My favorite Boston Red Sox players all-time at each position

An All-Star squad of my personal favorite players at each position who have worn a Boston Red Sox uniform during my lifetime.

The history of the Boston Red Sox is loaded at virtually every position but everyone has their favorites.

There’s an important distinction between best and favorite. A statistical analysis can provide us with a fairly definitive answer for who the best players are. There may be some debate with different people favoring certain statistics over others but we can generally narrow it to at least a small pool of candidates.

Naming your favorite players is more subjective. Ted Williams is objectively the best position player in franchise history but his heyday was before my parents were born. Clearly, I never had the chance to see the Splendid Splinter perform live so I can’t count him among my favorites.

My list might be drastically different from yours since it’s influenced by the period that I grew up in. While I have some lingering memories from the late-80s, my love for the games grew during the 90s when I was an avid collector of baseball cards and exploded shortly after the turn of the century when the Red Sox started winning championships.

Younger fans who don’t know the pain of Boston’s long championship drought would probably stick to players from the most recent decades since they grew up watching them win World Series titles. Older fans have a more extensive catalog of memories to draw from and would therefore have more variance in their list.

This is my list based on the opinions I’ve formed over the last three-plus decades.

Catcher – Jason  Varitek

Carlton Fisk is the best catcher in franchise history but he changed his Sox by moving to Chicago before I was born. That leaves Jason Varitek as the easy choice for my list.

The Captain came to Boston along with Derek Lowe in one of the most lopsided trades in franchise history with the Seattle Mariners. Varitek made his major league debut with the Red Sox in 1997 with a hit in his first career at-bat and emerged as a regular part of the backstop platoon the following year.

Varitek spent his entire 15-year career with the Red Sox, hitting .256/.341/.435 with 193 home runs and 757 RBI.

The three-time All-Star put up a few strong seasons at the plate but his primary value wasn’t his bat. He was a strong defensive catcher who earned a Gold Glove in 2005. Varitek was considered to be among the best game-calling catchers in his day and he holds the major league record for catching four no-hitters.

Varitek was a leader in the clubhouse and on the field, earning the respect of his teammates and the fans.

His offensive production doesn’t stack up against the elite catchers enshrined in Cooperstown but Varitek’s best traits can’t be measured by statistics. He was a vital member of two World Series championship teams and earned a well-deserved induction into the Red Sox Hall of Fame.

First Base – Mo Vaughn

Mo Vaughn is one of the first Red Sox stars that I remember becoming a fan of in the early 90s. He spent the first eight years of his career in Boston and established himself as one of the most feared sluggers of that decade.

The Hit Dog made three All-Star appearances during his tenure with the Red Sox and finished top-5 on the MVP ballot three times.

He captured the MVP in 1995 when he hit .300 with a .963 OPS, 39 home runs and a league-leading 126 RBI. Despite taking home the hardware that year, ’95 wasn’t even Vaughn’s best season. The following year, he hit .326 with a 1.003 OPS, 44 home runs, and 143 RBI but finished only fifth on the MVP ballot.

Vaughn was outstanding in the 1998 ALDS, hitting .412 with a pair of home runs, but the Red Sox lost to the Cleveland Indians in four games. Vaughn signed with the Angels as a free agent after that season on an $80 million deal that made him the highest paid player in baseball at the time.

His outspoken nature often clashed with the Boston media and a few off-field incidents soured his relationship with the front office. Vaughn didn’t leave town on the best of terms, but as a kid growing up at the time I wasn’t paying any attention to the controversy. All I cared about was watching him bash home runs and Vaughn was the best power threat on the Red Sox during my childhood.

Second Base – Dustin Pedroia

Dustin Pedroia was easy to root for early in his career. He was an underdog who many considered to be too undersized to make it in the big leagues but he proved his doubters wrong with sheer grit and determination.

He struggled mightily in his brief major league debut but the Red Sox showed faith in his potential by sticking with him through the rough patch. Pedroia rewarded them with a Rookie of the Year campaign in 2007 and his emergence helped lead to a World Series championship that season.

For an encore, Pedroia followed with the best year of his career in 2008. He hit .326/.376/.493 with 17 home runs, 83 RBI and 20 stolen bases. He led the league with 213 hits, 54 doubles, and 118 runs scored. Pedroia earned the AL MVP award while adding his first Silver Slugger and Gold Glove.

While he never quite reached that level again, Pedroia has made four All-Star appearances and added three more Gold Gloves. His last All-Star appearance was in 2013 when he won his second World Series ring.

Pedroia’s career has been spoiled by injuries limiting him to only nine games over the last two seasons. He was on the 2018 World Series team but barely played that year and wasn’t on the postseason roster.

His leadership skills were called into question in recent years when the burden was unfairly placed on him by default. Combine that with his inability to stay on the field and Pedroia’s popularity has reached a low point.

The hobbled veteran isn’t the version I’ll remember though. The gritty underdog who fought harder than anyone to earn his place and developed into an unexpected star is the version that sticks with me. Pedroia’s No. 15 jersey still hangs in my closet and I’ll proudly wear it again.

Shortstop – Nomar Garciaparra

Nomar Garciaparra was undoubtedly one of the most popular athletes in Boston during the late-90s. His emergence coincided with the point when my baseball knowledge began expanding beyond card collecting and video games as I began watching games more frequently.

Garciaparra broke out with a Rookie of the Year campaign in 1997. He hit .306 with a .875 OPS, 30 home runs and 98 RBI while leading the league with 209 hits and 11 triples. That earned him his first All-Star nod and Silver Slugger award.

The closest he came to winning an MVP was in 1998 when Garciaparra set career-highs with 35 home runs and 122 RBI to finish as the runner-up. While that was the peak of his power numbers, it arguably wasn’t his most impressive season.

Nomar won consecutive batting titles by hitting .357 in 1999 and .372 the following season. His career-high in 2000 is among the 10 highest single-season batting averages in the majors since 1941 when Ted Williams became the last player to hit at least .400 for a season.

The image of Nomar sulking in the dugout soiled his reputation and paved the way to his ticket out of town. The Red Sox traded him during the 2004 season, a shocking move that ended up paying off with a World Series title. It was a bittersweet moment since we know it was the right move in retrospect but it signaled the end of an era as a beloved Boston icon was shipped away.

Injuries spoiled the second half of his career but that shouldn’t overshadow what he accomplished during his prime years in Boston. Nomar didn’t have the longevity as an elite player to be considered for the Hall of Fame but there’s no doubt he was on that path after his eight-plus years with the Red Sox.

Third Base – Kevin Youkilis

The hot corner is a tough position to find a favorite. Wade Boggs was the best third baseman the Red Sox have had in my lifetime but I’m not quite old enough to remember his peak and he was wearing Yankees pinstripes by the time I started following the game. Adrian Beltre had one great year in Boston but his tenure was short-lived. Mike Lowell warrants consideration for his role in bringing a title to Boston as the 2007 World Series MVP but he also wasn’t here for very long.

Instead, I’ll go with the consistency of Kevin Youkilis. He split time at both corner infield spots and briefly saw time in the outfield. While he technically spent the majority of his career at first base, Youk logged more games at third than the aforementioned short-tenured players in consideration.

The Greek God of Walks lived up to his nickname with a strong .388 OBP during his nine years with the Red Sox.

Youkilis was a seldom-used infielder for the 2004 club that ended the 86-year title drought but he was a key cog in the lineup by the time the Red Sox captured their next title in 2007. He shined in the ALCS that year, hitting .500 with three home runs in the series against the Indians.

In 2008, Youk set career-highs with a .312 average, 168 hits, 43 doubles, 29 home runs and 115 RBI to finish third in the MVP race.

He had a short window of only about four years as a star player but Youk was at least a solid contributor for the first eight years of his career. His production fell off a cliff at the age of 33 and he was traded to the Chicago White Sox in 2012. Youkilis retired after a brief injury-plagued stint with the Yankees the following year.

Left Field – Manny Ramirez

The enigmatic Manny Ramirez was an emotional roller coaster who walked the line between lovable goofball and moody malcontent. “Manny being Manny” could describe his best moments as well as his worst but at least Ramirez was never boring and always productive at the plate.

The Red Sox lured Ramirez to Boston with a massive free-agent contract in 2000. He was an All-Star in all eight seasons and finished in the top 10 on the MVP ballot in each of his first five seasons with the club.

Manny was one of the best right-handed hitters that I’ve ever seen. His knowledge of the zone was uncanny and nobody prepared harder. You wouldn’t know it from his personality but Ramirez was a highly intelligent hitter.

Ramirez could do it all at the plate. He hit for average, posting a .312 AVG with the Red Sox and winning a batting title by hitting .349 in 2002. He had prestigious power, hitting at least 33 home runs and topping 40 three times while driving in 100+ RBI every year during his first six seasons in Boston.

His defense was often a liability but Manny’s adventures in the outfield led to some of his most memorable moments – diving to cut off a throw that wasn’t meant for him, high-fiving a fan as he scaled the wall to make a catch, and turning the inside of the Green Monster into his own personal bathroom, to name a few.

Ramirez wore out his welcome in 2008, forcing a trade to the Dodgers. His tenure in Boston didn’t end well, but hey, that was Manny being Manny. We had to take the good with the bad.

Center Field – Jacoby Ellsbury

Jacoby Ellsbury entered the limelight in 2007 during Boston’s World Series run. He played in a mere 33 games down the stretch but slowly stole the center field role away from Coco Crisp. Ellsbury appeared in all four World Series games against the Colorado Rockies and hit a blistering .438 in the Fall Classic.

The speedy outfielder stole 50+ bases three times and shattered the single-season franchise record with 70 steals in 2009.

There didn’t appear to be much pop in his bat until his outlier 2011 campaign when Ellsbury smashed 32 home runs and drove in 105 RBI while hitting .321 with a .928 OPS. He never came close to those figures in any other season but Ellsbury earned his lone All-Star appearance and was the runner-up for the MVP.

Ellsbury’s career year was sandwiched between two injury-shortened seasons but he bounced back with one more strong campaign before leaving town. He hit .298 and led the league with 52 steals in 2013. He wrapped up that year with a solid postseason to win his second World Series ring.

Johnny Damon was given careful consideration for his role at the top of the lineup for the curse-breaking 2004 club. He was certainly a fan-favorite during his Captain Caveman days but Damon betrayed us when he signed with the Yankees in 2006.

Ellsbury followed Damon’s path by chasing the money to New York but his contract turned out to be such a disaster as injuries ruined his career that it’s hard to hold his departure against him. There’s no hard feelings with Jacoby donning pinstripes so he gets the nod over Damon.

Right Field – Mookie Betts

Mookie Betts is the best five-tool player the Red Sox have had in my lifetime. He owns a career average over .300, has displayed 30+ home run power, can steal 30 bases and he’s the best defensive right fielder in the game today.

In his last four seasons with the Red Sox, Betts was an All-Star and Gold Glove winner while earning the Silver Slugger award at his position three times.

Betts was the runner-up for the MVP in 2006 when he hit .318 with 31 home runs and 26 steals. He followed with a “down” season when his average fell to .264 due to some fluky BABIP luck but still finished sixth on the MVP ballot because he was so great at everything else.

His fortune turned bright again in 2018 when Betts bounced back with a .346 average to capture the batting title. He also led the league with 129 runs scored and a .640 slugging percentage and joined the 30/30 club (32 homers, 30 steals) while providing his usual stellar defense to earn the MVP award.

The 10.4 fWAR that Betts produced in 2018 is the seventh-highest single-season mark in franchise history, according to FanGraphs. It took Betts less than six full seasons to compile 37.2 fWAR, which ranks 15th in franchise history. If he had stayed in Boston for another six-plus years while maintaining anywhere near that pace, Betts may have finished among the top trio of position players in franchise history behind only Ted and Yaz.

The Red Sox made every effort to lock their superstar up with an extension but Betts rebuffed every offer, insisting on testing free agency. Boston traded him last winter to the Dodgers rather than run the risk of losing him for nothing after the season. While some fans turned against Betts for being greedy, he’s simply doing what’s in his best interest. He’s earned that right and few among us would willingly settle for less money to do a job we knew we were great at.

I was devastated when Betts was traded away but he remains one of my all-time favorite players. It doesn’t hurt that he’s also the only active player I’ve had the privilege of interviewing.

Designated Hitter – David Ortiz

Who else could it be? David Ortiz is the best player in MLB history whose primary position was designated hitter for the majority of his career.

The Red Sox never could have imagined in their wildest dreams what Ortiz would become when they scooped him off the scrap heap after the Minnesota Twins released him. His game took a massive leap as soon as he arrived in Boston and he quickly established himself as one of the most popular athletes in the city.

A DH has never won an MVP award but Ortiz put himself in the conversation with five consecutive top-five finishes on the ballot to begin his tenure with the Red Sox. The closest he came was 2005 when he hit 47 home runs and led the league with 148 RBI to finish as the runner-up.

In 2006, Ortiz set the single-season franchise record with 54 home runs. He led the league in that category and led in RBI for the second year in a row with 137.

As impressive as his regular season resume was after joining the Red Sox, the postseason is where Ortiz shined the brightest. His dramatic walk-off home runs during the 2004 championship run. The epic grand slam against the Tigers in the 2013 ALCS. Nobody came through in the clutch more than Big Papi and his postseason heroics made him a legend. He was a staple in the lineup for three championship teams and earned the World Series MVP in 2013.

Ortiz always had a special connection to the city of Boston. It was on display during his infamous speech at Fenway Park in the aftermath of the Marathon bombing. He was one of the most charismatic players in recent memory and one of the most beloved icons in franchise history.

He should be voted into the Hall of Fame once he’s eligible and his No. 34 is the most recent number to be retired at Fenway Park.