The top 102 position players by career WAR, 1871 to today
How baseball's greatest rose, peaked, and declined
Every season of the 102 position players, pitchers left out, with the most career WAR on Baseball-Reference, from their first year to their last. Half of them had their best season between ages — and —, and the group's average climbs through the early twenties, levels off in the late twenties, and falls steadily through the thirties.
Players
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Seasons played
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Average career, in seasons
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Average age in best season
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Average WAR in best season
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Home runs by season of career, all 102 players
Each thin line is one player's seasons. The thick line is the average of everyone who played that season, and the shaded band holds the middle half of them. Bars along the bottom count how many players are in each point. Point at the chart to see the numbers.
- Average
- Middle half of players
- Each player
- Highlighted player
- Bo Jackson
- Bo Jackson, projected healthy
Rate stats (batting average through OPS+) count a season only with at least — plate appearances, so a few at-bats can't swing a line. The average is drawn where at least — players have a season. The page's address keeps your choices, so you can share a view.
Every player's arc
The same stat and line-up as the chart above, one small chart each, in order of career WAR. All share one scale, and the dot marks each player's best season for the stat. Choose one to highlight it above.
Careers at a glance
Rank is among these 102 position players. All-time rank is Baseball-Reference's career WAR rank with pitchers in it. Best season is the season with the most WAR. Choose a row to highlight that player in the charts.
What if Bo Jackson had stayed healthy?
Bo Jackson hurt his hip playing football for the Los Angeles Raiders in January 1991, after five seasons with the Kansas City Royals. He had his hip replaced, missed 1992, and played parts of three more seasons. He isn't one of the 102, so his lines on the chart are kept out of the averages.
Projected from the players whose careers started most like his, a healthy Bo Jackson would have finished with about — career WAR and — home runs. That would rank about — all-time on Baseball-Reference's career WAR list, not near the 102 on this page, where the last spot takes — WAR.
His actual and projected careers
| Career | WAR | Games | PA | Hits | HR | RBI | Runs | SB | Walks | Strikeouts |
|---|
Why it’s not higher: WAR saw him as a good player still on the rise, not yet a great one. His — WAR from age 25 to 27 is well under half of the 102’s average of — at those ages, so even a full healthy career ranks low.
Hall of Fame: probably not on the numbers alone. Of the — position players near his projected WAR on Baseball-Reference’s list (— to —), — are in the Hall. The — home runs would be his best argument, but his fame and two-sport story would have to do the rest.
Season by season
| Season | Age | Team | WAR | Games | PA | Hits | HR | RBI | SB | BA | OPS+ |
|---|
How the projection works: the 10 players among the 102 whose WAR from age 24 to 27 rose most like Bo's were —. For each age from 28 on, the projection takes what those 10 did at that age compared with what they did at 25 to 27, and applies it to Bo's 25 to 27. A player who had retired counts as zero, so the projected seasons shrink as they did. Rate stats follow the change among those still playing. His real seasons after 1990 are left out of the projected career. All-time ranks count everyone on Baseball-Reference's list, pitchers included.
About the data
- Who's in it
- The position players among Baseball-Reference's career WAR leaders: the 67 non-pitchers in its top 100, and the next 35 non-pitchers after them, from Ed Delahanty and Johnny Mize (tied at 102nd) through Joe Cronin, Reggie Smith, and Chase Utley (tied at 145th) to Willie McCovey (148th). That's 102 players. Mike Trout, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, and Paul Goldschmidt were still active, so their arcs aren't finished.
- Pitchers left out
- A player counts as a pitcher when more of his career WAR came from pitching, and the 34 pitchers in the top 100 are left out. Babe Ruth pitched for six seasons but stays in: most of his WAR came from hitting, and his WAR here includes his pitching.
- WAR
- Wins above replacement, Baseball-Reference's version: about how many more wins a player was worth than a freely available replacement, counting his hitting, baserunning, and fielding.
- Seasons
- One row per regular season, using the season totals for a player who changed teams. Years a player missed entirely, such as for military service, leave a gap. Age is the player's age as Baseball-Reference lists it for the season.
- Years from best season
- Lines each player up on his season with the most WAR, at 0, whatever stat is shown.
- Bo Jackson
- His real seasons from his Baseball-Reference page, and a projection of a healthy career, worked out on this page as the Bo Jackson section explains. A projection is an estimate, not a record.
- Source
- Stats from Baseball-Reference.com: its career WAR leaders list and each player's standard batting and pitching tables, downloaded November 8, 2026. Hall of Fame is as Baseball-Reference marked it then.