There is not a hotter MLBbro these days than Washington Nationals shortstop, CJ Abrams. Recently our MLBbro shared his Mount Rushmore of current shortstops that shine on the field. One of them is a MLBbro and of course he added himself.
CJ Abrams lists his Mount Rushmore of active shortstops
Himself Mookie Betts Elly De La Cruz Bobby Witt Jr.
MLBbro.com came up with our own Mount Rushmore of shortstops. While Abrams was listing current shortstops, we went ahead and compiled an All-Time list.
The combination of professionalism, the evolution of the position and an underrated aspect to the list… longevity and loyalty to one franchise got these four MLBbro shortstop icons the spotlight.
Maury Wills:
The fact that this MLBbro icon is not in the Baseball Hall of Fame is just as big a travesty as Barry Bonds being blacklisted from the honor. Even though he was nominated by the Golden Era committee in 2014, he still didn’t make the cut. Wills brought the art of the stolen base.
His story of maximizing his skills to overcome the fact that many teams (including the Dodgers at the beginning) didn’t believe he had the physical tools to play professional baseball.
He won six straight stolen base titles.
His 104 steals in 1962 was a record until fellow MLBbro Lou Brock tallied 118 in 1974.
Won the NL MVP award AND All-Star MVP in the same season!
Maury Wills sadly never got the call for the Hall of Fame before passing in 2022 at the age of 89. But the essence of the MLBbro battling the undercurrent of the system of racism puts him on this list.
Ernie Banks:
While the aforementioned Maury Wills used his craftiness and speed to make this list under peculiar circumstances, Ernie Banks brought power to the city of Chicago and became the first MLBbro since Jackie Robinson to put fans in seats (also read: the only reason to watch Chicago Cubs baseball). Before Banks came on to the scene, the shortstop position never knew power.
Ernie Banks played 19 years for a terrible Chicago Cubs team that never made the playoffs. Mr. Cub created his legacy in 1957-60 collecting back-to-back NL MVP awards in 1958-59. The resume tells it all…
14 time All-Star (1955-62, 1965, 1967, 1969), Gold Glove winner in 1960, and Hall of Fame Inductee in 1977.
Hitting slash of .274/.330/.500…2,583 hits…512 homers…1,636 RBI.
Ozzie Smith:
There is a theme going on here if anyone has noticed. Maury Wills is on the list for the intangibles of playing the game of baseball. Ernie Banks brings offensive firepower that brought box office influence to the shortstop position. Now let’s discuss the MLBbro icon that brought defensive wizardry to the position. Who else but…
The Wizard of Oz…Ozzie Smith!
He is the greatest defensive shortstop ever. He is one of one. There can’t be an all-time discussion without his name being mentioned. His range, athleticism and ability to get the ball away quickly landed him 13 Gold Gloves, a .978 fielding percentage and a 43.4 defensive WAR. He was a part of the MLBbro crew in St.Louis that lit up the base paths to the tune of 580 steals.
The Wizard’s .262 career average with 2,460 illustrates the work he put in to be a solid hitter.
Derek Jeter:
This MLBbro icon took all of the ingredients of the previous players on this list and with the addition of marketing and business in a huge city of New York with the Yankees changed the landscape of how athletes make money in endorsements.
While his stats don’t pop out like Babe Ruth, Aaron Judge or Reggie Jackson, the ability to be consistently there in the big moment on five World Championship Yankees teams makes him an icon that transcends to all MLB greats.
His clutch play is embedded in the DNA of the Yankees franchise and his leadership and respect will lead on as long as MLB is in business.
Some believe that playing baseball with projectiles traveling 100 miles per hour around the ballpark is the toughest skill facing a professional athlete in any sport.
Being the best player over the course of a 162-game marathon of a season — and then possibly a postseason — is next to impossible to 99 percent of the globe.
Now that Aaron Judge has returned from his 10-game absence due to injuring his wrist, the MLBbro slugger can get back to business and help the Yankees dig themselves out of a hole that has them nine games out of first and sitting at the bottom of the tough AL East division.
It takes a special player to conquer what Judge and the Yankees have in front of them over the last 130 or so games.
Aaron Judge Wins MVP
Well, Aaron Judge became one of those players last year winning AL MVP on the strength of breaking the American League home run record with 62 Bro bombs. A record held by Roger Maris for decades.
Judge’s accomplishments transcended the baseball diamond. He became the storyline of the entire season, the face of the sport with a special ability that MLBbro.com covered in detail last month.
After missing the Triple Crown by an eyelash in the final month, Judge’s production still had the baseball world salivating, finishing with a league-high 62 dingers and 131 RBI, which is the highest total since Chris “Crush” Davis in 2013. Add in 111 walks, 28 doubles with a batting average of .311 and we have the best player in the sport.
It didn’t take the MLBbro long to reintroduce the baseball world to his special talent of giving fans souvenirs to take home in Yankees openers.
ALL RISE! 👨⚖️
Aaron Judge hits the first home run of the 2023 season! 🔥
The fans, the media, maybe even the Yankees thought the party would keep right on going. However, things have started to slow down a bit with Aaron thanks to missing ten games with a hip injury.
As Gary Sheffield Jr. states here, as Judge goes so do the Yankees who have taken a nosedive in the standings to last place in the AL East.
While stats like a batting average of only .261 with six homers and 14 RBI, it looks like Judge is headed towards a season of much lesser production.
Judge Can Still Have MVP Season
Now back in the fold, Judge still has time to heat up and replicate last year’s accomplishments, or at least come close.
MLBbro.com decided to look back at some MLBbro MVPs of the past and compare their seasons following MVP campaigns.
Barry Bonds
Pick one. This MLBbro won seven MVP awards in his career which is the most in Major League Baseball history (1990, 1992,1993,2001,2002,2003,2004). He is the first player in history in either league to win three MVPs. The reigning MLB home run king with 762 owns so many hitting records that MLBbro.com did a feature on how he was blackballed out of the running for the Hall of Fame.
In 2001, Bonds broke the single season home run record with 73 home runs. But his batting average of .328, 137 RBI, and unheard of 177 walks (A ton of them intentional) made him MVP, the best player in baseball and the most feared hitter on the planet at the time. Outside of a World Series title, there wasn’t an accomplishment that this MLBbro couldn’t reach on green grass in any baseball stadium.
The following season:
The short statement would be that Bonds won the MVP again.
The long statement would be…”Man, did you know what this MLBbro did after his MVP year?”
Barry Bonds won the second of his four straight MVP awards by hitting .370 with 46 homers and 110 RBI. Why give him the MVP when he declined in the home run department?
No one seemingly gave the man a chance. Barry collected an absurd 198 walks that season. Couple that with his magic in the field (Did we forget to mention that he won eight Gold Gloves in his career?), this MLBbro icon owned this award for four straight years and it was not even close.
Ernie Banks
The ultimate debate around sports and the MVP conversations is the fact that MVP players have to be on winning teams. Even bad teams have one player that has to be the best on the team right?
Then there is Ernie Banks, considered one of the first power hitting shortstops in Major League history and easily one of the only reasons the Chicago Cubs fan base spent their money to watch a perennially awful Cubs team year after year.
In 1958, the man famously known as “Mr. Cub” lead the National League in homers with 47 and RBI. He hit .313 from the plate with a slugging percentage of .614. He ran away with the MVP award and possibly kept the lights on in Chicago at the time.
The following season:
For a MLBbro that never got to experience a postseason, Ernie Banks was the epitome of a professional that played for the love of the game. Luckily for the Chicago Cubs, they got to benefit from Banks’ joy.
The following year in 1959, ‘Mr. Cub” tallied 45 homers with 143 RBI and posted a .304 batting average. With this award, Banks became only the fifth player to win the MVP award in back to back seasons. When this MLBbro icon retired he finished with 2,583 hits, 512 home runs, 1,636 RBI and 1,305 runs scored. With 11 All-Star appearances, Banks was inducted into the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.
Reggie Jackson:
Oh the history of Reggie Jackson and the Oakland A’s. That 1973 season should have been a debacle with Reggie, the other Oakland stars and even the manager playing out public spats with then owner, Charles O. Finley, this MLBbro icon won the MVP with a batting average of .293, power numbers of 32 home runs and 117 RBI and 22 stolen bases checked off the speed of this budding superstar.
Despite all of the chaos, Reggie led the A’s to a World Series title over the New York Mets in seven games. Yes, Reggie…Reggie…Reggie…won the Series MVP as well.
The following year:
Reggie Jackson was entertaining as he was talented. In his previous year in Oakland, Reggie boldly stated that if he was playing in New York, he would have his own candy bar. The man did not lie as he had one five years later when he became a Yankee.
Reggie Jackson did not repeat as MVP in 1974, but that did not mean he did not put up numbers. The future “Mr. October” hit 29 home runs and knocked in 86 RBI in the campaign. Although he didn’t win the MVP this year, the A’s did defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-1 to win the World Series championship.
Ed Howard and Brennen Davis are two of the top five prospects in the Chicago Cubs farm system.
The idea of becoming a foundational piece of a rebuild should excite any ballplayer, but for these two young MLB bros, the opportunity to do so in a Cubs uniform can add to a rich history of Black baseball on Chicago’s North Side.
Howard, the 19-year old Chicago kid who rose to fame during his historic Little League World Series run with the Jackie Robinson West program, was selected with the 16th overall pick in the 2020 draft.
The pick was loved all over the city, and Howard seemed more than ready for the challenge of playing at home.
“I was looking forward to it,” Howard told MLB.com. “I wanted to be a hometown kid. I’m excited it’s with the Cubs. I think that’s a great organization. I watch a lot of Cubs games, follow them, know a lot of their players and things like that, so I’m excited to be a hometown guy. It’s special.”
The 6-foot-2, 185 pound Howard is projected as a plus shortstop with consistent hard contact and gap power with room to grow. The consensus top prep shortstop in his class will be given every opportunity to become a staple of the Cubs middle infield of the future.
But Howard, a smooth fielder, wouldn’t be the first MLB bro to make noise at short for the Cubs.
Made popular by his catchphrase “Let’s play two”, Hall of Fame shortstop Ernie Banks was signed by the Cubs from the Negro League Kansas City Monarchs in 1953. Once in Chicago, Banks quickly cemented himself as the greatest power-hitting shortstop in the game.
After hitting 19 home runs his rookie season, Banks hit 44 bombs the very next year and would go on to hit 40 homers five times from 1955-60. Banks’ unprecedented power from the position wouldn’t be matched until deep into the “steroid era”.
Now for Davis, there aren’t any additional pressures of being a hometown kid, but there are still some lofty expectations being placed on the 21- year old, 2018 second-round pick. Just listen to Iowa Cubs’ manager Marty Pevey:
“I’ve never — and this is the God’s honest truth — I have never seen power like this kid’s going to have. I’m not talking about pull power. I’m talking about just raw, leverage power — like Dale Murphy driving the ball to right-center early in his career. Holy smokes, he’s got some pop.”
Murphy was a great power hitter in his era, but when you began to see “30-30 talent” on scouting reports, you have to immediately think of another former Cub. Andre Dawson flirted with the 30-30 club early in his career but didn’t become a league MVP until joining the Cubs in 1989.
In order to revive the game of baseball in the Black community, we need an influx of young, Black, exciting talent.
With MLB bros like Howard and Davis in the pipeline, the future looks brighter than ever.
Mr. Cub is probably the greatest African-American shortstop to grace the MLB diamond. Banks not only set the standard for black shortstops, but he was the first true power-hitting shortstop in MLB. Banks was A-Rod before A-Rod, an icon who changed the game by providing uncanny power at a position previously reserved for slap hitters.
Banks played 19 years for a losing Cubs franchise and was Wrigley Field’s only bright spot for two decades as he clubbed 512 career homers. In his prime from 1957-1960, averaged a .293 batting average, 44 HR, 123 RBI and won back-to-back NL MVP awards in ’58 and ’59.
“El Capitan” is one of the greatest winners MLB has ever seen. He was the Captain and clutch catalyst for a Yankees Dynasty that won five World Series rings between 1996 and 2009 and lived in the postseason.
Jeter, a 14-time All-Star, is the Yankees all-time hits leader with a whopping 3,465. He has a .310 career batting average and has won five Gold Gloves. His stats are Hall of Fame worthy, but don’t begin to tell the story of his marketing and cultural impact as the flawless face of baseball for 20 years. He led the Yankees to the top of the sports landscape by performing at his best in the biggest moments. “Ice in the veins” should be Jeter’s middle name.
He is arguably the greatest postseason hitter of all time, with a career .308 BA, 20 HR, 61 RBI, 18 SB line in 158 postseason games, earning the name “Mr. November.”
3. Barry Larkin
He was a Black Knight in beast mode as the premier National League shortstop of the 1990s. Larkin was a consistent offensive boss and formidable glove for an inconsistent Cincinnati Reds lineup. He was elected to the All-Star team every year from 1988-2000, winning eight Silver Slugger awards during that span.
Larkin, who played every one of his 19 seasons with the Reds, was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2012, with a .295 career average, 2,340 hits, 1,329 runs scored and 379 stolen bases. Larkin scored at least 80 runs in a season seven times, hit 30-plus doubles in six seasons, and stole 30-or-more bases five times. He won his three Gold Glove awards at shortstop en route to a career fielding percentage of .975 and won nine Silver Slugger awards.
Larkin won a World Series in 1990 and then did something that Jeter couldn’t accomplish when he took home NL MVP honors in 1995.
The Wizard is simply the greatest defensive infielder in MLB history and his 43.4 career defensive WAR is the best by any player at the position. Even with the defensive metrics on smash, his .978 fielding percentage and 13 Gold Gloves support his claim to the title of glove king.
Smith is the kind of once-in-a-lifetime talent that you would never understand based on numbers. He was truly a magician with the glove. He was also a huge personality in the game and understood the essence of entertainment as he began each game with his patented backflip.
Smith had artistry, flair, and athletic superiority that put him in another stratosphere. His fielding was so good that people often dogged him for his hitting, which is not shabby at all. Smith had a .262 career average and 2,460 hits. He’s also among the greatest base stealers of all-time with 580 career swipes.
“J-Roll” is one of the most offensively prolific shortstops the game has ever seen. He has 2,455 hits, which includes 511 doubles (53rd all-time), 115 triples, and 231 home runs. He ranks 103rd in career total bases and 83rd in extra-base hits. He’s also stolen 470 bases, good for 46th in MLB history. His 1,421 runs are good for 86th and 936 RBI from pretty much always being in a table-setting position is pretty solid as well.
He makes the all-time Top 20 in almost every offensive statistic for a shortstop and was the centerpiece of a Phillies team that won two NL pennants and a World Series in 2008. He has four Gold Gloves and four seasons of at least 10 Defensive Runs Saved.
J-Roll was a true soul patroller. His 2007 NL MVP award was the stamp that at some point he was the best at his position. Standing a diminutive 5-foot-7, 175-pounds, Rollins defied the odds and continues to be a living example of skills over scales when it comes to the sport of baseball.
Honorable Mention: Maury Wills
Wills didn’t get his Hall of Fame props from the writers, but he was an MLB pioneer and one of the fastest players in history.
Wills was finally nominated by the Golden Era committee in 2014, which could induct managers, umpires, executives and long-retired players for possible election in 2015, but he fell three votes short.
The barn-burner made a living off of his superior wheels as he stole 586 bases in his career, good for 20th all time.
The lack of respect for his career is indicative of the lost appreciation in the modern game for the stolen base, which was a staple of black excellence in baseball ever since No. 42 broke the color barrier in ’47. In 1960, Wills won the first of six straight National League stolen base crowns.
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