Willie Mays
Mickey Mantle
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Willie Mays leads 2 of 2 categories. Our all-time ranking places Willie Mays at #2 and Mickey Mantle at #11.
Head-to-head FAQ
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The case for Willie Mays
The most complete player the sport has produced. Mays hit 660 home runs with a .301 average, stole 338 bases, scored more than 2,000 runs, and won 12 consecutive Gold Gloves in center field — the sport's most demanding everyday position — while playing in 24 All-Star Games. His 156.2 WAR is the highest of any player who debuted after integration, and it survives every adjustment: park effects (Candlestick's winds suppressed his power for years), era, and the nearly two full seasons he lost to Army service in 1952-53, which plausibly cost him the home run record. The Catch off Vic Wertz in the 1954 World Series — a sprinting, over-the-shoulder grab 420-plus feet from home, followed by an impossible spin throw — is the sport's defining defensive image. If the GOAT question asks who could do everything on a baseball field at the highest level, the answer is Mays.
The case for Mickey Mantle
The greatest peak of the 1950s and the best switch-hitter ever. Mantle won the 1956 Triple Crown (.353, 52 home runs, 130 RBI), took three MVPs and finished second three more times, and posted a career .977 OPS with 536 home runs despite playing his entire career on a right knee shredded in the 1951 World Series — famously, teams could hear the training-room tape being unwrapped. His speed before the injuries was mythic (3.1 seconds home to first bunting left-handed), and his power produced the term 'tape-measure shot' after a 1953 blast in Washington was measured at 565 feet. He played in 12 World Series in his first 14 seasons, winning seven, and his 18 World Series home runs remain the record. His 110.2 WAR in 18 seasons, on ruined legs, leaves the sport's greatest what-if: a healthy Mantle plausibly challenges Mays for the number two spot on this list.