MLB All-Quarter Century Team
The best in the game through the century's first 25 years
On May 22nd, Jayson Stark of The Athletic published his MLB All-Quarter Century team. This is part of a project The Athletic has been running this season, highlighting the best of the first 25 years of the 2000s. Other writers have begun creating similar lists as well. The project also includes All-Quarter Century Teams for each franchise, as well as the top games from the past 25 years. This was based solely on player performance in the 2000’s, so while a guy like Ken Griffey Jr. was a stud spanning the 1990’s and early 2000’s, only his contributions during the 21st century counted for this exersise.1 Below is the team Stark came up with.
Catcher: Yadier Molina
First Base: Albert Pujols
Second Base: Jose Altuve
Shortstop: Derek Jeter
Third Base: Adrian Beltre
Left Field: Barry Bonds
Center Field: Mike Trout
Right Field: Aaron Judge
Designated Hitter: David Ortiz
Rotation: Justin Verlander, Clayton Kershaw, Roy Halladay, Max Scherzer, Randy Johnson
Closer: Mariano Rivera
I love these sort of exercises and thinking about the arguments that can be made for different players. So in the spirit of good debate, I created my own purely stats-based team.
The team is based solely on Wins Above Replacement (WAR). I used two WAR-related metrics: FanGraphs WAR and War Rate (WAR per 162 games for batters and WAR per 200 innings for pitchers). I averaged each player’s WAR and WAR Rate for years they played between 2000-2024, and summed them to get a composite WAR.2 The player with the highest composite WAR at each position is that positions starter. The rotation consists of the top five starting pitchers by composite WAR, and the bullpen features the top five relievers. The bench is made up of the next six position players with the highest composite WAR, regardless of position.
Yadier Molina (Catcher)
Molina appeared in 2,226 games across his 19-year career, all with St. Louis. Although offense was never his forte—his .277 average and .726 OPS rank 14th and 66th, respectively, among Catchers with at least 800 plate appearances since 2000—he still mustered 1,022 RBIs and 176 home runs.
Molina’s true value came on the defensive side. Despite a sub-par 96.6 wRC+, his FanGraphs defensive value (Def) is, by a considerable margin, the highest among all players over the past 25 years.
Freddie Freeman (First Base)
MLB’s active leader in hits, Freeman has remained one of the most consistent hitters in the league over his 16-years, maintaining an OPS+ of at least 132 (OPS at least 32% better than league average) since his age 23 season in 2013. He owns a .300 batting average and .899 OPS between his debut in 2010 and the ‘24 cutoff, along with 343 home runs and 1,232 RBIs.
With a 143 wRC+ and 63.8 WAR (as of now), Freeman is putting together a Hall of Fame resume that will be hard to argue.
Chase Utley (Second Base)
A cornerstone of the Phillies late-2000’s dominance, Utley, who did everything well but nothing eye-popping, still finished with 259 home runs and 154 stolen bases in 1,937 games. His .823 OPS ranks 3rd among second basemen with at least 1,500 plate appearances since 2000.
Adrián Beltré (Third Base)
Beltré, the epitome of sustained production and longevity, slugged 477 home runs and 1,707 RBIs over a 21-year career spanning 1998 to 2018.3 He posted a .288/.340/.484 slash line with an .824 OPS, never slowing with age.
He accumulated 83.5 WAR (79.9 in the 2000’s), making him the 7th most productive third basemen in MLB history per FanGraphs. Beltré combined longevity with an above-average bat and historically elite defense.4
Francisco Lindor (Shortstop)
This one may ruffle some feathers, but the numbers are the numbers. Through 1,375 games, Lindor has hit 248 home runs and stolen 185 bases to go along with a .274 average and .818 OPS. Defense is the clincher for Lindor, ranking 2nd in defensive value among shortstops since 2000. This stellar defense helped him rack up nearly 60 WAR in the first quarter of the 2000’s, second behind only A-Rod (who played just 4 seasons at SS in the 21st century), and at just 31 years and putting up another MVP-caliber season in 2025, Lindor shows no signs of slowing down. Say what you want about Jeter (honestly, he probably would have been my personal pick) but his defense left a bit to be desired.
Mookie Betts (Right Field)
Remember way back when Mookie Betts was a right fielder and not a shortstop? It turns out he was a pretty good one. The eight-time all-star and 2018 MVP compiled a .294 average and .897 OPS through 1,381 games from 2014-2024, along with 271 home runs and 188 stolen bases.
He’s up to 61.4 WAR, ranking him 46th all-time among outfielders (where he played the bulk of his career), and his nearly 140 career wRC+ places him ahead of hall of famers Reggie Jackson, Duke Snider, and Vladimir Guerrero. Still just 32 years old, Betts is on the fast-track to Cooperstown.
Mike Trout (Center Field)
Here we have the complicated legacy of Mike Trout. Despite being plagued with injuries and playing for one of the most unsuccessful franchises, Trout has posted elite numbers across 1,518 games: 378 home runs, a .299 average, a .991 OPS, 212 stolen bases and 954 RBI. The three-time MVP is a true all-around phenom.
His 169.5 wRC+ ranks behind only Ted Williams, Aaron Judge, Barry Bonds, and Mickey Mantle since integration in 1947. That, along with a 85.7 WAR (and counting) puts him in Hall of Fame territory even with a shortened peak. To think what could have been…
Barry Bonds (Left Field)
In just 986 games during the 2000’s, Bonds hit 317 home runs with a .322/.517/.724 slash line and a 1.241 OPS. His 203.1 wRC+ during this span is unrivaled in the modern era.
Despite fewer games played than most on this list, Bonds still posted 61.9 WAR. Even with the 2000’s being the end of his career, these numbers are eye-popping. Everyone has their opinions on Bonds for different reasons, but from a pure numbers standpoint, Bonds was arguably the greatest of all time.
David Ortiz (Designated Hitter)
Ortiz—the face of the late-2000’s and early-2010’s Red Sox dynasty—hit 531 home runs and drove in 1,716 runs over 2,297 games in the 2000’s, along with a .287 average and .937 OPS. His career 140 wRC+ and 51 WAR rank in the top-10 among all designated hitters, while his 541 home runs, 1,768 RBI, and 632 doubles are second, first, and first, respectively.
Big Papi aged gracefully, leading the league in RBI, doubles, and OPS in his final season at age 40. All of his 10 all-star selections came after turning 28.
The Pitching Staff
Among starting pitchers, Justin Verlander leads the crop with 82.0 WAR across this time span, closely followed by Clayton Kershaw (76.4 WAR), who’s 2.50 ERA is top among starters through 2024. Max Scherzer (73.2 WAR, 10.7 K/9, 3,407 strikeouts), Jacob deGrom—who’s career has been limited by injuries, but a 2.52 ERA and 11.0 K/9 over 218 games validate his inclusion—and Zack Greinke (66.7 WAR and over 200 wins) round out the rotation.
In the bullpen, Mariano Rivera stands out with 523 of his record 652 career saves in the coming in the 2000’s. He holds a 2.05 ERA, and 29.2 WAR—the highest WAR among relievers pitching in the 2000’s—to back it up. Kenley Jansen (447 SV, 2.57 ERA) and Craig Kimbrel (440 SV, 14.1 K/9) each have secured over 400 saves with strikeout rates over 12 K/9, while Aroldis Chapman holds the highest K/9 (14.8) among all eligible relievers. Jonathan Papelbon (368 SV, 2.44 ERA) and Joakim Soria (229 SV) round out the bullpen.
The Athletic’s Team Under Our System
If we apply our WAR-based calculations to Stark’s team on The Athletic, we can see where that team falls in our player rankings for each position, and for those who missed the cut for our team, how close they came.
For the most part, we were on the same page. The majority of the differences still ranked highly on our list. The biggest outlier was Randy Johnson. In his article, Stark admits that the 5th starter choice was somewhat controversial. He gives the data-driven argument for Greinke, but ultimately opts for Randy based on his shear dominance—which included three Cy Young’s—in the first five years of the 2000s. He also gave a few brownie-points to his all-time stature, and being likely the last pitcher who will mount 300+ wins, not to mention his 4,500+ strikeouts. Randy was a legend, possibly on the Mount Rushmore of all-time pitchers, but he just pitched in the wrong years to be included on our list.
I want to hear from you, who got it right? Vote below and let me know where you agree or disagree in the comments.
Might be unfair, but there has got to be a cutoff somewhere.
Essentially, the formula was:
Where:
n is the total number of seasons,
WAR(i) is the WAR in season i
WARrate(i) is the WAR rate in season i
466 home runs and 1,618 RBIs came in the 2000’s.
Beltre ranks 2nd all time among third basemen in FanGraphs defensive value, behind only Brooks Robinson.
I like where you took those stats. I will reply with my own post shortly.