bWAR per season. Considering that he is currently roughly 40 bWAR from that top 10 grouping of right-handers in MLB history, if he holds serve through the end of his current contract, which runs through 2021 and makes it to roughly 70 bWAR by the end of age 36, he would simply need to have a good finish to his career to get that final 20-25 bWAR over 4-6 more seasons to reach that upper echelon in that particular metric.
However, when you begin to look at all the other things that Scherzer could end up doing by the time he leaves the game, he starts to creep up this list in a hurry. He has 150 wins currently and is leading the league with 9. It would not surprise at all if he had another 20-win season, his third of his career, as he’s averaged 18 wins the previous 5 seasons. If he would simply average that same 18 wins over the next 4 seasons, that would put him at 213 at the end of his contract with a fairly “easy” shot to finish over 250. Even with the larger win totals from pre-2000s baseball, that’d put him #35 all time in wins.
Scherzer also had 2,149 entering 2018 and is currently leading the league with 120 (in 12 starts for an impressive 10 per start). He has averaged 264 per season over the last 5 years. If he continues that pace through his contract, he would already be at 3,205 at age 36, with (health holding) multiple more seasons to add to that tally. Even 500 more strikeouts before the end of his career on top of those 3,205 would put him third in MLB history in strikeouts among right-handers.
Finally, Scherzer has held an ERA+ over the last 5 seasons of 143. That number would rank him 5th all-time among RHP, but even with previous seasons figured in, he’s still 18th with a 129 career ERA+. He could certanly figure into the top 10 in that statistic by the end of his career, which would put him near the top ten in ERA+, the top five in strikeouts, and the top 10-15 in bWAR when his career is all through, giving him a very legitimate argument among the top 15 RHP in MLB history, if he can continue to hold serve.
For now, however, let’s take a look at the guys who do make the list…
Next: 15. Rapid Robert