Next week on MLB Monday, we finally will start our 2025 Awards Analysis pieces, but today, we’re having more fun with a random look at a random player in baseball history: Zoilo Versalles. For a singular season—1965—he was the best player in baseball, perhaps. Yet for a guy who posted just 12.6 WAR in his 12-year career, it’s very incredible he posted an American League best 7.2 WAR in that one season to win the MVP.

We confirmed that vote win, yet the season stands out like a sore thumb for Versalles. And it’s not like he was pulling a Norm Cash, either: his OPS was just .781 in 1965, a career high but not by a significant margin (his .742 mark in 1964 was his second-best effort). So, it’s not like Versalles was doing anything illegal. Yet he led the AL in runs, doubles, triples, and total bases nonetheless, while hitting just .273 overall with 122 Ks.

That strikeout total also led the AL, showing again that he wasn’t corking his bat, or anything else, really. His 5.3 oWAR came from those total bases, really, but he did hit 19 home runs and steal 27 bases, too. His all-around offense was just very helpful to his Minnesota Twins team that won the AL pennant by seven games. But his oWAR and his dWAR (3.0) both topped the junior circuit, so it’s clear he had this amazing season.

[Editor’s Note: Yes, oWAR and dWAR don’t always add up to total WAR, for mathematical reasons and also other factors like base running, etc. He only got caught stealing five times, but there are other factors in there like taking extra bases, or getting thrown out trying to do so, etc. Full explanation of WAR totals can be found here.]

So, what happened to the rest of his career? Well, he broke into the majors with the original Washington Senators in 1959 and played in a combined 44 games total during the 1959-1960 campaigns. He hit just .144 in that stretch, before the team moved to Minneapolis for the 1961 season; the change of scenery, plus some experience, turned Versalles into the Twins starting shortstop for the next seven full seasons (1961-1967).

In those seven years, however, his performance was inconsistent, totaling 15.3 WAR. His final year in the Twin Cities produced a negative-1.6 WAR, though, and the team traded him to the Los Angeles Dodgers, who must have thought they could rehabilitate Versalles. They failed: he put up another bad season (minus-1.1 WAR) in Southern California, before being selected by the San Diego Padres in the 1968 expansion draft.

The Pads almost immediately flipped him to the Cleveland Indians, and after 72 passable games with the Tribe (0.3 WAR) in 1969, the “new” Washington Senators purchased his contract. Versalles played 31 games for the expansion Sens at a decent level (0.4 WAR) to finish the year with his first position WAR mark (0.7) since 1966, he was released right before the 1970 season. He was in his age-30 season but all done, really.

Sidebar: Versalles has the rare distinction of playing both Washington Senators franchises. Remember, the first Senators organization (1901-1904, 1957-1960 … in between 1904-1957, they were known officially as the Nationals even though many people still called them the Senators) became the Twins, and the second Senators (1961-1971), an expansion team, moved to Texas to become the Rangers. Baseball is funky, right?

After playing 1970 and some of 1971 in the Mexican League, Versalles joined the Atlanta Braves at age 31 and played a miserable 66 games for them (minus-1.7 WAR), hitting just .191 in the process. He was released and never played in the majors again. Alas, he was a two-time All Star (1963, 1965), won two Gold Gloves in those same seasons, and had that amazing 1965 year that no one can ever forget. He was like a comet, eh?

For the record, he also topped the AL in triples three straight seasons (1963-1965). But he may have been just an average batting talent, overall, with a great glove (career 8.0 dWAR). Everything just came together for that stellar season in 1965, and when the “luck” ran out, he went downhill in a hurry. Going from 7.2 WAR in 1965 to minus-1.6 WAR in 1967 is a pretty precipitous fall. Strange highs and strange lows here, for sure.

Still? As we like to say, most (male) baseball fans would give their left nut for his career pathway today.