Who was No. 1 this season? It isn’t too hard to guess, is it?
The great thing about overall base value (OBV) is that it accurately reflects a baseball player’s value to his club.
Take last season, for example. Aaron Judge, the slugging outfielder for the New York Yankees, topped the American League with an outstanding OBV of 255, indicating that he reached 255 more bases than a typical batter would have attained under the same circumstances. Paul Goldschmidt, the solid first baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals, led the National League with an OBV of 159.
Who won the Most Valuable Player Awards in their respective leagues last year? Judge and Goldschmidt, of course.
The same dynamic was at play in 2023.
Shohei Ohtani, the dazzling star at the plate and on the mound for the Los Angeles Angels, posted the highest OBV in the majors. He piled up 186 bases more than an average batter would have reached, and he also surrendered 54 fewer bases than an average pitcher would have yielded. His grand total: an OBV of 240.
Ronald Acuna Jr., the right fielder for the Atlanta Braves, set the pace in the National League with an OBV of 226, all accomplished at the plate.
Ohtani and Acuna were the only two players in 2023 to exceed 170 on the OBV scale, so it comes as no surprise that each was the unanimous choice for the MVP trophy in his league — or that both can be found at the very top of my list of the season’s top 100 players.
I’ve been unrolling that list in consecutive installments of 10 honorees since November 7. The rankings are determined by OBV, with any ties broken by ratios of bases per out (BPO). Click here to learn more about both stats.
Here are the 10 highest-rated players of the year:
10. Corbin Carroll (Diamondbacks)
9. Corey Seager (Rangers)
8. Aaron Judge (Yankees)
7. Gerrit Cole (Yankees)
6. Juan Soto (Padres)
5. Matt Olson (Braves)
4. Freddie Freeman (Dodgers)
3. Mookie Betts (Dodgers)
2. Ronald Acuna Jr. (Braves)
1. Shohei Ohtani (Angels)
Scroll downward to see brief profiles of the year’s 10 best players. If you’d like to look back at previous installments of this series, follow these links: 91-100, 81-90, 71-80, 61-70, 51-60, 41-50, 31-40, 21-30, and 11-20.
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10. Corbin Carroll (Diamondbacks)
OBV: 120
Primary position: LF
BPO (batting): .986
BA: .285
Other batting stats: PA 645, HR 25, RBI 76
Notes: Carroll took the National League by storm in 2023. He was unanimously elected as Rookie of the Year, and he emerged as a star during Arizona’s improbable run to the World Series. Carroll led the NL in triples (10), finished second in stolen bases (54), and was sixth in runs scored (116).
9. Corey Seager (Rangers)
OBV: 121
Primary position: SS
BPO (batting): 1.062
BA: .327
Other batting stats: PA 536, HR 33, RBI 96
Notes: Seager’s first season after signing with Texas as a free agent was a slight disappointment. He batted only .245 in 2022. But he made amends in 2023 by hitting a solid .327, topping the American League in doubles (42), driving home 96 runs, and leading the Rangers to their first world title.
8. Aaron Judge (Yankees)
OBV: 123
Primary position: RF
BPO (batting): 1.147
BA: .267
Other batting stats: PA 458, HR 37, RBI 75
Notes: The numbers from Judge’s injury-plagued 2023 season paled in comparison to 2022’s 62 homers, 131 RBIs, and .311 BA, but he was still solidly productive. He racked up an OBV of 123 despite playing only 106 games. His 37 homers were still fourth-best in the AL, and his 88 walks were sixth.
7. Gerrit Cole (Yankees)
OBV: 130
Primary position: P
BPO (pitching): .497
ERA: 2.63
Other pitching stats: IP 209.0, W-L 15-4, SO 222
Notes: Cole had come close to the Cy Young Award on several occasions, finishing among the top five vote-getters in five previous seasons. But he finally landed his first trophy in 2023 after posting 15 wins for New York and leading the American League in ERA (2.63) and innings pitched (209.0).
6. Juan Soto (Padres)
OBV: 137
Primary position: LF
BPO (batting): 1.014
BA: .275
Other batting stats: PA 708, HR 35, RBI 109
Notes: Soto stumbled a bit in 2022, a season in which he was traded from Washington to San Diego in early August. But he bounced back nicely in 2023. His .410 on-base percentage was second-best in the NL, his .519 slugging average was eighth, and his 35 home runs were 10th.
5. Matt Olson (Braves)
OBV: 161
Primary position: 1B
BPO (batting): 1.060
BA: .283
Other batting stats: PA 720, HR 54, RBI 139
Notes: Olson had the unenviable assignment of replacing the beloved Freddie Freeman at first base for Atlanta. He proved up to the task, topping the National League in homers (54), runs batted in (139), and slugging average (.604). He finished fourth in balloting for the Most Valuable Player Award.
4. Freddie Freeman (Dodgers)
OBV: 163
Primary position: 1B
BPO (batting): 1.070
BA: .331
Other batting stats: PA 730, HR 29, RBI 102
Notes: Freeman remains a batting machine, no matter where he plays. He rapped 211 hits in his second season with Los Angeles, generating a .331 BA. He finished second in the NL in the former category, third in the latter. Freeman led the league in two stats in 2023: doubles (59) and intentional walks (12).
3. Mookie Betts (Dodgers)
OBV: 167
Primary position: RF
BPO (batting): 1.103
BA: .307
Other batting stats: PA 693, HR 39, RBI 107
Notes: Betts served as Los Angeles’s leadoff hitter throughout 2023, forming a dangerous combination with Freeman, the man right behind him in the batting order. Betts finished third in the NL in slugging (.579), fourth in on-base percentage (.408), and fifth in batting average (.307).
2. Ronald Acuna Jr. (Braves)
OBV: 226
Primary position: RF
BPO (batting): 1.197
BA: .337
Other batting stats: PA 735, HR 41, RBI 106
Notes: Acuna was the unanimous winner of the National League’s Most Valuable Player Award, and why not? His dominance was total. Nobody in the NL rapped more hits (217), reached base at a better clip (.416 OBP), stole more bases (73), scored more runs (149), or made more plate appearances (735).
1. Shohei Ohtani (Angels)
OBV: 240
Primary position: DH-P
BPO (batting): 1.214
BA: .304
Other batting stats: PA 599, HR 44, RBI 95
BPO (pitching): .568
ERA: 3.14
Other pitching stats: IP 132.0, W-L 10-5, SO 167
Notes: Nothing was more certain than Ohtani’s unanimous victory in the American League’s MVP race. The two-way star led the American League with 44 homers and a .654 slugging average as a designated hitter, and he added 10 wins and a 3.14 ERA before an elbow injury ended his pitching duties for Los Angeles. The big question now, of course, is where Ohtani will land as a free agent.
