As much discussion as player movement has received basically since free agency began, there are a number of current Major League Baseball players who have built Hall of Fame resumes with a single franchise. There are two players, Mike Trout and Clayton Kershaw, who would be Hall of Famers in five years if they retired tomorrow without significant objection, and the likes of Aaron Judge and José Ramírez would at the very least prompt serious discussion despite much shorter careers.

Of course, Aaron Judge and José Ramírez, while under contract through 2031 and 2028, respectively, are not assured to be career-long members of the New York Yankees and Cleveland Guardians. Mike Trout is perpetually shipped by fans in hypothetical trades to contenders, and Clayton Kershaw had a reasonable chance of playing elsewhere as recently as last off-season. The thing about being a one-team player is that the run can end permanently almost immediately. Ty Cobb had 3,900 career hits when he left the Detroit Tigers list after joining the Philadelphia Athletics. Henry Aaron was the all-time home run king when he made a move, to the Milwaukee Brewers, that barely felt like he was jumping franchises, as he was returning to a city where had spent a dozen seasons, including the greatest of his career.

Somewhat paradoxically, the list of the greatest one-team players of all-time is dominated by players from generations ago and by contemporary players, which makes sense when you consider that the former came before free agency and their careers are definitionally over, and the latter makes sense when you consider that several candidates will eventually be jettisoned from the list.

Because the St. Louis Cardinals have been a historically important franchise, I had a natural curiosity of where the Cardinals would rank. I didn’t bother with developing benches or even full starting rotations for this exercise–I took the nine field positions and made teams. In cases where a player spent substantial time at multiple positions, he went to the spot which would open a spot for the next-best player. In theory, pitchers should probably weigh more heavily because of their outsized impact on games, but I decided not to bother with this and just took career FanGraphs Wins Above Replacement for each of the nine guys and added them up. To see where the Cardinals rank, let’s look position-by-position.

Pitcher

One of the biggest advantages for the St. Louis Cardinals is pitcher, because Bob Gibson is the second-highest rated pitcher on any of these teams. Even if Bob Gibson had spent a minute or two on the Angels or something at the end of his career, Adam Wainwright would be an above-median choice, as well. #1 is Minnesota Twins legend Walter Johnson, who died a decade and a half before his Washington Senators ever relocated to the Twin Cities. That the Tampa Bay Rays, a young franchise with a tendency to not keep their better players, rank lowly here probably isn’t too surprising (almost inevitable future ex-Ray Shane McClanahan, 7.9 fWAR), but two franchises which have been around since the 1960s fare even worse–the New York Mets are stuck with 3.4 fWAR David Peterson, who has spent the entire 2024 season in the minor leagues, and the San Diego Padres field Brian Tollberg, who pitched from 2000 through 2003 with varying degrees of success.

Probably the bleakest name on here is José Fernández, the Miami Marlins sensation who, if not for his tragic death at the age of 24 (my God, if he were still alive, he would only be 31), would almost certainly have played for another team by now, and who constitutes over half of Team Marlins. One fluke of FanGraphs searching came with the Los Angeles Angels, as the first name that popped up was Shohei Ohtani, since he never pitched with the Dodgers. I moved on and went with Scot Shields. I am not dismissing the possibility that I made a mistake of this nature, but it is almost assuredly with a player so insignificant WAR-wise that it doesn’t make a major dent on final rankings.

Catcher

There is a semi-debate regarding who the greatest St. Louis Cardinals catcher of all-time is, but since Ted Simmons played with other teams and Yadier Molina did not, this isn’t much of a debate. Johnny Bench of the Cincinnati Reds is far and away the top one-team catcher of all-time (in addition to being the top overall catcher of all-time), but Molina is part of a four-man cluster with just 4.3 fWAR between them at two through five. New York Yankees Hall of Famer Bill Dickey ranks barely ahead of Molina, at #3, while #2 and #5 are two contemporaries of Yadier Molina and inevitable points of comparison among those who want to have good-faith Yadier Molina value debates–Buster Posey and Joe Mauer. Let the record show that I believe all three of these guys belong in Cooperstown.

First Base

This is the lone position where the St. Louis Cardinals have the #1 guy, but in a sense, barely. Stan Musial out-fWARs Lou Gehrig by 10.5, which seems like a lot but that’s like a year and a half of late-stage Gehrig were it not for the awful disease which prematurely ended his career and life. Nobody else is particularly close (Jeff Bagwell is the only other player within fifty of Gehrig), but Stan Musial was also eligible for left and right field. In a world where Albert Pujols re-signs with the Cardinals after 2011, or even just retires, Musial is moving to left field. But like I said before, guys fall off this list in no time at all.

Second Base

It could be reasonably argued that the greatest second baseman in franchise history was traded for the second-greatest second baseman in franchise history, which should be a pretty good sign that the Cardinals are experiencing a drop-off here. The Cardinals rank 13th here, which makes sense for a long-entrenched franchise, but the player isn’t an old-timey guy who couldn’t test free agency but rather current second baseman (well, current IL guy) Tommy Edman. I doubt Edman retires without playing a game elsewhere, at which point the next man up to man second base is Brendan Donovan. And if you aren’t ready to declare him a lifetime Cardinal either, the team may be falling back to Frank Crespi, who had a very good 1941 season for the Cardinals but was otherwise roster filler in the three seasons before and one season after that.

Former St. Louis Cardinals farmhand Andrew Young, included in the Paul Goldschmidt trade, makes a weird kind of history here, as he becomes the first player so far to crack a team with negative career fWAR, at -0.2 (I have to remind myself that Ketel Marte began his career in Seattle, too, thus rendering him ineligible for the Arizona Diamondbacks). At the top of the list for second basemen is Detroit Tigers Hall of Famer Charlie Gehringer, followed by the likes of Craig Biggio, Bid McPhee, and Bobby Doerr.

Third Base

Third base is a deeper position in general than second base, hence why despite ranking lower (14th, so not DRAMATICALLY lower), the Cardinals can trot out a genuine, bona fida franchise Hall of Famer Whitey Kurowski at the hot corner. 24.5 fWAR is certainly an improvement over the Diamondbacks, who also have the second sub-Replacement Level guy with third baseman Wyatt Mathisen, but it is admittedly a far cry from the upper echelon, where Edgar Martínez of the Seattle Mariners is only able to reach fifth, and not especially close to #4. Spots 4 through 1 belong to, respectively, Brooks Robinson, Chipper Jones, George Brett, and Mike Schmidt (I will not patronize anybody by listing their respective teams).

Shortstop

This is a spot that does not help the Cardinals–while the franchise has a no-question greatest shortstop in franchise history, Ozzie Smith famously began his career with the San Diego Padres. I guess the glass-half-full takeaway here is that they at least had a shortstop good enough to not play Tommy Edman there, and that shortstop is 6.1 career fWAR George Toporcer, a useful utility player with the 1920s Cardinals who was nicknamed “Specs” thanks to his circular glasses (speaking of one-team guys, I would refer to them as Dom DiMaggio-esque).

#1 in a land all his own at this position is Cal Ripken Jr., giving the Baltimore Orioles an extremely formidable one-two punch with Brooks Robinson on that side of the infield (the other side of the infield is Ryan Mountcastle and Rich Dauer, which is…fine). Though there are half a dozen firmly Hall of Fame worth names following Ripken–Derek Jeter, Luke Appling, Barry Larkin, Robin Yount (who was also center field eligible, but it turns out the Brewers are otherwise quite famished at short), Alan Trammell, and Pee Wee Reese.

Left Field

No, the Cardinals don’t get to play Stan Musial here too, but at a position without a ton of depth, they do get a top-10 option in Ray Blades, an undersized but solid part of the Cardinals’ first two championship teams. There actually isn’t a huge gap between Blades, 17 fWAR, and #6 Yordan Alvarez, whose total will certainly continue to increase unless he departs from the Houston Astros. Two through five are nice–Ryan Braun, Roy White, Bob Allison, and Alex Gordon–but #1 by a a margin of 86 fWAR, which is more than Mike Trout’s career mark, is Ted Williams.

Center Field

Jim Edmonds famously played for other teams; Curt Flood and Ray Lankford less famously did, but they certainly did as well. But the Cardinals still wind up in decent shape here, with the #8 center fielder in the exercise, Terry Moore. A mainstay of the franchise’s pre-and-post-war teams, the Cardinals Hall of Famer was known for his strong defense coupled with solid offense. A player as good as Moore is hardly a guarantee–the Cubs and Athletics franchises have existed since the beginning of the World Series era and have a combined 2.7 career fWAR from Mandy Brooks and Harry Armbruster.

It seems weird that Brandon Nimmo ranked fifth here. And all due respect to the aforementioned Dom DiMaggio and Kirby Puckett, but there are three center fielders who are by far the top guys as one-team center fielders. Unfortunately, two of them are Yankees, so Joe DiMaggio doesn’t make his team–Mickey Mantle sits comfortably at #1 while Mike Trout is a very respectable #2.

Right Field

In this particular situation, the Cardinals have a guy who is tied for his ranking, which is #10. He is tied with Charlie Blackmon, a player who despite not being a Cardinal my guess is that more of you know than the Cardinals guy. But hey, the Cardinals guy is also center field eligible. 20.2 fWAR is pretty good–there are five teams at the bottom of the list who combined for 0.8 (0.6 from Bryce Boisclair of the Mets, 0.2 from John-Ford Griffin of the Blue Jays, and zeroes from Mariner Luis Delgado, National Henry Burroughs, and Ranger Rick Lisi). Anyway, it’s Pepper Martin.

Honestly there’s a pretty sharp drop-off between #12 (Kyle Tucker, 19.9 and counting) and #13 (Lonnie Chisenhall, Cleveland Guardians, 8.0). At #4 is Tony Gwynn, who accounts for 54% of San Diego Padres fWAR, with decent jumps to three through one in Roberto Clemente, Al Kaline, and Mel Ott.

So where do the Cardinals rank, you might ask? Let’s look at the top ten.

#10: Houston Astros: J.R. Richard, Tony Eusebio, Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio, Alex Bregman, Jeremy Peña, Yordan Alvarez, Chas McCormick, Kyle Tucker

#9: Baltimore Orioles: Jim Palmer, Chris Hoiles, Ryan Mountcastle, Rich Dauer, Brooks Robinson, Cal Ripken Jr., Milt Byrnes, Cedric Mullins, Anthony Santander

#8: Pittsburgh Pirates: Sam Leever, Jack Shepard, Willie Stargell, Bill Mazeroski, Pie Traynor, Gene Alley, Carson Bigbee, Bryan Reynolds, Roberto Clemente

#7: Cincinnati Reds: Mario Soto, Johnny Bench, Joey Votto, Bid McPhee, Rafael Almeida, Barry Larkin, Walter Christensen, Bug Holliday, Fred Odwell

#6: Boston Red Sox: Mel Parnell, Jason Varitek, Dave Stapleton, Bobby Doerr, Rafael Devers, Rico Petrocelli, Ted Williams, Dom DiMaggio, Wilyer Abreu

#5: Detroit Tigers: Tommy Bridges, Bill Freehan, Ron Cash, Charlie Gehringer, Bob Jones, Alan Trammell, Bobby Higginson, Mickey Stanley, Al Kaline

#4: St. Louis Cardinals: Bob Gibson, Yadier Molina, Stan Musial, Tommy Edman, Whitey Kurowski, George Toporcer, Ray Blades, Terry Moore, Pepper Martin

#3: Minnesota Twins: Walter Johnson, Joe Mauer, Kent Hrbek, John Castino, Buddy Lewis, Cecil Travis, Bob Allison, Kirby Puckett, Tony Oliva

#2: San Francisco Giants: Carl Hubbell, Buster Posey, Bill Terry, Robby Thompson, Jim Davenport, Travis Jackson, Jo-Jo Moore, Mike Yastrzemski, Mel Ott

#1: New York Yankees: Whitey Ford, Bill Dickey, Lou Gehrig, Gil McDougald, Red Rolfe, Derek Jeter, Roy White, Mickey Mantle, Aaron Judge

There you have it–the Yankees are #1 so my methodology probably wasn’t too bad.