Francisco Lindor and Fernando Tatis Jr. had the lowest career Box-Toppers point totals among the 10 players with baseball’s biggest money contracts at the time of their signing.
As good as or better than Tatis
Fernando Tatis Jr. signed a $340 million contract before the 2021 season, despite having earned only 6.0 career Box-Toppers points since making his debut in 2019. Here are 25 other players who made their debut since 2019 who earned 6.0 or more career Box-Toppers points by the end of 2020.| Player | Pos | Team | BTP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paddack, Chris 4093 | pi sp | sd nl | 18.8 |
| Jimenez, Eloy 4107 | lf | chi al | 13.0 |
| Kelly, Merrill 4143 | pi sp | ari nl | 12.0 |
| Gallen, Zac 4171 | pi sp | ari nl | 11.7 |
| Plesac, Zach 4168 | pi sp | cle al | 10.1 |
| Biggio, Cavan 4183 | 2b rf | tor al | 9.7 |
| Means, John 4115 | pi sp | bal al | 9.0 |
| Canning, Griffin 4134 | pi sp | ana al | 8.7 |
| Thornton, Trent 4120 | pi sp | tor al | 8.7 |
| Alonso, Pete 4118 | 1b | nym nl | 8.5 |
| Jackson, Luke 4139 | pi cp | atl nl | 8.0 |
| Gonsolin, Tony 4211 | pi sp | lad nl | 7.7 |
| Riley, Austin 4144 | 3b lf | atl nl | 7.5 |
| Urshela, Gio 4135 | 3b | nyy al | 7.5 |
| Guerrero, Vladimir Jr. 4142 | 3b | tor al | 7.2 |
| Newman, Kevin 4234 | ss | pit nl | 7.2 |
| Smith, Dwight Jr. 4112 | lf | bal al | 7.2 |
| Grisham, Trent 4246 | cf | sd nl | 7.0 |
| Davis, J.D. 4146 | lf 3b dh | nym nl | 7.0 |
| Buttrey, Ty 4124 | pi cp mr | ana al | 7.0 |
| Reynolds, Bryan 4169 | lf | pit nl | 6.0 |
| Smith, Will 4175 | ca | lad nl | 6.0 |
| Tatis, Fernando Jr. 4101 | ss | sd nl | 6.0 |
| Gallegos, Giovanny 4104 | pi cp mr | stl nl | 6.0 |
| Dickerson, Alex 4172 | lf | sf nl | 6.0 |
| Yamamoto, Jordan 4161 | pi sp | fla nl | 6.0 |
What are those numbers after players' names?
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
The two players signed the biggest offseason contracts prior to the 2021 season. Lindor signed a 10-year, $341 million contract with the Mets, the third-largest contract in baseball history and Tatis signed a 14-year, $340 million contract with the Padres, baseball’s fourth-largest.
But at the time of their signing, Lindor had just 22.1 career Box-Toppers points and Tatis had just 6.0 points, both the lowest career totals for any player signing one of the top 10 biggest contracts. Giancarlo Stanton, who signed what is now the sixth-largest contract for $325 million, had 27.2 career Box-Toppers points at the time of his signing with the Marlins in 2014, the next-lowest career Box-Toppers point total among the top 10 contracts.
Tatis, 22, made his debut in 2019 and played only 143 total games at the time of his signing over 2019 and 2020, not even equivalent to an entire full season. There are 25 other players who made their Box-Toppers debut since 2019, as did Tatis, who had 6.0 or more career Box-Toppers points by the end of 2020. (See chart elsewhere on this page As good as or better than Tatis.)
Those 25 players are led by Tatis’s Padres teammate, pitcher Chris Paddack, who has 18.8 career Box-Toppers points. Eloy Jimenez of the White Sox is the batter with the most career Box-Toppers points among the 25, 13.0, more than twice as many as Tatis had.
There are 20 players who have made their Box-Toppers debut since 2019 who have more points than Tatis (7.0 or more), among them, 11 batters (including Jimenez, Pete Alonso of the Mets with 8.5, Gio Urshela of the Yankees with 7.5 and Trent Grisham of the Padres with 7.0). While Tatis is the son of a former Major Leaguer (Fernando Tatis) and to some shows tremendous promise because of his pedigree, there are three sons of former Major Leaguers who have also debuted since 2019 who had more career Box-Toppers points than Tatis at the end of 2020:
Cavan Biggio of the Blue Jays, son of Craig Biggio, had 9.7 career points.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of the Blue Jays, son of Vladimir Guerrero, had 7.2 career points.
Dwight Smith Jr. of the Orioles, son of Dwight Smith, had 7.2 career points.
Tatis earned 3.0 Box-Toppers points in 2019, which was 14th among National League shortstops and 3.0 points in 2020, fifth among NL shortstops in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
While Lindor, 27, has the second-fewest career Box-Toppers points among players with the top 10 contracts, he outdistances Tatis (22.1 vs. 6.0) and had played in four more seasons and more than five times as many games as Tatis (777) at the time of his signing. Lindor played with the Indians from 2015 to 2020 and earned 7.0 points in 2016, fifth among American League shortstops, and 9.6 points in 2018, third among AL batters and first among AL shortstops. Though Lindor played in all 60 games in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, he earned no Box-Toppers points, the first time he failed to do so in a single season since his 2015 debut. He is the only player among the 10 biggest contract signers to earn 0.0 points the season before he signed.
In the limited time since signing their big contracts, Tatis has earned 1.0 Box-Toppers point (earning Player of the Game honors Sunday, April 25) and Lindor has yet to earn points in 2021.
Eight of the 10 biggest contracts have been signed in 2019 or later. Here is a ranking of the six players other than Lindor and Tatis who’ve earned the most Box-Toppers points since their windfall signings:
Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole has earned 14.4 Box-Toppers points since his signing after the 2019 season. He has 107.5 career points after signing with 93.1.
Mike Trout of the Angels has earned 14.2 Box-Toppers points since 2019. He has 76.2 career points after signing with 62.0 points.
Nolan Arenado has earned 11.0 Box-Toppers points since he signed his contract extension in 2019 with the Rockies. Arenado, who was traded to the Cardinals prior to the 2021 season, has 45.9 career points after signing with 34.9.
Bryce Harper of the Phillies has earned 9.5 Box-Toppers points since 2019. He has 51.4 career points after signing with 41.9.
Manny Machado of the Padres has earned 3.0 Box-Toppers points since 2019. He has 39.4 career points after signing with 36.4.
Mookie Betts of the Dodgers has earned 2.5 points since 2020. He has 39.3 career points after signing with 36.8.
Two players on the top 10 contract list who signed prior to 2019 earned substantially more Box-Toppers points over the course of their contracts:
Alex Rodriguez earned 51.7 Box-Toppers points after signing his contract extension with the Yankees in 2008. He had 135.3 career points at the time of his signing and finished his career with 187.0 points in 2016. He still ranks 10th among all players in career Box-Toppers points since tracking began in 1995, second among all batters, behind Albert Pujols of the Angels (202.8).
Giancarlo Stanton has earned 35.7 Box-Toppers points since he signed his contract extension with the Marlins in 2014. Stanton, who was traded to the Yankees in 2018, had 27.2 career points at the time of his signing and now has 62.9. He’s earned 9.5 of those points since moving to the Yankees.
About Box-Toppers—Box-Toppers tracks who most helps their team win the most games. Using standard box score statistics, Box-Toppers uses a simple formula to determine a Player of the Game for each Major League Baseball game played. That player is the person who contributed most to his team’s win. In regular season games, players earn 1.0 Box-Toppers point for being named Player of the Game and can earn bonus points for being Player of the Day or top player or batter in their league for the day.
Box-Toppers strives for accuracy. See a mistake in a post? A wrong name, wrong team, grammar error, spelling goof, etc.? Thanks for pointing it out! Contact Box-Toppers here. Let's fix it and make it right.