Stan Musial
Shohei Ohtani
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Dead even across the measured categories. Our all-time ranking places Stan Musial at #10 and Shohei Ohtani at #12.
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The case for Stan Musial
Musial's symmetry is the stuff of legend: 3,630 career hits, exactly 1,815 at home and 1,815 on the road. The consistency behind the coincidence is the case for him — a .331 average across 22 seasons, 475 home runs, 6,134 total bases (second all-time behind only Aaron), three MVPs, seven batting titles, and 24 All-Star Games, all for the St. Louis Cardinals, with a missed 1945 season to Navy service. In 1948 he came one rained-out home run short of the Triple Crown, hitting .376 with 39 homers and 131 RBI while leading the league in eight major categories. He struck out only 696 times in nearly 11,000 career plate appearances — fewer than many modern hitters accumulate in five seasons. He was never suspended, never ejected, and never controversial, which is partly why history underrates him. The numbers do not.
The case for Shohei Ohtani
The only player on this list still adding to his case, and the only one doing something Ruth abandoned in 1919: genuine two-way play at an MVP level. Through 2025 Ohtani has four MVP awards — every one unanimous — in five seasons, a feat matched by no one; 280 career home runs alongside 38-plus wins and 650-plus strikeouts as a pitcher; and the first 50-50 season in history in 2024, finishing 54 homers and 59 steals and clinching the milestone with a 6-for-6, three-homer game. His 2023 WBC ending — striking out Mike Trout, his Angels teammate, to seal Japan's title — and his 2025 postseason game against Milwaukee, ten strikeouts as the starting pitcher and three home runs as the leadoff hitter in the same night, are already mythology. His 700-million-dollar Dodgers contract reset sports economics. Ranked twelfth on accumulated value; no active player is more likely to climb.