Though he still refers to Brooks Robinson as "the father of third base," Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt is pretty widely viewed as the greatest player in the history of his position.
However, the three-time National League MVP says that a current third baseman has a chance to be the greatest player in the history of the position by the time his career ins completed.
"Nolan Arenado for me, right now, is three or four of his normal years away from being the greatest third baseman of all-time," Schmidt recently said on Bret Boone's podcast. "And every time I say that it's 'Oh, but he plays in Coors Field, and anybody can do what he does at Coors Field.' That's a lot of BS. The guy has had the best offensive statistics, close to it, in the league, and has never won an MVP. He could have won the MVP, I think, the last three years. His offensive numbers dwarf mine. And defensively, he's definitely better than me because he's got more range and a crazy-good arm."
While others are certainly in the discussion, the three best defensive third basemen ever are probably Schmidt, the aforementioned Robinson and Scott Rolen. At the very least, Arenado, who already has 120 career defensive runs saved, has a chance to be at the top of this discussion by the end of his career. Gold Glove Awards, at least to some degree, are subjective, but Schmidt won 10 of those, and Arenado, 29, has already won eight. Additionally, Arenado is a four-time winner of the Platinum Glove Award, an honor first introduced in 2011 that aims to find that best fielder at any position in each league.
The two are extremely interesting to compare offensively. Through his first eight full major league seasons, Schmidt slashed .256/.375/.513 with 234 home runs, 663 RBIs, 684 walks, an .888 OPS and a 141 OPS+. Even with the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Arenado has slashed .293/.349/.541 with 235 home runs, 760 RBIs, 362 walks, an .890 OPS and a 120 OPS+. Schmidt comfortably tops Arenado in walks - and therefore, on-base percentage - but Arenado has also struck out 259 times less.
Arenado is up against a few things here. First of all, as much as Schmidt pushed back at the narrative, Arenado has unquestionably benefitted from playing his home games at Coors Field. As you notice above, the two have comparable OPS marks, but Schmidt trounces Arenado in terms of OPS+. The reason for that is OPS+ "accounts for external factors like ballparks." Every season of Arenado's career, MLB Park Factors says that Coors Field has either been the most hitter-friendly or second most hitter-friendly stadium in the sport. Arenado has slashed .322/.376/.609 in home games throughout his career, but .263/.322/.471 away from Coors Field.
Coors Field is a major league stadium, so playing 81 games there a season shouldn't be held against Arenado in an eventual Hall of Fame discussion, in the same way it shouldn't have been for Larry Walker and shouldn't currently be used to keep Todd Helton out of the Hall of Fame. But when you're comparing and contrasting the greatest players at a position ever, the Coors Field discussion has to be factored in. Perhaps Arenado will be traded to another team before the 2021 season, and get to answer the debate once and for all.
The bigger issue facing Arenado is that Schmidt had incredible longevity. He hit 313 home runs, made eight All-Star teams and won all three of his MVP Awards from his age-30 season on. Arenado's production is on par with Schmidt to this point, but it will take more than the three or four years that Schmidt suggested to seriously enter this discussion.
When we ranked the nine greatest third basemen in MLB history last summer, Arenado didn't yet crack the list. Certainly, he's on pace to do so. His path to No. 1 is a lot harder to see.
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