In late September, I listened to a podcast show. In the show, a researcher indicated a third baseman had done a great job during the regular season and he might be the best third baseman in this generation.
The content that the researcher provided was truly excellent in the show. After listening to the show, I was just wondering which third baseman might be the best one over these 10 years. To understand a little bit more, I decided to check on the great Fangraphs website.
Firstly, looking at the number of hits. Nolan Arenado made his MLB debut in 2013 and now has 1826 hits in his career. From 2015 to 2024, he collected 1572 hits. At the same time, Manny Machado had 1570 hits over these 10 seasons. Machado made it into the big leagues in 2012 and already collected 1900 hits thus far in his career. Additionally, Jose Ramirez has spent 12 seasons with the Guardians and now has 1500 hits in his career. From 2015 to 2024, he had 1434 hits. Moreover, Justin Turner and Eugenio Suarez each had 1200+ hits from 2015 to 2024.
Over these 10 seasons, Nolan Arenado crushed 313 home runs and Manny Machado blasted 300+ home runs as well. Eugenio Suarez smashed 272 home runs from 2015 to 2024 and Jose Ramirez had 253 home runs. Furthermore, Josh Donaldson made his MLB debut in 2010 and retired after the 2023 season. From 2015 to 2023, Donaldson had 216 homers. Additionally, Rafael Devers made his MLB debut in 2017 and so far in his career, he has 200 home runs.
Thirdly, looking at runs batted in, Nolan Arenado collected 1000+ RBI over these 10 seasons and Manny Machado had 920 RBI. In the meantime, Jose Ramirez and Eugenio Suarez each collected 800+ RBI from 2015 to 2024. Justin Turner had 682 RBI. Alex Bregman made his MLB debut in 2016 and so far in his career, he has 663 RBI.
Finally, let’s look at OPS. Again, Nolan Arenado is on the top of the leaderboard. From 2015 to 2024, Arenado owned an OPS of .872 and Jose Ramirez had an OPS over .860. Josh Donaldson’s OPS was .865 from 2015 to 2023. Moreover, Rafael Devers has an OPS of .856 so far in his career. Kris Bryant hasn’t played at third base since 2022. However, he used to be an everyday third baseman. Bryant made his MLB debut in 2015 and won the 2015 NL Rookie of the Year award. He now has a .855 OPS in his career.
Looking at these 10 seasons, it’s extremely hard to ignore how great Nolan Arenado is. As a third baseman, he hits well and leads in several categories. Furthermore, he’s a 10-time Gold Glove award winner. Manny Machado also hits well, but his OPS isn’t as high as Arenado’s. In the meantime, we have to look at Jose Ramirez. He’s been very consistent during these 10 seasons and he’s a very trustworthy hitter in the Guardians lineup. In particular, from 2015 to 2024, Jose Ramirez actually owned an OPS of .865, which is higher than Machado’s OPS of .843.
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