New York Yankees: All-time best second basemen in franchise history

The New York Yankees franchise has existed since 1901, and there have been several terrific second basemen to don the pinstripes.

To qualify to be among the best second basemen in Yankees’ history, players needed at least 1500 plate appearances, and they had to play second base more than any other position. They needed to have at least 13 Wins Above Replacement to qualify.

The goal was also to be objective rather than subjective, so rankings were based on Wins Above Replacement, according to Fangraphs. This takes into account base running skills, defensive prowess, and well as offensive skills.

This means some well-know, relatively modern players such as Steve Sax, Chuck Knoblauch, and Alfonso Soriano missed the cut.

Let’s get to it!

New York Yankees all-time best second basemen

New York Yankees all-time best second basemen – No. 8: Horace Clarke

13.5 WAR

Horace Clarke debuted for Yankees in 1965 and played into the 1974 season. He had the unfortunate luck to be the primary lead-off hitter through the third-longest playoff drought in Yankees’ history.

He had little power, hitting just 27 home runs and 23 triples over his career. He never recorded more than 26 doubles in a single season. He never reached 50 runs batted in, but he did score a fair amount of runs, averaging 70 a season from 1967 through 1973.

He never struck out more than 64 times, and he never walked more than 64 times. His highest batting average in a season was .281, 13 points higher than his next best mark.

He did lead the league in at-bats twice and in singles twice. Defensively, he led all second basemen in putouts four times and assists six times. He also committed double-digit errors in six straight seasons.

He also had some speed, accumulating 151 steals with the Yankees.

Clarke was consistent and durable, just not flashy. He still ranks eighth all-time in Wins Above Replacement among all Yankees’ second basemen.

New York Yankees all-time best second basemen – No. 6: Snuffy Stirnweiss

29.1 WAR

Snuffy Stirnweiss was the star second baseman for the Yankees in the forties. He enjoyed his biggest seasons during the final years of World War II when many of the best players were helping with the war effort. He was particularly dominant in 1944 and 1945.

In 1944, he led the American League in plate appearances, at-bats, runs, hits, triples, and stolen bases while finishing fourth in the MVP voting.

The next year was even better as he led the league in plate appearances, at-bats, runs, hits, triples, stolen bases, batting average, slugging percentage, OPS, and total bases. He finished third for MVP.

In 1946, he moved off second to make room for Joe Gordon, who returned from the war. Instead, he played third, with only 46 games at second.

His production started to drop off rather drastically once the war was over, and more players returned to the field. He hit .319 in 1944 and .309 in 1945 but never hit higher than .261 again. He averaged 200 hits a season during the war years but never chalked up more than 146 after the war.

Stirnweiss filled an important role, as did so many others, by keeping baseball active during the war years. Baseball provided an outlet for fans as they dealt with so much else in their lives during those years. He mounted some above-average performances in the years directly following the war, averaging nearly three wins above replacement.

In 1949, his numbers began to slide, and he was gone from the Yankees two games into the 1950 season, and out of baseball by 1952.

New York Yankees all-time best second basemen – No. 5: Robinson Cano

35.8 WAR

Robinson Cano hit the scene in 2005 by finishing second on the Rookie of the Year balloting. He hit .297 with 14 home runs, 62 runs batted in, and 78 runs.

He didn’t slow down from there. In his nine seasons with the Yankees, he made five trips to the All-Star game, earned five Silver Sluggers and two Gold Gloves, and he finished in the top six of the MVP voting four times.

He enjoyed one five-year stretch, from 2009 through 2013 that was incredible. In those seasons, he averaged 28 home runs, 103 RBI, and 99 runs scored. He also hit .314 with an OPS of .899.

From 2007 through 2013, he played in at least 159 games every year. Can you imagine the luxury it was to run a second baseman with those offensive skills onto the field every day?

He took his glove with him when he took the field too. He led the league with a Defensive WAR of 2.8 in 2007 and was in the top ten two other seasons.

Since leaving the New York Yankees after 2013, he has remained a very productive player, though not on the level of his Yankee campaigns. He also has a chance at 3,000 hits; he’s just 430 away.

New York Yankees all-time best second basemen – No. 4: Gil McDougald

39.7 WAR

In the ten seasons Gil McDougald played for the Yankees, New York finished first in the American League eight times. His stats were never mind-boggling, but he still finished in the top 20 in MVP voting five times.

He won the 1951 Rookie of the Year by hitting .306, with 14 homers and 63 RBI. He also recorded his career-high .884 OPS that season. He walked regularly and was in the top ten in on-base percentage twice.

McDougald split his time between second and third but played more games at the cornerstone to qualify for this list. It didn’t seem to matter where he played because, in 1957, he led the AL in Defensive WAR and was in the top ten in this category seven other seasons.

His postseason numbers never quite matched what he did in the regular season. In 53 playoff games, he hit just .237, 39 points behind his career mark. His OPS was only .689, 77 points lower than what he posted in-season.

Fortunately, it didn’t matter as the Yankees won five championships in McDougald’s time in New York.

New York Yankees all-time best second basemen – No. 3: Joe Gordon

40.1 WAR

Prior to 1944, Joe Gordon was a perennial All-star. After his rookie season in 1938, Gordon appeared in five straight summer classics.

As a Yankee, he had two seasons with over 100 runs scored, three seasons with triple-digit RBI, and three seasons with 25 home runs or more.

He won the 1942 MVP with a .322 average, 18 homers and 103 RBI. At the peak of his career, he missed two years due to military service.

When Gordon returned in 1946, he was named an All-star again, but he didn’t have a good season. He hit just .210 with only 11 home runs and 47 RBI. The Yankees must have thought his best years were behind him, and since they still had Snuffy Stirnweiss, they traded Gordon to the Indians.

Unfortunately for the Yankees, Gordon was not washed up as he was an MVP candidate in both 1947 and 1948, and an All-star thee next three seasons.

If the Yankees had kept Gordon instead of Stirnweiss, and the former had the same years in New York he had in Cleveland, he would have easily been at number one on this list instead of third. He accumulated a WAR of 18.5 in 1947 through 1949 for the Indians.

New York Yankees all-time best second basemen – No. 2: Tony Lazzeri

48.4 WAR

Few players can claim to be an all-time great yet only the third-best player on their team. Tony Lazzeri can make such a claim. It is even better when you are being overshadowed by the likes of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.

Lazzeri had seven 100-plus RBI seasons out of his 12 with the Yankees. He was also one of the early power hitters of the New Ball Era. In 1926 and 1927, he bashed 36 home runs total, and while that may not seem like a lot now, Only Ruth’s 107 and Gehrig’s 63 topped Lazzeri’s 36.

In fact, in 1927, that threesome were the top three home run hitters in the American league – Ruth had 60, Gehrig, 47, and Lazzeri, 18.

Lazzeri was in the top ten for slugging percentage four times, as well as in the top 10 in home runs four times.

In his career with the Yankees, he hit 178 homers and 1,194 RBI. He batted .292, with five seasons at .300 or higher. In 1929, he hit an astounding .352.

In his 12 seasons, he never accumulated less than 2.3 in WAR, and in 1929, he set his career-high in that statistic at 7.2.

Lazzeri was a well-rounded player, on one of the best teams ever. He also got to play with two of the greatest players the game has ever known.

New York Yankees all-time best second basemen – No. 1: Willie Randolph

51.4 WAR

Willie Randolph may not have been the name you were expecting to be at the top of this list. In a subjective ranking, he might fall to third behind Lazzeri and Gordon.

This is no knock on Randolph. While he did not put up the eye-catching stats of those other Yankee second basemen, he was a steady performer in New York for 13 years. He only hit .300 once, but he also only hit under .267 twice. If you throw out those three outliers, he hit between .294 and .267 In all of his other ten seasons in the Bronx.

He never hit more than seven home runs, and he never knocked din more than 61 runs, but he sported a career on-base percentage with the Yankees of .357. Six times he was in the top ten in on-base percentage. He stole bases, averaging nearly 20 a season, and he scored runs,  crossing the 1,027 times in 13 years.

As a Yankee, he played in five all-star games and won the Silver Slugger in 1979.

He was just as steady in the field. He was in the top ten in Defensive WAR four times, in putouts at second nine times, and in assists at second four times. He led the American League in both of the latter two categories in 1979.

Randolph was part of four World Series teams and two World Champions in the late seventies and early eighties, but was also was part of the second-longest playoff drought in team history during the last half of his career with New York.

Randolph didn’t need the gaudy numbers of some of his fellow second basemen to top this list. Often it is just a degree of consistency over a long period that leads to success.

The New York Yankees have one of the more fascinating histories in all of baseball, and it shows with the great second basemen from so many different eras.