Top Ten Black Second Basemen of All Time Part 2
This is the sixth article in a series where the top ten Black baseball players at each position will be ranked
Introduction
This article series is a project that exists to celebrate Black Baseball Culture’s all-time greats at every position. While articles with various rankings of baseball players are very common, pieces ranking the top Black baseball players of all time are sparse. This series includes Black baseball players from throughout the African diaspora and not just African-American players. Unbeknownst to many, a large number of Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Latino players who appear on these lists have proclaimed their Blackness on record. Some of these lists will include active players, and you may be surprised by some of my additions and omissions. I hope to spark debate and discussion of Black baseball players of the past and present with my writing, especially by baseball fans who are a part of the African diaspora.
The careers of those who played in the Negro Leagues, Latin America, and the Caribbean before the integration of MLB will be included. Black baseball players who have worn MLB uniforms will be featured as well. Because of the lack of statistical data for Negro Leagues players, firsthand and secondhand accounts will play a significant part in these rankings. Surface level and advanced statistics will be present, so I hope those who strongly prefer one or the other are satisfied with my assessments.
The position player rankings will be much more difficult but rewarding and exciting, so I wanted to get those out of the way first. I will start with the catcher position and go in order based on each position's assigned number. There will be separate lists for Black starting pitchers and Black relievers, published last.
Top Ten Black Second Basemen of All Time Part 2
The five players I chose for the second half of the list that focuses on Black players at second base are some of the best middle infielders to wear an MLB uniform during The Integration Era. Black Baseball history cannot be told without including these five phenoms. I believe that all five players on this list should have a bronze plaque in Cooperstown and I hope this article thoroughly explains my logic.
5. Robinson Canó
Eight-time All-Star Robinson Cano is one of the greatest contact hitters of the 21st century, logging a batting average above .310 seven times during his 17-year career. He is also one of the best sluggers to ever play second base, owning the second-most home runs and fourth-most doubles by a 2B. He is a second-generation professional baseball player, following in his father José’s footsteps. His father was a pitcher who played in MiLB for a decade with six appearances in MLB during the 1989 season.
Canó was named after Jackie Robinson when he was born in San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic in 1982. He grew up in the Dominican Republic and New Jersey, where he stood out on the baseball field but did not get much attention from scouts because of his stocky lower body and skinny upper half. He signed with the New York Yankees as an international free agent for $100,000 dollars during the 2001 J2 period after he graduated high school in the Dominican Republic.
During his time in the minors, Canó developed a reputation for being lackadaisical because of a smooth style of play which would become one of his calling cards in MLB. His statistical performance in MiLB left a bit to be desired by scouts despite having one of the most visually appealing left-handed swings of his generation. He also displayed superb contact skills in MiLB, which were often ignored by evaluators.
The Yankees front office attempted to trade Canó three times during the 2004 season in seismic transactions that would have completely changed the landscape and history of MLB. They first offered Canó as one of the centerpieces in a package that would go to the Texas Rangers in exchange for Alex Rodríguez but the Rangers front office wanted a different infielder. The Yankees brain trust then offered Canó to the Kansas City Royals in exchange for Carlos Beltran, but KC opted to send their star center fielder to the Houston Astros. The Yankees front office then pivoted to the Arizona Diamondbacks, looking to swap the young second baseman for starting pitcher Randy Johnson. The D-Backs rebuffed the Yankees offer and kept Johnson for the entire season.
Canó made his MLB debut during the 2005 season, playing in 132 games for the New York Yankees as the full-time second baseman. He went .297/.320/.458 with 34 doubles and finished second in AL Rookie of the Year voting behind Oakland A’s pitcher Hutson Street. During the 2006 season, he made his first of eight appearances in the All-Star game and won his first Silver Slugger Award. His .342 batting average was the sixth-highest posted by a qualified second baseman during an individual season in the 21st century.
By the end of the 2000s, Canó established himself as the Yankees’ first homegrown superstar from the Dominican Republic and one of the best 2Bs of his generation. He turned double plays with shortstop Derek Jeter and shared the infield dirt with Alex Rodriguez and Mark Texeira in one of the greatest infields ever assembled. He helped the Yankees make seven playoff berths during his nine-year stint in pinstripes and was on the 2009 team that won the World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies. Since the beginning of The Integration Era in 1947, he is first in home runs, RBI, batting average, wRC+, and OPS among qualified second basemen who have played for the New York Yankees. He is top five in a myriad of other categories, including games played, plate appearances, total hits, on-base percentage, fWAR, and bWAR.
During the offseason between the 2013 and 2014 MLB seasons Canó signed one of the largest contracts in MLB history by agreeing to a 10-year, $240 million dollar deal with the Seattle Mariners. He made three All-Star appearances during his five years in the Northwest, slashing .296/.353/.472 with 107 home runs as a Mariner. In December 2018 the veteran second baseman and teammate Edwin Diaz were traded to the New York Mets in exchange for five players. The eight-time All-Star played three seasons with the Mets that were productive but marred by injuries and a second time getting caught using banned PEDs. During the 2022 season, he made appearances with the New York Mets, Atlanta Braves, and San Diego Padres before retiring from MLB.
4. Lou Whitaker
“First and foremost, it was his talent — then the work ethic. We were both from the same era where you put in the work. Lou got moved from third to second. He never said a word about it, even though he was the MVP of the league (in the minors). It probably was the best thing that ever happened to Lou. He had the sixth sense. He knew what he was doing. He was very quiet to the outside world, but he wasn’t quiet around us. It was always two of us, Lou and Tram. We leaned on each other for that as we first developed.” - Alan Trammell
Lou Whitaker was the second baseman in one of MLB’s most iconic middle infield duos alongside shortstop Alan Trammell on the Detroit Tigers for 19 consecutive seasons. The 5x All-Star is one of the most underrated position players of the 1980s and 1990s. He was born in Brooklyn, NY but raised in Martinsville, Virginia during the 1960s and 1970s. He started playing organized baseball at the age of 10 and by 13 had established a reputation as one of the better baseball players in his age bracket from the Southwest Virginia area.
“Sweet Lou” was a pitcher and shortstop on the Martinsville High School baseball team that caught the eye of a Detroit Tigers scout named Wayne Blackburn during his junior year of high school. The Detroit organization continued to follow him closely during his final year of high school and decided to draft him in the 5th round of the 1975 MLB Draft directly out of high school.
His professional career began during the 1975 MiLB season, appearing in 42 games with Detroit’s Rookie ball affiliate in the Appalachian League. The next season he played in 124 games with Detroit’s Low-A affiliate in the Florida State League, going .297/.376/.355 with 48 stolen bases. He met fellow Tigers middle infielder Alan Trammel during an instructional camp after the 1976 season. They were teammates and middle infield partners from that point forward for over two decades. With Trammel chosen to be the future shortstop of the two by Detroit’s brass, Whitaker had to learn how to play second base and figured it out quickly. The duo thrived on both sides of the ball with Detroit’s Double-A affiliate.
Whitaker made his MLB debut at the end of the 1977 season, playing 11 games with Detroit after 107 games with the team’s Double-A affiliate. Trammel also made his MLB debut at the end of the 1977 season by appearing in 19 games for the Tigers. The 21-year-old second baseman firmly established himself as Detroit’s full-time second baseman for the foreseeable future after posting a .285/.361/.357 slash line during his first full MLB season in 1978. It was his first of 11 seasons with an on-base percentage of at least 36% and one of nine seasons with at least 70 walks drawn. He won the 1978 AL Rookie of the Year Award after leading all rookies across MLB in bWAR, fWAR, and triples.
During his first five seasons from 1977 to 1981, Whitaker went .266/.357/.344 with 602 total bases across 2074 plate appearances. Despite the relative offensive unproductivity he showed that he was one of the best defenders at his position during the first fourth of his career. He leaped forward offensively during the 1982 season by reaching the double-digit home run mark and slugging over .400 for the first time in his career. During his next five seasons from 1982 to 1986, he put up a .289/.356/.439 slash line with 1297 total bases across 3320 plate appearances.
He made five straight All-Star appearances during the 1980s and was one of the centerpieces of a Detroit Tigers ball club that won the 1984 World Series and made an appearance in the 1987 ALCS. Whitaker logged an OPS above .800 seven times and has the fourth most defensive appearances at second base in MLB history. I have a strong belief that the perception of his career and other 2Bs with similar careers such as Bobby Grich, Willie Randolph, and Jim Gilliam is concrete proof that second basemen are intrinsically underrated by fans, baseball writers, and a large majority of scouts/front office members in MLB.
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