Best all-time player for each MLB team
Who is the best player ever for each of the 30 MLB franchises?
Thirty MLB franchises, thirty all-time greats. Baseball loves its history, and each team loves to promote their greatest players. Picking one player to represent some of the more historic franchise is a difficult task, as they offer multiple Hall of Famers and MLB record holders.
Follow along as we make a pick for the greatest player in the history of each MLB franchise. It is a full-fledged list of the best players in league history. While some of the younger teams do not boast true MLB legends, every team has at least one multi-time All-Star who has won at least one of the league’s biggest postseason awards. Which player will represent your team?
Arizona Diamondbacks: Randy Johnson
The Big Unit played for six teams in his 22-year MLB career, but his most iconic moments all came with the Diamondbacks. As is such, he became the first player to wear an Arizona cap on his Hall of Fame plaque. Johnson won 303 games in his career, including 118 in eight years in the desert.
The four best years of Randy Johnson’s iconic career came from 1999 to 2002 — the height of the Steroid Era. Johnson went 81-27 with two 20-win seasons, a 2.48 ERA, an ERA+ of 187, 12.4 K/9, four 300-strikeout seasons, four Cy Youngs, and the 2001 World Series MVP. He won the pitching Triple Crown in 2002. Johnson also had a 20-strikeout game for the Diamondbacks, and threw the 17th perfect game in MLB history on May 18, 2004. He was the oldest pitcher ever to throw a perfect game.
Johnson was great for his entire career, but he was at his best for the Diamondbacks. He is the all-time leader for the franchise for WAR by quite a wide margin, and his decision to sign with the fledgling expansion team helped them become a contender much faster than anyone could have imagined.