MLB’s best expansion-era shortstop: Jeter, Ripken or Other?

Five-season peak performance

This criteria is simply the player’s best five-season average OPS+.

Here are the 10 best peak averages among the 30 MLB candidates.

Rank      Shortstop                      Seasons              Average

1         Alex Rodriguez              2005-2009            154.2

2         Troy Tulowitzki              2010-2014            138.2

3         Nomar Garciaparra      1998-2002            138.0

4         Robin Yount                   1980-1984            137.2

5         Barry Larkin                   1994-1998            133.6

6         Cal Ripken                      1982-1986            130.4

7         Derek Jeter                     1998-2002            128.6

8         Alan Trammell               1983-1987            127.8

9         Miguel Tejada                2002-2006            124.8

10     Xander Bogaerts           2016-2020            122.4

Rodriguez piled up his big offensive numbers during the height of the steroid era, perhaps calling into question their legitimacy. As with other installments of this series, the data is calculated objectively, omitting such subjective considerations. Feel free to downgrade him at your discretion. (As we will later see, our MLB-TV experts did precisely that.)

The surprise here is Tulowitzki. He had only a half dozen truly imposing seasons – and they came  at Coors Field. But there’s no getting around the 170 OPS+ he piled up in 2014, when he batted .340, albeit in just 91 games.

Between 1998 and 2000, Garciaparra piled up scores in the 140 to 160 range, leading to his third place standing.  Behind them come the other legit contenders: Yount, Larkin, Ripken, Jeter and Trammell.