Baltimore Orioles: The best third-basemen in Orioles history

Since the franchise moved from St. Louis in 1954, the Baltimore Orioles have had many great players come through the organization

Some of those players have helped lead the Baltimore Orioles to World Series titles, while others haven’t been as lucky; but all of them have left their mark on the team and the city. We’re looking at the best of the best.

We’re now just 22 days away from Baltimore Orioles pitchers and catchers reporting to Sarasota, and 33 days from the first spring training game. If you’re not a fan of spring training, don’t worry; meaningful baseball is right around the corner.

But since the Orioles aren’t deep in the free-agent market right now and Birdland is all-too quiet, we’re diving back into our “best Orioles of all-time” series.

Today we’re looking at the best third basemen in Orioles’ history. You all probably know where this is going to end up but getting there will be fun.

Because our boy Brooks played for so long, it slightly limits how many other guys can be on this list.

The list of all-time second-basemen was similar because of Bobby Grich, and the shortstop list will be as well, because of Cal Ripken Jr.

And because those guys were so good during their time in Baltimore, other Orioles pale in comparison. The bottom of the second-basemen list was underwhelming, but it feels like this one holds up.

There are four guys who belong on this list, followed by a group of players who made contributions for the O’s, but never stood out enough to belong here. For that reason, we’re limiting this list to just four names, rather than our usual five.

We can cover most of the Orioles’ success over the years by just including these four second-basemen, from the Orioles’ initial stretch in the 1960’s, to the run they made in the early 1970’s and 1980’s, and to the most recent run of AL East success in the 2010’s.

Do the Orioles have another stretch of AL East dominance in the cards? Absolutely, but it will likely take a few years to get there. Will an Orioles third-baseman help get them there? Potentially. The Orioles have just one Hall of Fame third-baseman in franchise history. Time will tell whether there’s another one waiting in the organization.

As always, we’re omitting St. Louis Browns players from this series.