Jun 22, 2026
·Brandon Gustafson
Part of what makes baseball so great is its storied history. Be it a current player, someone from 30 years ago or, in some cases, a century ago or even further back, there are countless names synonymous with different franchises.
Some teams have more franchise icons than others, and some can be difficult to pinpoint four legends. With all that being said, we’ll attempt a very tough task – putting together a Mount Rushmore (the greatest four players) for all 30 MLB teams, starting first with the 15 teams in the American League.
A few ground rules for this experiment: I must include at least one pitcher – but no more than two – for each franchise, and strength of eras and overall team success do play a factor. And because selecting just four players for each team is very difficult, I’ll list a quick honorable mention (or two) for each franchise.
The four greatest players for every AL West franchise
The AL West offers a fascinating mix of old-school legends, modern MVPs and franchise-defining stars. From Rickey Henderson and Ken Griffey Jr. to Mike Trout, Jose Altuve and Shohei Ohtani, this division has produced some of baseball’s most recognizable names.
A’s: Rickey Henderson, Jimmie Foxx, Eddie Plank, Lefty Grove (Honorable Mention: Eddie Collins)
This was another pretty simple one, all things considered. Henderson is the best and most beloved figure in A’s history, and even if he did play for eight other teams, baseball’s stolen base king spent the majority of his time with the franchise in Oakland and won a World Series there. Foxx, despite winning three MVP awards, is one of the more underrated sluggers in baseball history through no fault of his own – he played in the same era as Babe Ruth. But he was a dominant slugger with seven 30-homer seasons for the A’s in an era where guys simply weren’t doing that.
And we’ll wrap it up with a pair of star arms in Plank and Grove. Plank had a dazzling 2.35 ERA in his Hall of Fame career and spent 14 years with the A’s in Philadelphia. He was also one of baseball’s earliest strikeout artists with 2,246. Grove was among the top arms of his day and his best years were also with the A’s. He won 20+ games seven straight years before going to Boston, and he won MVP in 1931 and finished in the top 10 in voting three other times.
Los Angeles Angels: Mike Trout, Tim Salmon, Shohei Ohtani, Nolan Ryan (Honorable Mention: Chuck Finley)
The Angels are an intriguing team when you look at their overall history. There’s no denying Trout is a franchise icon, and his peak is up there with anyone else’s in MLB history with three MVPs and 71.7 bWAR over his first eight full seasons before injuries really derailed his career. He unseated the team’s other “fish” outfielder in Salmon, who was a great player in the ‘90s and early 2000s and was key to the Angels winning their first World Series in 2002 with a .908 OPS in the postseason.
Ohtani is in a league of his own for his two-way prowess, and while he’s seemingly taken things to another level with the Dodgers, he had an amazing six-year run with the Angels, winning Rookie of the Year and two MVP awards.
Finley has a higher bWAR with the Angels, but Ryan was the better pitcher for the team at the height of their respective powers. He bounced around a bit and may be better remembered for his time in Texas and Houston, but you could argue he was at his best in Anaheim. At the very least, that’s when his historic career really started to click with five All-Star nods in eight seasons.
Houston Astros: Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio, Jose Altuve, Roy Oswalt (Honorable Mentions: Lance Berkman and Justin Verlander)
The Astros are another interesting team historically. They’ve been around since 1962, but their best runs – and players – have come since the turn of the century. Bagwell and Biggio are franchise stalwarts who are No. 1 and 2, respectively, in bWAR in a Houston uniform. Bagwell was an elite slugger with sneaky baserunning prowess, and he won the first MVP in team history in the strike-shortened 1994 campaign. Biggio was a kickstarter atop the lineup and played 20 years.
Altuve is an easy pick for the third bat of the group. He won MVP in 2017, won the franchise’s first two World Series rings and is among the greatest hitters of his generation and is a great postseason performer. He’s the face of the Astros’ decade of dominance. He gets the nod over another great hitter in Berkman. Berkman is overshadowed because of the era he played in, but few switch-hitters in MLB history were better. He’s one of the more underrated players of the 2000s.
Oswalt vs. Verlander was interesting to think about. Oswalt was part of some excellent teams and spent 10 years with the Astros. Verlander was with Houston for seven years and won two World Series and a Cy Young. It was really a tossup, but Oswalt is more synonymous with the Astros than Verlander is, in my opinion, and it’s easy to forget just how good Oswalt was as an Astro – six top-10 Cy Young finishes in 10 seasons.
Seattle Mariners: Ichiro Suzuki, Ken Griffey Jr., Edgar Martinez, Felix Hernandez (Honorable mention: Randy Johnson)
Be it because I’m a Seattle guy or because it’s fairly obvious, this was an easier one to put together.
Griffey is one of the greatest players of all time and wasn’t just the face of the Mariners, but rather the face of baseball for a period of time thanks to his swagger and all-around play. Martinez is another Hall of Famer with the biggest hit in team history, and he spent his entire career with the Mariners. Ichiro is a legend in a category all by himself and bridged the gap between Japan and the United States.
The only real challenge was picking Hernandez over Johnson. Johnson had a better and more dominant peak during his M’s tenure, but Hernandez’s peak wasn’t that much worse and he played his entire career in Seattle. Hernandez also threw the franchise’s lone perfect game. Either choice is good.
Texas Rangers: Ivan Rodriguez, Adrian Beltre, Michael Young, Charlie Hough (Honorable Mentions: Juan Gonzalez and Rafael Palmeiro)
Rodriguez wound up playing for five other teams, but he played the majority of his career in Texas and had his best years there. He was a workhorse behind the dish who was one of the best defensive catchers ever while also showcasing plenty of talent with the bat. He won MVP in 1999 and won 10 of his 13 Gold Gloves in Texas. Another star defender, Beltre, didn’t get to Texas until he was 32, but his best years were with the franchise and he turned them into a World Series contender. He spent a lot of time in L.A. and Seattle, but Beltre is a Ranger.
Hough was an elite knuckleballer and gets the nod for the top Texas arm. He had a fantastic 11-year run and still holds a few franchise records. The guy just ate innings and got outs while leaning on baseball’s most unpredictable pitch.
Young played with Texas forever and holds a ton of franchise records. He was also a key member of their two World Series trips alongside Beltre and other figures like Ian Kinsler and Elvis Andrus. Gonzalez holds the team record for home runs and Palmeiro had a better peak, but Young played on better Texas teams and, at least for Palmeiro, he’s a bit of a controversial figure when looking back at his career.
The four greatest players for every AL Central franchise
The AL Central is loaded with historic greats, from early baseball icons to modern Hall of Famers. These franchises required some difficult cuts, especially with legends like Kirby Puckett, Kenny Lofton and Charlie Gehringer falling just short.
Chicago White Sox: Luke Appling, Frank Thomas, Ed Walsh, Mark Buehrle (Honorable Mention: Ted Lyons)
The White Sox were another tough team to put together. That wasn’t because of a lack of great players, but rather that I didn’t want to make a foursome exclusively of players in the early 1900s, which I very well could have.
Appling had a great 20-year career for the White Sox and could easily be considered the franchise’s best player. He hit .310 for his career and was a Chicago lifer who was very underrated for his career. A guy who wasn’t underrated was “The Big Hurt." Thomas punished baseballs and was a two-time MVP winner while swatting 448 of his 521 career homers with the Sox. Thomas is another Steroid Era player who played things clean, and he should be remembered more fondly outside of Chicago, in my opinion.
We picked a pair of arms to round out this list in Walsh and Buehrle. Walsh had a career 1.82 ERA in nearly 3,000 innings and won a World Series in 1906. Walsh was elite at keeping runs off the board, and he did so while pitching upwards of 50 times per season at times and also eating a ton of innings in his prime. As for Buehrle, he was arguably the face of the franchise in the 2000s, and his numbers look even better when you remember the era he pitched in. He posted, got outs, ate innings, won a World Series and pitched a perfect game. Those two get the slight nod over Lyons, who pitched over 4,000 innings for the Sox from 1923-46 while also serving three years in World War II.
Cleveland Guardians: Nap Lajoie, Tris Speaker, Jim Thome, Bob Feller (Honorable Mention: Kenny Lofton)
The Guardians enjoy a very long history and have had some truly incredible players suit up in Cleveland. Lajoie had a dominant 13-year run for Cleveland in the 1900s and 1910s, racking up more than 2,000 hits during his time with the franchise. Speaker followed up a great run in Boston with a stellar 11 seasons in Cleveland, and MLB’s all-time doubles leader hit .380 or better not once, not twice, not three times but a whopping four times!
As for more current hitters, Thome gets the nod over some great players, including his teammate in Lofton. Thome hit 337 homers for Cleveland and was an RBI machine, playing a key role in some playoff runs. He likely would have brought home some hardware if he hadn’t played in the Steroid Era. Lofton should be remembered more fondly in MLB history, and it’s too bad he was a one-and-done Hall of Fame candidate. He was an elite leadoff hitter and awesome defender who was really the engine for those 1990s Cleveland squads.
Feller was an easy guy to tag for the pitcher slot. He debuted at 17, was already arguably the best pitcher in all of baseball by age 22, missed three full seasons due to World War II, and then he won 26 games in 1946, won a World Series in 1948 and had an elite run from 1946-51.
Detroit Tigers: Ty Cobb, Al Kaline, Miguel Cabrera, Justin Verlander (Honorable Mention: Charlie Gehringer)
The Tigers have had some absolute studs suit up for the franchise. How about baseball’s original hit king in Cobb? “The Georgia Peach” was an absolute force in his day and still is baseball’s all-time leader in batting average. He was also the first player to reach 4,000 career hits while picking up 200+ knocks eight times. As for Kaline, how does 18 All-Star nods and 10 Gold Gloves sound? The outfielder was just very consistent, averaging 23 home runs a year for 399 career homers across 22 seasons, all with the Tigers.
Detroit’s franchise has been around for quite some time, so there were a lot of great options for the final two spots. We went more recent here with Cabrera and Verlander. Cabrera is 14th in career bWAR in Detroit history, but a steep and sudden dropoff in his play late in his career coupled with little baserunning prowess and defensive ability don’t help. Cabrera was an absolute monster in his prime with the Tigers, winning two MVPs, four batting titles and the Triple Crown. Speaking of Triple Crowns, Verlander picked up the pitching Triple crown in 2011 while earning both the Cy Young and MVP. He was incredible in Houston, but Verlander had some massive highs during his first 13 years with Detroit.
Gehringer is the odd man out, and it was tough. He owns a career .884 OPS, made six All-Star teams, won MVP and a World Series. From 1927-38, he averaged a .330/.409/.498 slash line.
Kansas City Royals: George Brett, Salvador Perez, Kevin Appier, Brett Saberhagen (Honorable Mention: Willie Wilson)
The Royals had a clear 1-A selection in Brett, who played 21 years for Kansas City, won MVP, a World Series, three batting titles and made 13 All-Star teams. The guy hit .390 in his MVP campaign of 1980 for goodness sake! Brett would be a lock on virtually any team’s Mt. Rushmore.
After that, it was a bit tough. In terms of bats, Perez is a franchise icon who plays a tough defensive position, won a World Series and World Series MVP, led baseball in home runs in 2021 and at one point had the all-time record for homers in a season by a catcher. He’ll make for an intriguing Hall of Fame case, especially with a sub-.300 career on-base percentage. Perez got the nod over Wilson, who is fourth all-time in bWAR in franchise history. Wilson had a great four-year peak from 1979-82, averaging 6.3 bWAR per year, winning a batting title, stolen base crown and hitting .320 over that stretch.
Two arms stood out to earn spots here in Appier and Saberhagen. Appier had devastating stuff and was a very steady performer for the Royals, pitching to a 115-92 record and 3.49 ERA over 13 seasons, with his best year being a 9.3 bWAR and 2.56 ERA campaign in 1993. As for Saberhagen, he won the Cy Young in 1985 – his second season – with 7.1 bWAR, a 20-6 record and 2.87 ERA. He was even better in 1989, winning his second Cy Young with a 23-6 record, 2.16 ERA and 12 complete games over 262 1/3 innings. He averaged better than 5 bWAR per year over eight seasons with Kansas City and had a 3.21 ERA in a Royals uniform.
Minnesota Twins: Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew, Joe Mauer, Walter Johnson (Honorable Mention: Kirby Puckett)
Leaving Puckett off this hurt. I first assumed he’d be on there but man, Killebrew is one of the greatest sluggers not just in Twins history, but ever, Carew is one of the greatest batsman the game has ever seen to the point that the AL batting title is the Rod Carew Award, while Mauer is a Minnesota icon who played a Hall of Fame career for his hometown team while showcasing an elite bat at baseball’s most difficult position. Puckett would be a Mt. Rushmore player for many of baseball’s other franchises, and that was one of the more difficult “cuts” in this exercise.
What wasn’t difficult was picking Johnson as the pitcher here. A superstar pitcher for the then-Washington Nationals, Johnson was one of the first power pitchers the game ever saw. He was arguably the hardest-throwing pitcher of his era and “The Big Train” was the first pitcher to reach 3,000 career strikeouts. Johnson still holds the MLB record for shutouts with 110, and he amassed an absurd 155.4 bWAR, averaging 7.4 per year over 21 seasons.
The four greatest players for every AL East franchise
The AL East might be the deepest division in baseball history when it comes to franchise icons. Between the Yankees and Red Sox alone, narrowing each team to four legends is nearly impossible, and that’s before getting to all-time greats from Baltimore, Tampa Bay and Toronto.
Baltimore Orioles: Cal Ripken Jr., Brooks Robinson, Eddie Murray, Jim Palmer (Honorable Mention: George Sisler)
This may have been the most clear-cut top four of any of baseball’s 30 franchises.
Ripken, the Iron Man, did far more than just start a ton of games in a row. He won an MVP, a World Series, made 19 All-Star Games while hitting 431 home runs and playing plus defense at shortstop and third base. Speaking of plus defense and the hot corner, there’s a case to be made that Robinson is baseball’s greatest fielder regardless of position. The star third baseman won 16 Gold Gloves and was dubbed “The Human Vacuum Cleaner” for his play. Robinson wasn’t as much of an offensive force as Ripken, but he could swing it and was a more than capable run producer during his prime years.
On the other side of the diamond, Murray is also on the Mt. Rushmore of baseball’s greatest switch-hitters. During his Orioles years, you could count on Murray to hit .290 or better, hit 25 or more home runs and drive in 90+ runs. He also played a very good first base, winning three Gold Gloves during those years. He gets the nod over Sisler, who was an elite batsman, winning two MVPs and at one point holding MLB’s single-season hit record with 257, a record that stood until Ichiro broke it with 262 in 2004.
Palmer and Mike Mussina are the two best pitchers to wear an O’s jersey, but Palmer is the pick, no doubt. He won three Cy Youngs, three World Series, two ERA titles and 268 games over 19 seasons, all of which were in Baltimore.
Boston Red Sox: Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, David Ortiz, Pedro Martinez (Honorable Mentions: Wade Boggs and Roger Clemens)
At least for now, this was the hardest team to put one together for by far.
Williams was an absolute lock as he was the best player in team history. He hit .344 for his career, won two MVPs, two Triple Crowns, six batting titles all while slugging 521 career homers. In terms of the best all-around hitters in MLB history, Williams’ name is way up the list. Heck, the guy won the Triple Crown, missed three full seasons to serve in World War II, returned and won his first MVP while hitting .342 with 38 homers and 123 RBIs.
Yastrzemski was another easy one. He was a Red Sox lifer, had nearly 100 career bWAR, won three batting titles, an MVP and a Triple Crown. “Yaz” hit .282 for his career with 452 homers and put up some massive numbers over the course of 23 years in Boston.
The other two slots were tough. I debated very hard between Boggs and Ortiz. Boggs won five batting titles, eight Silver Sluggers, made 12 All-Star teams and hit an absurd .338 over his time with the Sox. But Ortiz was an icon and a winner, hitting 483 of his 541 career homers with Boston while winning three World Series titles, putting together countless postseason moments and breaking the Curse of the Bambino in 2004, putting the team on his back numerous times. Boggs has the more well-rounded profile, but I think Ortiz ultimately means more to the franchise.
The pitcher spot was awfully tough, too. What do you mean I have to pick between young Roger Clemens, prime Pedro Martinez and a guy named Cy Young? Martinez’s peak is tough to match. He was baseball’s best pitcher in the late ‘90s and early 2000s, and that he dominated hitters the way he did during the height of the Steroid Era while pitching in the hitter-friendly AL East speaks volumes. He won two Cy Youngs over his first three years in Boston and finished in the top two in voting four times in his first five years with the club. Clemens’ steroid accusations, spending so much time pitching for AL East rivals and not getting a ring gives Martinez the edge, but it’s sure close.
New York Yankees: Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Derek Jeter, Whitey Ford (Honorable Mentions: Lou Gehrig and Mariano Rivera)
The Yankees could have two or three Mt. Rushmores with their elite history, let’s be real. Pinning this down to four was tough, and I wanted to showcase at least one player from the team’s 1996-2000 dynasty, hence “The Captain.”
Jeter is, at least from where I sit, a bit polarizing in terms of his place in overall baseball and Yankees history. He was rarely the best player on his team, his defense – despite winning five Gold Gloves – was suspect and he wasn’t a game-changer with his speed or power, but he was as consistent as they come, was a leader and was a winner and heartbeat type player who was instrumental in five World Series titles across 20 years with the Yanks. He edged out one of my all-time favorite players in Gehrig, who was a monster in his day, was an ironman and was a hero off the field, too.
Ruth was an easy inclusion. He turned baseball mainstream and was arguably the first big superstar not just in baseball, but in the nation. Ruth revolutionized the game with his home run prowess and really brought in the Live Ball Era of baseball. Four World Series titles and 10 home run crowns in New York ain’t bad, either.
“The Mick” was one of the best players the game has ever seen. A switch-hitter with plus power and elite overall bat skills, Mantle swatted 536 homers while hitting .298 for his career and winning three MVPs and seven World Series titles, all with the Yankees. What makes Mantle’s career even more amazing is he tore his ACL in the 1951 World Series – his rookie year – and played 18 more seasons after that without an ACL. That’s almost unfathomable to even think about.
Most of the Yankees’ top players in franchise history are hitters, but there are some awfully great arms to pick as well. I almost leaned towards Rivera as he’s the game’s greatest closer who leads MLB in all-time saves and postseason saves while winning five titles. When he got the ball in the ninth, the game was essentially over. Ford, on the other hand, won a Cy Young, two ERA titles and six World Series as the Yankees’ frontline ace, winning 236 games and sporting a 2.75 ERA over a Hall of Fame 16-year career. The southpaw is maybe the ideal definition of a “crafty lefty.”
Tampa Bay Rays: Evan Longoria, Carl Crawford, Ben Zobrist, David Price (Honorable Mention: Kevin Kiermaier)
The American League's most recent franchise, having debuted in 1998, the Rays’ best players are all fairly recent.
Longoria holds a ton of the franchise’s hitting records, hit 261 home runs, played solid defense at third base and was just a very, very steady player. Longoria’s production dropped off substantially with the Giants, but he was a superstar with Tampa Bay.
Crawford was one of the more “human highlight reel” players of his era. During his time with the Rays, Crawford led the league in triples four times and steals four times all while hitting .296. He also showcased more pop than your average speed demon, hitting 15+ homers four times while driving in 77+ runs four times as well.
Zobrist gets a slight nod over Kiermaier in a tough battle. Kiermaier is one of the best defensive outfielders I’ve ever seen, but he was far too inconsistent at the plate despite flashing at times. Zobrist was a Swiss Army knife who could play anywhere while hitting for average and power and doing all the little things right. He was huge in the Rays’ turn towards perennial contention, and he did basically everything with Tampa Bay besides win a ring, which he did with former Rays skipper Joe Maddon in Chicago in 2016.
Toronto Blue Jays: Jose Bautista, Carlos Delgado, Dave Stieb, Roy Halladay (Honorable Mention: Joe Carter)
And we finally get to baseball’s – current – lone team across the border with the Blue Jays.
Toronto was another tough team to finalize. The two easiest spots were Stieb and Halladay – two elite starters who did some amazing work atop the hill for the Blue Jays. Stieb leads the team in career bWAR and won 175 games with a 3.44 ERA over parts of 15 seasons. He didn’t have the same elite peak Halladay had, but he was extremely consistent. Halladay emerged as an elite arm in 2002 and never looked back, winning the Cy Young the next year and establishing himself as one of baseball’s best pitchers. His four-year run in Philadelphia was incredible, but from 2002-09 in Toronto, Halladay averaged 5.7 bWAR, had an ERA of 3.13 and was as durable and consistent of an ace you could find in MLB over that stretch.
When I first started looking at the Jays, I wanted to pick someone from their 1992 and 1993 World Series teams, but many of those players spent the bulk of their careers – or at least good chunks of it – elsewhere. Maybe Joe Carter could land here just because of his historic Game 6 walkoff home run in 1993, but when I think of Blue Jays, Bautista and Delgado really stand out.
Both were elite sluggers in their day, and outside of Carter’s walkoff, Bautista’s massive homer in the 2015 ALDS is one of the bigger longballs in team history. He’s the franchise leader in bWAR by a hitter and is second in home runs behind Delgado. Outside of Toronto, Delgado is criminally underrated. He played in the Steroid Era and, as such, was overlooked in comparison to his contemporaries. Delgado had a .949 OPS in 12 years with the Jays with 336 homers and sadly made just two All-Star Games. After establishing himself as an everyday player in 1996, Delgado averaged 36 home runs and 113 RBIs per season with a .286/.397/.565 (.961 OPS) slash line.