Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, and Shohei Ohtani -- the LA Dodgers potentially historic trio

Today is March 1 and Spring training baseball is in full swing. Much of the baseball buzz centers around the LA Dodgers. They have added Shohei Ohtani and a couple of star pitchers to a team that won 100 games last season.

The addition of Ohtani means the top of the Dodgers lineup will consist of Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, and Ohtani, probably in that order. Betts and Freeman are sure-fire Hall of Famers. Ohtani needs a few more strong years, but this modern-day Babe Ruth has a chance to be one of the best players of all time.

Has any team ever had a leadoff trio this good? The answer, I’m pretty sure, is “no.” Until recently, the number two batter normally wasn’t a star. A team’s best hitters usually batted 1-3-4 or (in earlier times) 3-4-5.

So the question should be whether any team has ever had three players this good in its lineup in a given season. The answer might also be “no.”

The MLB Network recently named its top 100 players right now. Betts was 2, Ohtani 4, and Freeman 5. (Ronald Acuna was 1, Aaron Judge was 3.) Ohtani was evaluated only for his hitting because he can’t pitch this season due to injury, and the list was a projection of who will be best this year.

To get an idea of whether any team in baseball history has ever had three of baseball’s top five non-pitchers in the lineup in a given season, I consulted this site which lists the top “wins above replacement” (WAR) numbers in every season going back to the 19th century. WAR is not the be-all-and-end-all of baseball stats but it’s a good guide, and certainly better than my impressions.

I began my research with the 1901 season when the American League first appeared. I found five teams that at least came close to having three of the top five everyday players as measured by WAR. Three of them were obvious candidates. Two hadn’t occurred to me, including the one team that actually had three of the top five.

The 1937 New York Yankees fall into the “obvious” category. They went 102-50 during the regular season and defeated the New York Giants 4 games to 1 in the World Series.

Measured by WAR, Joe DiMaggio was the best player in the game that year and Lou Gehrig was second. Bill Dickey, the best catcher in baseball during the first half of the 20th century, was number six. The other members of the top five were Joe Medwick, Hank Greenberg, and Charlie Gehringer.

Considering that Dickey batted .332 with 39 home runs and 133 RBIs, while playing the demanding position of catcher, it’s tempting to think he should edge out one of the three non-Yankees. However, Medwick won the NL triple crown while Greenberg and Gehringer had epic seasons for Detroit. Batting stats were in the stratosphere in 1937.

Another obvious candidate is the 1953 Brooklyn Dodgers. Their record was 105-49, though they lost the World Series to the Yankees in six games.

Duke Snider and Roy Campanella were clearly among baseball’s top five players that season. Jackie Robinson had the sixth highest WAR. The other three in the top five were Al Rosen, Eddie Matthews, and Stan Musial.

Looking at the raw stats, Jackie seems clearly to trail the top five. However, his "intangibles” were probably through the roof.

One would think that Cincinnati’s Big Red Machine would be a strong candidate. One would be right.

The 1976 edition (102-60 and winners of the World Series with a sweep of the Yankees) featured Joe Morgan at the top of the WAR list and Pete Rose at number four. Johnny Bench had an off-year by his standards, but George Foster was great. He came in eighth.

Mike Schmidt, Graig Nettles, and George Brett rounded out the top five. Ron Cey and Rod Carew also finished ahead of Foster. But looking at the raw hitting numbers, one could make a case for Foster being in the top five.

I was surprised that the 1961 Detroit Tigers ended up on my list, though as an avid baseball fan that year I shouldn’t have been. The Tigers challenged the Yankees for first place until a disastrous early September, including loss-after-loss to the Yanks, dropped them out of contention. They won 101 games.

Norm Cash and Rocky Colavito made the top five with 41 and 45 home runs, respectively, plus a batting title for Cash. Al Kaline, the one Hall of Famer of the three, fell just outside the top five, in seventh place.

What about the ‘61 Yankees, widely considered among the best teams ever (though Bill James insists they were overrated)? Surprisingly, only Mickey Mantle made the WAR top five (at number one). Roger Maris, who broke Babe Ruth’s home run record that year) was out of the money. That .269 batting average and a good but not great on-base percentage must have held him back.

The final team under consideration — the 1942 Yankees — is the one team I found that had three every day players in the top five as measured by WAR. That year, the Yanks went 103-51, but lost to the St. Louis Cardinals 4-1 in the World Series.

I hadn’t even considered this team in my preliminary analysis, and was stunned by two of the three players who made the cut. DiMaggio did, of course, but Joe Gordon and Charlie Keller? (Ted Williams and Enos Slaughter were the two non-Yankees in the top five).

I shouldn’t have been so surprised, though. DiMaggio and Keller made the top five in 1941 and Gordon was seventh that year.

Johnny Mize and Mel Ott put up great numbers in 1942. Perhaps one of them should have rated ahead of Gordon, whose numbers were less impressive but great for a second baseman. But who am I to disagree with Dr. WAR?

If Betts, Freeman, and Ohtani all make the top five this season, as they did last year even subtracting Ohtani’s pitching WAR, I’d be inclined to rate them ahead of the 1942 Yankee trio. As noted, all three Dodgers are likely Hall of Famers. DiMaggio and Gordon made the Hall of Fame, but Gordon didn’t make it until 2009, nearly 60 years after he retired as a player.

The trios I cited for the ‘36 Yankees and ‘53 Dodgers consist entirely of first-tier Hall of Famers. So if we factor this into the analysis, maybe those trios should rate ahead of the 1942 Yankees, too.

We should also keep in mind that there are now 30 major league teams. Until 1961, there were only 16 and even in 1976 there were only 24.

With 30 teams over which to spread the talent, we’re less likely, other things being equal, to find three of baseball’s top five non-pitchers on one team.

This factor is offset to some extent by free agency. In fact, Ohtani and Freeman both came to the Dodgers as free agents. Even so, it seems telling that it has been nearly 50 years since a team made a run at having three players among the top five non-pitchers.

I’ll try to remember to check back at season’s end to see if the entire LA trio actually makes the WAR top five. Chances are one of three will stumble, as Bench did in 1976.

Baseball routinely defies most projections.