MLB
The Best Player in Baseball Every Year Since 1969
MLB.com takes a look at the best players in baseball every single year over the last half a century from Bob Gibson to Mike Trout and beyond
MLB.com
ARTICLE PREVIEW FROM MLB.COM:
A few weeks ago, the great baseball writer Joe Sheehan, in his must-read baseball newsletter, made the argument that Fernando Tatis Jr., with his transcendent season, limitless future and the unfortunate injury to Mike Trout, had passed Trout as the holder of the (mythical, for now anyway) Best Player In Baseball belt. I’m not necessarily sure I quite agree with Sheehan on that—Trout was a monster until he got hurt, and Tatis has only played the equivalent of a season and a half his whole career — but I love the idea of a Best Player in Baseball belt. We should have one. We should totally have one.
So, as an experiment today, I thought we’d come up with a theoretical holder of the mythical belt every year since 1969 — when the mound was lowered. The thing about the belt is, of course, like an actual championship belt, someone has to come take it from you. You can be the best player in baseball for a moment and not necessarily hold the belt; there have been a couple of players who have had better individual years (Mookie Betts, even Tatis or Shohei Ohtani this year) during Trout’s last decade, but none of them (so far) have been consistent enough to take it from him. That’s not to say there haven’t been one-year wonders who broke through. But on the whole: You have to forcibly take the belt, not have it handed to you.
Here’s our look at the Best Player In Baseball belt holders and the years of their reign. Your mileage may vary.
Gibson firmly established himself as one of the most overwhelming pitchers in baseball history right as the Age of the Pitcher kicked off, but he was still incredible for a few years after that, including winning another Cy Young in 1970. (And he may have actually been better in 1969.) Gibson would pitch all the way to 1975 — it is funny that he was briefly teammates with Keith Hernandez — but this was the prime of his reign.
Honorable mentions: Carl Yastrzemski, Tom Seaver
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