With 22 players advancing so far to our great MLB GOAT debate, we now take on the Expansion Era—namely the 1960s on their own. This was that time period when the sport started getting watered down a bit, to the point that people noticed things like the lowly 1962 New York Mets and home-run records from different points of view. But love it or hate it, the decade was a fun time for the sport of greater equity.

Catcher: There is only one name here, really, and that’s longtime Detroit Tigers star Bill Freehan (17th all time at the position with 44.8 WAR). Eleven times an All Star, he also won five Gold Gloves—all possibly deserved. But he’s not going to get advanced in our overall GOAT analysis. Just is what it is.

First Base: Two players come to mind here, although they both had careers that span multiple decades. First, there is Willie McCovey (15th, 64.5): he played from 1959 to 1980, which is crazy, when you think about that passage of time. Then there is Harmon Killebrew (20th, 60.4); his career ran from 1954 to 1975. While both were great hitters, both were absolute brutal with the glove (combined minus-40.3 dWAR). This was definitely the place to hide a good hitter’s shit glove in the expansion era. Neither gets advanced, but Stretch had a slightly better offensive career—with the moderately worse glove. We did give McCovey the 1968 NL MVP nod, though, while taking away Killer’s undeserved 1969 AL MVP. So Stretch gets the era nod.

Second Base: This is an interesting era to peruse as so many players appeared in MLB from the 1950s to the 1970s and might fit better into those eras. At this position, the only true possibility for this era is Bill Mazeroski (47th, 36.6), known for a thing we remember still today. A ten-time All Star thanks to his glove (eight GGs, probably all deserved), he just didn’t do much with the bat—most of the time. Maz won’t be advancing, either.

Shortstop: Like the analysis above at first, this is an era defined by two guys. Ernie Banks (15th, 67.7) and Luis Aparicio (19th, 55.8) were different players, but they both were very good. It seems off to us that Banks would only rate out as the 15th-best shortstop ever in terms of WAR, but he also hit his peak in the late 1950s despite playing through to 1971. Aparicio also had a career that spanned from the 1950s to the 1970s, and he was known for his glove (9 GGs, all probably deserved) and his speed (506 stolen bases). Their position ranks don’t seem high now, but both these guys were tremendous players. Banks ended up as a positive defender for his career overall (5.1 dWAR), so we will give him the era edge, but neither player really should be advanced to our GOAT finals—which feels wrong to us, but it is what it is.

Third Base: We look at three stellar players here. Brooks Robinson (7th, 78.4), Ron Santo (9th, 70.5), and Ken Boyer (15th, 62.8) all deserve mention and pondering for the era—making this a relatively rich position for the time period. All three were good-to-great defenders, but they’re sort of inversely put together. Robinson was the “worst” hitter, but the best fielder, etc. We gave Robinson two MVPs (1964, 1968) and Santo one (1967), and maybe that’s our tiebreak, really. Robinson also will get advanced to our finals, because … well, 16 GGs is a lot.

Left Field: We think our biggest challenge here is identifying players best “fit” for this era, and again, we have that struggle here with left fielders, and we have to pick someone to rep the era. Carl Yastrzemski (4th, 96.5) fits the bill best with his 1961 debut—even though he played until 1983. But his Triple Crown/MVP season came in 1967, and other players with comparable career spans may have peaked in the 1970s. Yaz will do fine here, and we advance him as well to the finals … for now.

Centerfield: This discussion begins and ends with Willie Mays (1st, 156.1), who had both an amazing and underrated career. We gave the Say Hey Kid a whopping nine NL MVPs awards, of course, including a stunning six in a row at one point (1961-1966). He may well end up being our MLB GOAT, although time will tell on that one. Either way, he is the real deal on all levels: 660 home runs, 339 SBs, and 12 GGs.

Right Field: Another position to perhaps hide bad fielders, this one is stacked for this era. We have Hank Aaron (2nd, 143.0), Frank Robinson (5th, 107.3), Roberto Clemente (6th, 94.8), and Al Kaline (7th, 92.8). Aaron is still the real all-time HR king, of course. He and Robinson are both negative defenders, though, which will come up later. Both players also played first base in their careers, so we’re going to move Robinson to the UTL discussion below, while crowning Aaron for this era. How could we not? As for Clemente, he won four batting titles, posted 12.2 dWAR, and lost several potential seasons at the end of his career due to his untimely death in a plane crash trying to help people in tragic crisis. But he never played another position, so what we’re going to do is actually move Aaron to UTL, as well, to give Clemente this nod. All three players will get advanced, though, coincidentally. Kaline gets the short end of the stick, which is no offense to him at all. He also played first base, but Kaline is just a little less than these other three gods.

Pitchers: No coincidence this was a hitters’ era, of course, as the best guys we can come up with here are Phil Niekro (12th, 95.9), Bob Gibson (17th, 89.1), and Gaylord Perry (16th, 90.0). However, Perry was a known cheater (who pitched for the S.F. Giants, of course, for the bulk of his career). Niekro’s high WAR mark is due to spending 24 years in the majors, and we gave him two Cy Youngs, but both came in the 1970s. Gibson was by far the best representative of the 1960s starting pitcher, even though we gave him just one Cy nod. A guy like Sandy Koufax may have been better at his peak, but he just didn’t pitch enough to warrant inclusion here, even on a decade-only list. As for relievers, they started emerging as significant forces in this era, to deal with all the excessive hitting. Hoyt Wilhelm (5th, 46.8) was the best of them here, pitching from 1952-1972. We actually gave him a Cy Young trophy in 1959, but obviously his career was long reaching. He had 153 saves in this era alone, and we will advance him as the first possibility for his position.

Utility Player(s): Aaron and Robinson don’t need a lot of exploration here, as their merits should be obvious—on and off the field, of course. And as noted above, they get advanced, for sure.

To recap, then, our Expansion GOAT lineup is as follows: C Freehan, 1B McCovey, 2B Mazeroski, SS Banks, 3B Robinson, LF Yastrzemski, CF Mays, RF Clemente, SP Gibson, RP Wilhelm, UTL Aaron, and UTL Robinson. Advancing to the finals discussion later are the eight players defined in this space, bringing our current finalist count to 30 players so far. Yes, we know it’s a growing roster, but hey, you gotta start big and narrow it down from there—and that explains why a lot of guys we mention for each era don’t even get advanced.

It’s a tough field here (pun intended).