Who Is the MLB Version of Steph Curry?
The first thing I’ll say here is I didn’t watch a single second of the NBA Finals. Sorry, it’s baseball season. So you don’t need me to tell you about how great Stephen Curry is at basketball. You hoops fans out there know far better than I do.
That said, any sports fan can marvel at the accomplishment of winning four championships, especially in the 21st century. Collectively, the players are better and the people who run teams are smarter. Rules, some more effective than others, have been put in place to create parity and—again some much more effective than others—discourage tanking. Playoff fields are ever expanding, making it ever more difficult to make it through the postseason gauntlet. And everything that a player does or doesn’t do—before, during and after games—is scrutinized more than at any point in history.
Greg Nelson/Sports Illustrated
Players like Curry hardly ever come along, in any sport—players who have Hall of Fame-caliber careers while leading their teams to multiple championships. If we’re lucky, we get to see two of them in the same sport at the same time. That’s the case for the NBA right now, with Curry and LeBron James. Tom Brady has the GOAT title locked up in the NFL not because he is the most talented player ever, but because he is one of the best quarterbacks of his time and because he won* an unprecedented seven Super Bowls. (Note, the past tense there. He’s still playing, but my Rams are running it back this year, so seven will have to do for TB12.)
Baseball doesn’t have an active player with anywhere near the combination of individual accomplishments and championships that Brady does, and really, it’s hard to expect any MLB player will ever approach that many titles again. Gone are the days of Yogi Berra (10 titles), Joe DiMaggio (nine) and Mickey Mantle (seven). The most recent MLB players to win five World Series are Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera, both of whom debuted in 1995. The player with the most recent debut to win even four World Series titles is Orlando Hernandez, who defected from Cuba in December ‘97 and first pitched in the big leagues on June 3, 1998.
But it is possible that we could see the MLB version of Curry, a modern face of the game with a Hall of Fame resume and four rings. This isn’t going to be exact, but the goal here is to tab the active MLB player whose career when it’s all over will be the most similar to that of Curry.
A few things before we continue:
• The MLB Curry must be a Hall of Famer when his career is over. For example, if Sergio Romo wins the World Series this year with the Mariners (or another team if he is traded), it will be his fourth championship. Most likely, that won’t happen, but if it does, he wouldn’t be the MLB Curry, for the obvious reason that he isn’t a Hall of Famer.
• The MLB Curry doesn’t need to win all of his World Series with the same team. Steph’s four rings have all come with the Warriors, but it’s so hard to project which players will remain with their teams long enough to win four titles there.
• The MLB Curry must have played for the championship winning team during the World Series. So, if Adam Wainwright retires after next year and the Cardinals work some Devil Magic to win back-to-back titles, and if one day he makes it to the Hall of Fame (a big if but not out of the question), he still wouldn’t be the MLB Curry. St. Louis has won two World Series during Wainwright’s career, but he missed the entire 2011 season due to Tommy John surgery, so his only ring came in ’06.
Got it? Good. Here are the five players most likely to become the MLB Curry.
Mookie Betts has two World Series rings, is only 29 years old and plays for the Dodgers. He’s the most likely active player to be the MLB version of Curry.
AP Photo/Nick Wass
1. In one of the newsletters I wrote over the winter, I made the case that Mookie Betts already has done enough to be a Hall of Famer. He’s the second best player of this era, behind Mike Trout. He’s also already won two World Series, first with the Red Sox in 2018—a year in which he was also the AL MVP—and then again two years later with the Dodgers.
Betts, 29, is under contract for 10 more years. The Dodgers are the best run organization in baseball, and there is no indication that they will stop being one of the top teams any time soon, so Betts should have a legitimate chance at winning the World Series every single season throughout the next decade.
2. Of all the active players with only one World Series title, Juan Soto is the most likely of the group to be the MLB Curry.
The three things that work in his favor here are also the three things that work against him: Time, talent and team.
The pros: He’s only 23 years old and has plenty of seasons ahead of him to build a Hall of Fame résumé, and obviously, each of those future campaigns provides an opportunity to win a championship. He won the World Series with a Nationals team that featured 14 players who had made at least one All-Star appearance.
The cons: A lot can go wrong over the next 15 years. Injuries happen, and they sometimes derail the careers of great players before they can do enough to reach the Hall of Fame. Washington, which was so good three years ago, is now the worst team in the National League, with little hope of being competitive before Soto hits free agency after the 2024 season.
My guess is Soto will be playing for one of the best teams in baseball no later than 2025. I doubt he’s going to re-sign with the Nationals, given how bleak things look for them over the next five years. GM Mike Rizzo has said they are not going to trade Soto this season, but both Rizzo and manager Dave Martinez are in the final guaranteed year of their contracts, and if Rizzo does not return next year, his successor could choose to trade Soto. Either way, time, talent and (future) team are on his side.
3. The one three-time World Series champion with any shot at reaching MLB Curry status is Madison Bumgarner. But as things stand, he is not going to be a Hall of Famer. His Giants peak wasn’t dominant enough to compensate for his sudden decline.
However, he is only 32 years old, so there is still time for him to make the transition into a finesse pitcher and perhaps revive his career. That’s really his only shot at another championship. He’s under contract for two more seasons after this one, and the Diamondbacks aren’t going to win the World Series before then. A late-career resurgence would allow him to keep pitching for another five or so years and perhaps latch on to a contending team that would give him a shot at another title.
For MadBum, everything is connected. He can’t possibly be a Hall of Famer without a fourth championship, and for him to win one more, he’ll have to pitch long enough and well enough to add some volume to his career numbers. This all seems unlikely, but it’s not impossible.
4. Freddie Freeman won the World Series with the Braves last year and is now signed with the Dodgers through 2027. He’s older than Betts, has one fewer championship and doesn’t have as sure a Hall of Fame case. Plus, if he reaches Curry status—four titles, HOF—Betts almost certainly will, too. In that case, Betts would get the edge.
5. Like Betts, Xander Bogaerts has won two World Series and is only 29. But Bogaerts is further away from the Hall of Fame conversation, even if he does get two more rings.
Have any questions for our team? Send a note to mlb@si.com.
1. THE OPENER
“The catcher interference leaderboard offers two details of note.
“First, most teams have yet to see a player reach base on catcher interference this year: This part is unremarkable, as it’s never been a terribly common play, and it’s not historically unusual for a club to go an entire season without experiencing it once. And second, “most teams” here is not a grouping that includes the Reds, because the Reds have Nick Senzel.
That’s how Emma Baccellieri begins her column from this morning about one of the oddest developments over the last four seasons. This is a fun, interesting look at one of the most uncommon ways to reach base, and the player who is doing it at an astounding rate.
Nick Senzel Is the New King of Catcher Interference by Emma Baccellieri
Move over, Jacoby Ellsbury! It’s Nick Senzel’s throne now.
Courtesy of the Killebrew Family (Killebrew); Jim Kerlin/AP (Hodges); Courtesy of the Martin Family (Martin); Bettmann/Getty Images (Killebrew)
2. ICYMI
Let’s run through some of our other great SI baseball stories from this week.
The Boys and Girls of the Boys of Summer by Steve Rushin
Killebrew. Martin. Hodges. These are their stories of growing up with a baseball star dad.
The Four Key Factors Behind the Resurgent Braves by Will Laws
The reigning World Series champions are back in the playoff picture with the longest undefeated march of the season. Here’s how they’ve done it.
Inside Taylor Ward’s Emergence as One of MLB’s Best Players by Nick Selbe
This one-time defensive nomad came out of nowhere this season as one of the league’s top hitters. Now, as he returns from injury, the scuffling Halos need him to pick up where he left off.
Don’t Underestimate José Ramírez and the Guardians by Tom Verducci
Cleveland has the youngest team in baseball, the sixth lowest payroll and the fewest All-Stars, yet it is winning in large part because MLB’s most underappreciated elite player is having a career year.
3. WORTH NOTING from Tom Verducci
Almost three months into his six-year, $140 million contract with Detroit, Javier Báez has been an unqualified bust. Báez is chasing pitches at a career-high rate (46.7%), which also is the worst in the majors. He is hitting more ground balls than ever (52.5%). And spacious Comerica Park is not doing him any favors. His 413-foot blast to dead center on Thursday, for instance, bounced over the wall for a double rather than clearing it for a home run. Báez is hitting .163 in his home park with one home run.
Báez, a career .260 hitter, always has been streaky with a ton of swing-and-miss in his game. But playing in a big ballpark for the worst offensive team in baseball (2.7 runs per game) is exposing his flaws even more.
Báez, 29, recently played in his 900th career game. Through the same juncture, his OPS is similar to that of Dave Kingman (Kingman leads, .779-.772). Báez has a slight edge in OBP (.303-.296) while Kingman has far more homers (201-152). The kicker is that Báez strikes out more than Kingman (992-956). The Tigers paid $140 million for a modern version of Dave Kingman.
Atlanta has won 14 straight games, which is the longest winning streak of the season.
Brett Davis/USA TODAY Sports
4. W2W4 from Nick Selbe
What happens when an unstoppable force meets an easily movable object? We’re about to find out when the Braves head to Wrigley Field to take on the Cubs. Atlanta enters the series winners of 14 in a row, while Chicago has lost its last 10 games. This makes Friday’s game the first time since 1999 that a team on a double-digit winning streak will face one with a double-digit losing streak. The Braves have outscored their opponents by 60 runs during their streak, while the Cubs have been outscored by 60.
Elsewhere, the white-hot Yankees head north of the border to square off against the Blue Jays. Saturday night’s pitching matchup between Jameson Taillon and Alek Manoah is the one to keep an eye on. Manoah has the American League’s lowest ERA (1.67), while Taillon is now slouch himself, ranking 13th in that category (2.93) with an AL best 7.43 strikeout-to-walk rate.
5. THE CLOSER from Emma Baccellieri
The Brewers have released their City Connect uniforms, which are among the best we’ve seen so far, in my opinion. (Though, to be fair, it’s hard to mess up the powder-blue-and-yellow combo. It’s glorious no matter what.) But the clear leader in this department is still the Marlins. Those pinstripes! The colors! They were the best of the City Connect options from 2021, and so far in 2022, I don’t think they’ve been topped. (Certainly not by the Rockies—though I will say these did kind of grow on me!) It’s going to take a serious challenge for another team to come for the crown here.
That’s all from us today. We’ll be back in your inbox next Friday. In the meantime, share this newsletter with your friends and family, and tell them to sign up at SI.com/newsletters. If you have any questions or comments, shoot us an email at mlb@si.com.
