Thirty players (!) have advanced in our great MLB GOAT debate, and we now take on the Free Agency Era—broadly, the 1970s and 1980s. By the mid-1970s, the sport changed drastically with the advent of socioeconomic freedom for players in choosing their own employers. The rise of individual salaries and team payrolls began, and it has continued to this day with the out-of-control fiscal dynamics in baseball.

Catcher: The three best catchers of this era also happened to be in the Top 4 all time, which makes this a really rough analysis for at least one player. Johnny Bench (1st in positional rankings with 75.1 WAR), Gary Carter (2nd, 70.1), and Carlton Fisk (4th, 68.4) really dominated these two decades with their stellar skills, evolving the position from what it was then to what it is now. So, which guy is the “best” of this era? All three catchers posted at least 17.0 dWAR in their careers (which is incredible, so we have to drill down to the bats. And Carter (56.3 oWAR) was much lower there in production than Bench (65.7) and Fisk (66.3). Bench was a slightly better defender than Fisk, winning 10 deserved Gold Gloves to Fisk’s singular win. But Fisk could have had a few more, in truth. Either way, we do think Bench wins the era and gets advanced (duh). But do we re-slot Fisk as a UTL player? Actually, it’s the opposite: Bench was moved to first and third in his final three seasons, while Fisk was primarily still a catcher until the end of his long career. So we give Fisk this “win” and move Bench. We will advance Fisk, for now, as well to the GOAT finals.

First Base: Even though he played deep into the 1990s, Eddie Murray (12th, 68.6) belongs in this era. And that’s about as far as our discussion goes, really, for circumstantial reasons. No other player really makes the grade for the two decades of action, in terms of overall WAR marks. Brutal with the glove (-11.6 dWAR), though, Murray will not be advanced to the GOAT finals.

Second Base: Six guys in the Top 15 for this position figure into this era of baseball, and that’s a lot. Joe Morgan (4th, 100.4) is at the top of the list, followed by Rod Carew (6th, 81.2), Lou Whitaker (7th, 75.1), Bobby Grich (9th, 71.1), Ryne Sandberg (11th, 67.9), and Willie Randolph (13th, 65.9). Obviously, Morgan is going to win our era slot and get advanced to the finals, but we’re not sure on everyone else. Carew won seven batting titles, but he was a negative defender. He also played first base down the line of his career, so we could move him to UTL (see below). Everyone else in this group doesn’t qualify as elite, obviously.

Shortstop: Meanwhile, Robin Yount (7th, 77.4), Ozzie Smith (8th, 76.9), and Alan Trammell (11th, 70.6) are the top contenders at this position for this time frame. This is a tough one, because Yount switched positions about two thirds of the way through his career, so we’re inclined to give Smith the era nod here, due to his glove alone (13 GGs, 44.2 dWAR). The Wizard of Oz also never played any other position in his career. He is going to get advanced here, too, for the legendary glove. We can deal with his middling bat later down the line.

Third Base: This is another crowded position, showing the era’s prominence in our analysis. Mike Schmidt (1st, 106.8), Wade Boggs (4th, 91.4), George Brett (5th, 88.6), and Paul Molitor (8th, 75.7) are all in the Hall—and the Top 10 for the position! We can eliminate Molitor for having a negative glove and being a designated hitter for most of his later career. Even Brett moved to first base eventually, so he’d be better in a UTL spot. But choosing between Schmidt and Boggs is really rough: In the end, the additional 430 home runs that Schmidt hit—plus his mildly better defense—carry the day over the Chicken Man. Tough call. And Boggs can’t really slide somewhere else; his game was just too … one-dimensional? We don’t know. We obviously advance Schmidt, and Boggs just gets left behind, unfortunately. This feels weird, for sure.

Left Field: Another somewhat dramatic moment, as Rickey Henderson (3rd, 111.2) and Pete Rose (5th, 79.6) are the names here. It’s not really a contest, because Henderson dominates the value issue, especially when we consider that Rose played a lot of other positions, too—and isn’t good enough to get moved to UTL consideration here. All he did was get a lot of hits, while Rickey impacted a lot of games. Henderson also gets advanced, of course, as the all-time leader still in runs scored and stolen bases. By the way, we are split on Rose and his off-the-field issues, as recently discussed elsewhere; this is a purely statistical decision.

Centerfield: We have just one player for this era, and it’s Andre Dawson (11th, 64.8). He’s not great enough to get advanced, but he was a fantastic player in his time. Who knows what he could have done without the knee injuries from Montréal’s crappy artificial surface? Chalk this one down to bad luck and misfortune.

Right Field: This is another position with singular consideration, due to career spans. Reggie Jackson (10th, 73.9) dominated the game for awhile, thanks to his free-agency timing with the Oakland Athletics and the New York Yankees. But his really bad glove is going to keep him from being advanced.

Pitchers: We see four starters in this era as being among the best, and we see two relievers, also. Let’s start with the workhorse guys—Tom Seaver (6th, 109.9), Bert Blyleven (13th, 94.5), Steve Carlton (15th, 90.2), and Nolan Ryan (24th, 81.3). It’s hard to see a guy like Blyleven above Carlton, but not all careers are created the same. Blyleven was a longevity dude who never really dominated, whereas the other three did dominate. Ryan usually did it for bad teams, of course, and Carlton’s career was a mixed bag there. Seaver gets our top nod, and we have to eliminate Ryan for leading his league in walks eight times—even if he did throw seven no hitters. So what about Carlton? He did win four Cy Youngs and a Triple Crown. We take him, and both starters will get pushed forward to the finals. In the bullpen, Rich Gossage (4th, 41.2) and Rollie Fingers (20th, 25.6) continued the re-definition of the relief pitcher and his role. Fingers actually won a Cy Young, an MVP, and a WS MVP, and he saved more games than Gossage did with a lower ERA. So, why does Gossage have the significantly higher WAR mark? He only pitched 100 more innings or so than Fingers did in the five extra seasons of his career, in comparison. It’s about situational leverage, of course, beyond just the save, etc. But it still seems weird to us. We will stick with WAR here and single out Gossage for the era—and advance him as well, even though Fingers probably did more to establish the closer role, long term.

Utility Player(s): Bench played first base in 1981, with some action behind the plate, and in 1982-83, the Cincinnati Reds moved Bench to third base. That’s good enough for us to give him a nod here—and also advance him to the GOAT finals. Carew was an 18-time All Star, and his glove (-1.7 dWAR) wasn’t that bad, all things considered. His bat gets him advanced, though. As for Brett … this is tough. He had a better glove than Carew, and he was a better hitter, too, in the overall grand scheme of the baseball statistics universe. He’s going to bump Carew out here, in truth, simply because Carew didn’t carry teams like Brett did—not even close. We could same the same of the Schmidt-Boggs debate above, in truth.

In brief review, our Free Agency GOAT lineup is as follows: C Fisk, 1B Murray, 2B Morgan, SS Smith, 3B Schmidt, LF Henderson, CF Dawson, RF Jackson, SP Seaver, SP Carlton, RP Gossage, UTL Bench, and UTL Brett. Ten of these players get advanced to the GOAT finals, and we can see this is getting harder for us as time goes on, era by era. But it’s our mess, and our mess alone, so we will clean it up … eventually. Promise.