A look at Box-Toppers top 100 players of ‘all-time’ after the 2021 season

Randy Johnson leads all players in career Box-Toppers points and the two active players most likely to pass his total won’t likely do it until 2023 at the very earliest.

Top 100 ‘All-Time’ Players

Here are the 100 players with the most career Box-Toppers points since record keeping began in 1995. Players are listed in order of their career Box-Toppers point total. Also shown is their Box-Toppers point total for 2021 and their career ranking in Box-Toppers points at the end of the 2020 season.

	Player	Pos	Team	All BTP	’21 BTP	’20 rank
1	Johnson, Randy 15	pi sp	retired	282.5		1
2	Kershaw, Clayton 2494	pi sp	lad nl	248.6	13.4	3
3	Martinez, Pedro J. 18	pi sp	retired	244.8		2
4	Scherzer, Max 2588	pi sp	lad nl	226.3	25.1	8
5	Greinke, Zack 1871	pi sp	hou al	217.8	8.7	4
6	Verlander, Justin 2112	pi sp	hou al	206.6		5
7	Pujols, Albert 1438	1b ph	lad nl	204.8	2.0	7
8	Sabathia, CC 1492	pi sp	retired	203.4		6
9	Schilling, Curt 74	pi sp	retired	194.1		9
10	Rodriguez, Alex	3b	retired	187.0		10
11	Lester, Jon 2173	pi sp	stl nl	179.3	3.0	11
12	Hernandez, Felix 2064	pi sp	free agent	175.1		12
13	Hamels, Cole 2135	pi sp	lad nl	174.2		13
14	Halladay, Roy 1178	pi sp	retired	170.7		14
15	Santana, Johan 1448	pi sp	retired	166.6		15
16	Ramirez, Manny 17	lf	retired	166.2		16
17	Clemens, Roger 334	pi sp	retired	164.8		17
18	Smoltz, John 61	pi sp	retired	160.9		18
19	Cabrera, Miguel 1776	1b	det al	158.4	5.0	22
20	Hudson, Tim 1231	pi sp	retired	157.0		19
21	Colon, Bartolo	pi sp	mexico	155.9		20
22	Mussina, Mike 175	pi sp	retired	155.6		21
23	Maddux, Greg 83	pi sp	retired	152.7		23
24	Bonds, Barry 95	lf	retired	152.2		24
25	Jones, Chipper 269	3b	retired	149.0		25
26	Vazquez, Javier 1146	pi sp	retired	148.3		26
27	Thome, Jim 77	1b dh	retired	146.7		27
28	Ortiz, David	dh	retired	145.9		28
29	Sale, Chris 2806	pi sp	bos al	144.6	2.0	29
30	Wainwright, Adam 2150	pi sp	stl nl	142.3	12.0	35
31	Peavy, Jake 1635	pi sp	retired	141.8		30
32	Pettitte, Andy 336	pi sp	retired	138.5		31
33	Bumgarner, Madison 2753	pi sp	ari nl	135.4	10.0	43
34	Strasburg, Stephen 2736	pi sp	dc nl	133.8	1.0	33
35	giambi, jason	1b	retired	133.4		32
36	Price, David 2593	pi cp mr sp	lad nl	133.0	2.0	34
37	Hoffman, Trevor 342	pi cp	retired	128.4		36
38	Guerrero, Vladimir	rf	retired	128.3		37
39	Weaver, Jered 2178	pi sp	retired	127.8		38
40	Burnett, A.J. 1300	pi sp	retired	127.8		39
41	Lackey, John 1640	pi sp	retired	127.2		40
42	Oswalt, Roy 1469	pi sp	retired	127.2		41
43	rivera, mariano	pi cp	retired	126.4		42
44	sheffield, gary	lf	retired	124.1		44
45	Cole, Gerrit 3232	pi sp	nyy al	122.9	22.4	83
46	deGrom, Jacob 3343	pi sp	nym nl	122.1	16.7	72
47	Lee, Cliff 1798	pi sp	retired	119.1		45
48	Delgado, Carlos	1b	retired	118.7		46
49	Zito, Barry 1415	pi sp	retired	117.4		47
50	Beltre, Adrian 1141	3b	retired	116.8		48
51	Buehrle, Mark 1407	pi sp	retired	116.7		49
52	Helton, Todd 1060	1b	retired	116.4		50
53	Hunter, Torii 1190	cf	retired	115.9		51
54	Lincecum, Tim 2288	pi sp	retired	115.0		52
55	Beckett, Josh 1544	pi sp	retired	114.9		53
56	Santana, Ervin 2005	pi mr sp	kc al	114.4	1.0	54
57	Kluber, Corey 3200	pi sp	nyy al	114.1	5.0	61
58	Carpenter, Chris	pi sp	retired	113.3		55
59	Haren, Danny 1787	pi sp	retired	113.2		56
60	Sosa, Sammy 43	rf	retired	113.2		57
61	Brown, Kevin J. 246	pi sp	retired	112.8		58
62	Cueto, Johnny 2400	pi sp	sf nl	111.8	5.0	67
63	Glavine, Tom 288	pi sp	retired	110.6		59
64	Kent, Jeff 280	2b	retired	110.2		60
65	Wagner, Billy	pi cp	retired	108.7		62
66	Gonzalez, Gio 2626	pi sp	retired	108.6		63
67	Beltran, Carlos 1194	cf	retired	108.6		64
68	Millwood, Kevin	pi sp	retired	108.3		65
69	Berkman, Lance 1261	1b lf rf	retired	108.1		66
70	Darvish, Yu 3003	pi sp	sd nl	107.2	13.1	99
71	Shields, James 2157	pi sp	retired	106.4		68
72	Liriano, Francisco 2104	pi cp sp	released*	106.2		69
73	Thomas, Frank 141	dh 1b	retired	106.2		70
74	Ramirez, Aramis 1364	3b	retired	105.8		71
75	Kazmir, Scott 1947	pi sp	sf nl	105.1		73
76	Lynn, Lance 2992	pi sp	chi al	104.1	12.4	106
77	moyer, jamie	pi sp	retired	104.0		74
78	Tejada, Miguel	ss	retired	102.3		75
79	griffey, ken jr.	cf	retired	102.2		76
80	Wakefield, Tim 296	pi sp	retired	101.4		77
81	Teixeira, Mark 1738	1b	retired	101.3		78
82	schmidt, jason	pi sp	retired	101.2		79
83	Holliday, Matt 1836	lf	retired	100.8		80
84	Cain, Matt 2081	pi sp	retired	100.7		81
85	Konerko, Paul 1107	1b	retired	100.7		82
86	bagwell, jeff	1b	retired	100.4		84
87	Carrasco, Carlos 2885	pi sp	nym nl	100.1		85
88	Walker, Larry 165	rf	retired	100.1		86
89	Edmonds, Jim 353	cf	retired	99.8		87
90	Braun, Ryan J. 2300	lf	retired	98.7		88
91	Howard, Ryan 2040	1b	retired	98.7		89
92	Rolen, Scott	3b	retired	97.6		90
93	Wolf, Randy 1235	pi sp	retired	97.4		91
94	Jones, Andruw	cf	retired	96.5		92
95	Arrieta, Jake 2738	pi sp	released*	95.9	2.0	100
96	Abreu, Bobby	rf	retired	95.5		93
97	Nomo, Hideo 307	pi sp	retired	95.5		94
98	Piazza, Mike 114	ca	retired	95.4		95
99	Dempster, Ryan 1109	pi sp	retired	95.2		96
100	Ordonez, Magglio	rf	retired	94.5		97

BTP: Box-Toppers points
* Francisco Liriano was released by the Blue Jays prior to the 2021 season and did not play in 2021. He has since retired from baseball. Jake Arrieta was released by the Cubs and later by the Padres in 2021.
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Johnson earned 282.5 Box-Toppers points from the time Box-Toppers record keeping began in 1995 until he retired in 2009.

The most likely rival to Johnson’s throne at the moment is Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw who has 248.6 career Box-Toppers points, second among all players since 1995 and most among active players. 

Kershaw, who will be 34 when the 2022 season starts, is 33.9 points behind Johnson. He has earned as many as 31.5 points in a single season (2014) but hasn’t had more than 20 points in a season since 2017. He had 13.4 points in 2021, 19th among all players. To pass Johnson, Kershaw would need to break Johnson’s record of most Box-Toppers points in a single season of 33.7, which he did twice with the Diamondbacks in 2000 and 2002.

The next most likely rival to Johnson is pitcher Max Scherzer, who was with the Nationals and Dodgers in 2021 and has signed with the Mets for 2022. Scherzer, 37, has 226.3 career Box-Toppers points, 56.2 points behind Johnson. Though older than Kershaw, he has earned 25.0 or more points in four of the past six seasons, including 2021, when he led all players with 25.1. At a pace of 25.0 points per season, Scherzer would pass Johnson in 2024, the year he turns 40.

But even if Kershaw or Scherzer reaches Johnson’s 282.5-point total, they still wouldn’t match Johnson’s actual career total. Since Box-Toppers didn’t track Johnson’s career from 1988 to 1994, he would likely have many more career Box-Toppers points. A revised rough projection puts his actual career Box-Toppers point total at about 385.

Box-Toppers points are a measure of how much a player provides key contributions to his team’s wins. Specifically, 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.

The chart here shows the rankings of the top 100 players since record keeping began in 1995, along with their career Box-Toppers point total and, where applicable, their Box-Toppers points for 2021. The chart also shows each player’s roster status as of the end of the 2021 season and players’ rank in career Box-Toppers points at the end of the 2020 season, to show their rise or fall in rankings since last season.

Top 10 notables

The Box-Toppers overall top five player spots saw rare movement in 2021 with the rise of Kershaw from third to second place and Scherzer from eighth to fourth place on the “all-time” career points list.

Kershaw earned 13.4 Box-Toppers points in 2021 and in the process, passed pitcher Pedro Martinez (244.8 career points) on June 27, who had held the second-place spot continuously for more than 22 years. Kershaw had held the third-place spot more than four years, since May 23, 2017, when he passed Curt Schilling (194.1).

Scherzer rose four spots in Box-Toppers rankings in 2021, beginning the season in eighth place with 201.2 career Box-Toppers points.

• He rose to seventh place April 16 when he earned 2.0 points as overall Player of the Day, giving him 203.2 career points, passing Albert Pujols, then of the Angels (202.8).

• He rose to sixth place April 21 when he earned 1.0 point as Player of the Game, giving him 204.2 career points, passing retired pitcher CC Sabathia (203.4).

• He rose to fifth place May 14 when he earned 2.0 points as overall Player of the Day, giving him 207.9 career points, passing Astros pitcher Justin Verlander (206.6). (A look at the back-and-forth race between Scherzer and Verlander in career Box-Toppers points.)

• He rose to fourth place Aug. 26 when he earned 2.0 points as overall Player of the Day, giving him 218.6 career points, passing Astros pitcher Zack Greinke (217.8). (Scherzer had been with the Nationals until July 31, when he was traded to the Dodgers.)

Two other active players in the career points top 10 list also earned Box-Toppers points in 2021:

• Greinke earned 8.7 points in 2021, 26th among American League pitchers, but fell from fourth to fifth on the “all-time” career points list with 217.8, as he was passed by Scherzer.

• Pujols earned just 2.0 points in 2021, which was enough to maintain his overall seventh-place spot in “all-time” career points. Pujols was passed by Scherzer to fall into eighth place. But then, on July 31, Pujols, then with the Dodgers, rose back into seventh place with 203.8 points, passing Sabathia (203.4).

Rising and falling

These five players made the biggest jump up the career Box-Toppers points list in 2021:

• Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole rose 38 spots, most of any player, from 83rd at the end of 2020 to 45th at the end of 2021. Cole, 31, has 122.9 career Box-Toppers points, earning 22.4 in 2021, second among all players and first among AL pitchers.

• White Sox pitcher Lance Lynn rose 30 spots from 106th at the end of 2020 to 76th at the end of 2021. Lynn, 34, has 104.1 career Box-Toppers points, earning 12.4 in 2021, ninth among AL pitchers. Lynn is the only player to join the overall top 100 during the 2021 season (displacing retired left fielder Adam Dunn, who fell from 98th place at the end of 2020 to 101st at the end of 2021 with 94.3 career points). Lynn is one of two players—along with Padres pitcher Yu Darvish—who passed 100 career Box-Toppers points during 2021.

• Padres pitcher Yu Darvish rose 29 spots from 99th at the end of 2020 to 70th at then end of 2021. Darvish, 35, has 107.2 career Box-Toppers points, earning 13.1 in 2021, 13th among National League pitchers. Darvish is one of two players—along with Lynn—who passed 100 career Box-Toppers points during 2021.

• Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom rose 26 spots from 72nd at the end of 2020 to 46th at the end of 2021. deGrom, 33, has 122.1 career Box-Toppers points, earning 16.7 in 2021, ninth overall and seventh among NL pitchers.

• Diamondbacks pitcher Madison Bumgarner rose 10 spots from 43rd at the end of 2020 to 33rd at the end of 2021. Bumgarner, 32, has 135.4 career Box-Toppers points, earning 10.0 in 2021, 25th among NL pitchers.

Biggest drop

Two retired players each fell four spots, most of any players on the top 100 list:

• Pitcher Tom Glavine fell from 59th to 63rd place with 110.6 career Box-Toppers points.

• Second baseman Jeff Kent fell from 60th to 64th place with 110.2 career Box-Toppers points.

Both were passed by Cole, deGrom, Yankees pitcher Corey Kluber (who rose from 61st to 57th with 114.1 career points, earning 5.0 in 2021) and Giants pitcher Johnny Cueto (who rose from 67th to 62nd with 111.8 career points, earning 5.0 in 2021).

Top 100 for 2021 & ‘All-time’

There are nine players on the “all-time” top 100 list who also appeared in Box-Toppers top 100 player list for 2021. They are shown in the chart below, listed in order by their Box-Toppers career points ranking.

Those nine players include three of the top 10 players on the 2021 list—Scherzer (first with 25.1 points), Cole (second with 22.4) and deGrom (ninth with 16.7). Scherzer is the only player in the top 10 on both the 2021 and “all-time” lists.

Breakdown: Active vs. Inactive

Of the 100 players on the “all-time” list, 74 of them ended the season as retired. That is an net increase of one from the end of 2020. Two players retired since the end of 2020—pitchers Gio Gonzalez (108.6 career points, ranked 66th) and James Shields (106.4 career points, ranked 71st), while one active player (Lance Lynn) joined the top 100.

Since the end of 2021, at least two players on the list have already announced their retirement—pitcher Jon Lester (179.3 career points, 11th overall) and pitcher Francisco Liriano (106.2 points, 71st). Other among the top 100 players may join the ranks of the retired in 2022, including Albert Pujols, 42, and Bartolo Colon (who at 48 is still listed as playing in Mexico).

Four active players on the top 100 ended 2021 not affiliated with a Major League team:

• Pitcher Felix Hernandez, ranked 12th with 175.1 career points, is listed as a free agent. He last earned Box-Toppers points in 2019.

• Pitcher Bartolo Colon, ranked 21st with 155.9 career points, is listed as playing in Mexico.

• Pitcher Francisco Liriano, ranked 72nd with 106.2 career points, was released by the Blue Jays prior to the start of the 2021 season. He has since announced his retirement.

• Pitcher Jake Arrieta, ranked 95th with 95.9 career points, was released by the Cubs and later by the Padres during 2021.

That makes only 22 players on the top 100 list who were active with a Major League team at the close of 2021. Of those, just 19 earned Box-Toppers points in 2021.

Top teams

The Los Angeles Dodgers had the most players (five) on the career points top 100 list, including three players who joined the team midseason in 2021: Scherzer, Pujols and pitcher Cole Hamels, whose 174.2 career points ranks 13th. While Hamels signed with the team, he did not play and has since been granted free agency.

The two other Dodgers players among the career points top 100 list are Kershaw and pitcher David Price, whose 133.0 career points ranks 36th. Price earned just 2.0 points in 2021.

There are six teams with two players each on the “all-time” career points top 100 list:

• Houston Astros—Zack Greinke (fifth with 217.8) and Justin Verlander (sixth with 206.6).

• New York Mets—Jacob deGrom (46th with 122.1) and Carlos Carrasco (87th with 100.1).

• New York Yankees—Gerrit Cole (45th with 122.9) and Corey Kluber (57th with 114.1).

• San Francisco Giants—Scott Kazmir (75th with 105.1) and Johnny Cueto (62nd with 111.8).

• St. Louis Cardinals—Jon Lester (11th with 179.3) and Adam Wainwright (30th with 142.3).

Another seven teams each had one player each on the top 100 list—Diamondbacks, Red Sox, White Sox, Nationals, Tigers, Royals and Padres.

Breakdown by position

Pitchers outnumber batters on the “all-time” list. There are 64 pitchers and 36 batters. For comparison, on the top 100 list for the 2021 season, there were 74 pitchers and 26 batters.)

Here is a breakdown of players by their primary position on the “all-time” list:

• 58—Starting pitcher

• 15—Outfield (5 CF, 5 LF, 5 RF)

• 11—First base

• 5—Third base

• 5—Closing pitcher

• 2—Designated hitter

• 1—Second base

• 1—Catcher

• 1—Shortstop

• 1–Middle reliever

Pitchers tend to dominate Box-Toppers statistics especially in the short term. Over the longer term, batters tend to do better in Box-Toppers points because top batters tend to have longer, more productive careers than top pitchers. Also, in the first 15 years of Box-Toppers record keeping from 1995 to about 2009, batters in general did a lot better, earning 50 percent or more of all Box-Toppers points awarded. In fact, batters share of Box-Toppers points earned collapsed precipitously during the decade of the 2010s from the previous decade, as batters share of points earned fell from 51.7 percent during the 2000s down to 42.4 percent in the 2010s. During the 2010s, batters made year-end overall top 10 lists 23 times, while in the 2010s, there was only one such instance. Further, there were 35 times in the decade of the 2000s when a batter reached 15.0 or more Box-Toppers points in a season; during the 2010s, there were just seven such instances.

In 2021, pitchers earned 60.85 percent of all Box-Toppers points awarded, compared to batters earning 39.15 percent. That was just short of the all-time record for highest share of Box-Toppers points earned in a single season: In 2014, pitchers earned 60.86 percent of all points.

Box-Toppers methodology

Keep in mind that these are only statistics since 1995. For many players who debuted before then (such as Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Roger Clemens and Greg Maddux), their career Box-Toppers totals would likely be far higher if the years before 1995 were tracked. On the other hand, for a player like Chipper Jones (ranked 25th), Box-Toppers covers virtually his entire career—he only played in eight games before 1995, so Box-Toppers covers 2,491 games of his 2,499-game career. 

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.

Related

Top 100 “all-time” lists at season’s end: 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014.

Overlapping players

Here are the nine players who are on both the Box-Toppers’ top 100 list of “all-time” (above) and the Box-Toppers top 100 list for the 2021 season. Players are listed here in order of career Box-Toppers points with their predominant position played during the 2021 season and the team with whom they finished the 2021 season. Shown are their career Box-Toppers point (BTP) total, their rank among players in career points, their Box-Toppers point total for 2021 and their rank among players in 2021.

			All-time		2021
Player	Pos	Team	BTP	Rank	BTP	Rank
Kershaw, Clayton 2494	pi sp	lad nl	248.6	2	13.4	19
Scherzer, Max 2588	pi sp	lad nl	226.3	4	25.1	1
Greinke, Zack 1871	pi sp	hou al	217.8	5	8.7	69
Wainwright, Adam 2150	pi sp	stl nl	142.3	30	12.0	29
Bumgarner, Madison 2753	pi sp	ari nl	135.4	33	10.0	46
Cole, Gerrit 3232	pi sp	nyy al	122.9	45	22.4	2
deGrom, Jacob 3343	pi sp	nym nl	122.1	46	16.7	9
Darvish, Yu 3003	pi sp	sd nl	107.2	70	13.1	20
Lynn, Lance 2992	pi sp	chi al	104.1	76	12.4	27

BTP: Box-Toppers points
What are those numbers after players' names?
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
This chart is sortable! Click or tap any of the headers to sort. For example, click the Player header to sort players alphabetically by last name, click again to sort in reverse alphabetical order. Refresh the page to return to standard order.