Baseball's May Birthday Dream Teams

Lots of great players have May birthdays. But who would make an all-star team amongst active players? And who would make an all-time May Birthdays dream team?

May 08, 2024

Issue #179

After a long hiatus, I’m continuing my series of active and all-time dream teams for players born during each month. You can see the 10 previous installments in this series: April, March, February, January, December, November, October, September, August, July.

So how about May? Demographic oddities aside, on average you'd expect such rosters to be composed of about 1/12th of the top players during whatever period is under consideration. Starting with an active players May Birthday dream team, here is the roster I came up with:

A few positions here are strong, such as 2B with Jose Altuve and Nolan Gorman as a backup, and definitely catcher where we have both Salvador Perez and Willson Contreras, and also Connor Wong and Patrick Bailey for more depth.

Other positions are not as strong, such as SS where I’ve listed Nico Hoerner as the starter even though by now he has played more games at 2B. There are several guys I’ve listed as utility players—Tommy Edman, David Fletcher, and Jace Peterson—that can backup Hoerner and others around the diamond. And the OF spots and corner infield spots are relatively weak compared with some of the other birthday month dream teams, but could improve if some of the youngsters here—like CF James Outman and LF Nolan Jones—continue to develop.

A starting lineup for this roster might look like this:

Jose Altuve (R) 2B
Nico Hoerner (R) SS
Willson Contreras (R) C
Salvador Perez (R) DH
Alex Verdugo (L) RF
Nolan Jones (L) LF
James Outman (L) CF
Miguel Sanó/Joey Meneses (R) 1B
Yoán Moncada (S) 3B

Not bad, but a bit weaker than some of the other birthday month active player dream teams I’ve created. I didn’t see a lot of platoon options, though one I suppose would be swapping the right-handed hitting CF Victor Robles for lefty James Outman.

On the pitching side, I listed Zack Wheeler as the ace here both based on his career to-date and how well he is pitching now. How the list shakes out after him would depend on what you weigh more heavily: total career accomplishment or current pitching ability. For the above list I went more with career accomplishments, but if it was based on how good they are in 2024 then Logan Gilbert would move up several spots, perhaps coming in third just behind Wheeler and Bieber.

This May birthdays dream team’s bullpen is headlined by Craig Kimbrel, a nine-time All-Star whose 425 career saves ranks fifth all-time. He will turn 36 later this month and has admittedly been inconsistent during the second half of his career. But his first four full seasons from 2011-2014 was one of the most dominating four-year stretches that any reliever has ever had. After Kimbrel, how you rank the other relievers I included could be debated.

Here are the players shown above in order by birthday:

May 1: SP Marcus Stroman
May 5: SP Logan Gilbert
May 6: 2B Jose Altuve
May 6: 1B Joey Meneses
May 7: RP Emilio Pagán
May 7: LF/RF Nolan Jones
May 9: 2B/SS/3B/OF Tommy Edman
May 9: 2B/3B/OF Jace Peterson
May 10: C Salvador Perez
May 10: 2B Nolan Gorman
May 11: 1B/3B Miguel Sanó
May 12: RP Matt Brash
May 12: SP Lance Lynn
May 13: RP Mychal Givens
May 13: C Willson Contreras
May 13: SS/2B Nico Hoerner
May 14: CF James Outman
May 14: SP Kyle Freeland
May 15: RF/LF Alex Verdugo
May 19: C Connor Wong
May 19: 3B/RF Brian Anderson
May 19: CF Victor Robles
May 21: RP José Alvarado
May 22: RF Jordan Walker
May 24: RP Chad Green
May 25: SP Michael King
May 25: LF/RF Jake Fraley
May 26: RP Paul Sewald
May 27: SP José Berríos
May 27: 3B/2B Yoán Moncada
May 28: RP Craig Kimbrel
May 29: C Patrick Bailey
May 30: RP John Brebbia
May 30: SP Zack Wheeler
May 31: SP Shane Bieber
May 31: 2B/SS/3B David Fletcher

All-Time May Birthdays Dream Team

What about an all-time May birthdays dream team? Three of the above active players make this roster: 2B Jose Altuve, C Salvador Perez, and RP Craig Kimbrel. Could others one day join them?

Lots of great names here, including Willie Mays who is always in the conversation as the greatest all-around player ever. Several others often get mentioned in discussions of the best all-time players at their respective positions, including 2B Eddie Collins, 3B George Brett, 3B Brooks Robinson, C Yogi Berra, and for what its worth, DH Frank Thomas.

Every position except one sports at least one Hall of Famer. CF is loaded not only with Mays, but with two top Negro League stars in Turkey Stearnes and Cool Papa Bell. Hall of Famer Earl Averill and Kenny Lofton—who many argue belongs in the Hall—provide even more CF depth.

Two other positions with a lot of depth are 2B with Eddie Collins, Charlie Gehringer, Lou Whitaker, and Jose Altuve, and 3B with George Brett, Brooks Robinson, Ken Boyer, and Darrell Evans. Evans also played a lot at 1B, and Hall of Famer Tony Perez similarly spent a lot of time at 1B and 3B. He rates as the third stringer at 1B on this roster, surpassed by fellow Hall of Famers Jeff Bagwell and old-time Dan Brouthers.

As noted, catcher has an all-time great in Yogi Berra. He is backed up by six-time Gold Glove Award winner Jim Sundberg and the still actively slugging Salvador Perez. The corner OF spots are also solid with Reggie Jackson and Tony Gwynn in RF, and Manny Ramirez and Hall of Famers Al Simmons and Zack Wheat in LF.

So what is the deal with SS? Miguel Tejada and Jhonny Peralta? Tejada was a six-time All-Star with 307 career HR and the 2002 AL MVP on his resume. He was also very durable, with the fifth longest consecutive games played streak in history at 1,152 from June 2, 2000 to June 21, 2007. But even so, I consider him clearly the weakest starter on this roster. And Jhonny Peralta? A fine player, he was a three-time All-Star and hit 20+ HR five times—but is also weaker selection than most of the players on this roster.

Now to be fair, there actually is more SS depth available as I included three utility players as well, all of whom played some at SS. Ben Zobrist and Gil McDougald admittedly played more often at other positions, while Negro League Hall of Famer Martin Dihigo literally played everywhere (though according to the data available at baseball-reference.com, only one game as a catcher.) Based on that data, he led his league in HR twice and batting average once and accumulated a major league slash line of .307/.389/.528 with a 138 OPS+. He was also an outstanding pitcher, both in the major negro leagues as well as during the many seasons he played in the Mexican and Cuban leagues. So if SS is where Dihigo could most likely get playing time on this dream team roster, then perhaps it isn’t such a weak spot after all?

Starting lineups, against righties and lefties, might look like this:

Against RHP:

Eddie Collins 2B (L)
Dan Brouthers 1B (L)
George Brett 3B (L)
Willie Mays CF (R)
Reggie Jackson RF (L)
Turkey Stearnes DH (L)
Manny Ramirez / Al Simmons LF (R) / Zack Wheat LF (L)
Miguel Tejada / Martin Dihigo SS (R)
Yogi Berra C (L)

Against LHP:

Jose Altuve 2B (R)
Tony Gwynn RF (L)
Jeff Bagwell 1B (R)
Willie Mays CF (R)
Frank Thomas DH (R)
Manny Ramirez / Al Simmons LF (R)
Miguel Tejada / Martin Dihigo SS (R)
Salvador Perez C (R)
Brooks Robinson 3B (R)

Lots of options also means some tough choices for these lineups. For instance, Eddie Collins, Charlie Gehringer, and Lou Whitaker all hit left-handed. So I listed Eddie Collins as the 2B against RHP and platooned him with Jose Altuve, but obviously all four guys would deserve some playing time. At 1B there is a more even and natural platoon between Jeff Bagwell and Dan Brouthers, with Tony Perez and Darrell Evans being quality bats off the bench. Ditto at 3B with George Brett and Brooks Robinson being the starters, and then Ken Boyer, Perez, and Evans as the added depth.

As good as Turkey Stearnes, Cool Papa Bell, Earl Averill, and Kenny Lofton all were, I just can’t see not listing Willie Mays in both of these lineups. So I worked Stearnes in as a DH against RHP, platooning him with Frank Thomas who would bat against LHP. But that leaves many good CF as injury replacements and pinch-hitting (all of them) and pinch-running options (Bell and Lofton).

For RF there are two very different hitters in Reggie Jackson and Tony Gwynn, except in one regard: they both batted left-handed. That said, Jackson had the more extreme splits, so I’ve listed Jackson as batting against RHP and Gwynn in the two-hole against LHP (against whom he stilled batted a tidy .325).

At Catcher I could have listed Berra in both lineups, but decided to platoon him with Salvador Perez to give him some rest. Jim Sundberg would be a solid injury or defensive replacement of course.

The two positions that didn’t have much in the way of platoon options were LF and SS. I was tempted to list Manny Ramirez as the everyday LF, but instead listed him and Al Simmons together, and added the left-handed hitting Zack Wheat in the mix against RHP. Then at SS both Miguel Tejada and Martin Dihigo hit right-handed, so I’ve got them sharing the duties in both lineups.

Here are the position players in the depth chart above listed in order by birthday, with a few career stat highlights for each:

May 6: CF Willie Mays (R) 156.2 WAR, 660 HR, 339 SB, .301/.384/.557, 155 OPS+
May 6: 2B Jose Altuve (R) 51.0 WAR, 216 HR, 300 SB, .308/.365/.472, 130 OPS+
May 8: 1B Dan Brouthers (L) 79.8 WAR, 107 HR, 257 SB, .342/.423/.520, 171 OPS+
May 8: CF Turkey Stearnes (L) 49.8 WAR, 187 HR, 120 SB, .348/.417/.616, 177 OPS+
May 9: RF Tony Gwynn (L) 69.2 WAR, 135 HR, 319 SB, .338/.388/.459, 132 OPS+
May 10: C Salvador Perez (R) 34.4 WAR, 254 HR, 6 SB, .268/.302/.461, 105 OPS+
May 11: 2B Charlie Gehringer (L) 84.7 WAR, 184 HR, 181 SB, .320/.404/.480, 125 OPS+
May 12: 2B Lou Whitaker (L) 75.1 WAR, 244 HR, 143 SB, .276/.363/.426, 117 OPS+
May 12: C Yogi Berra (L) 59.5 WAR, 358 HR, 30 SB, .285/.348/.482, 125 OPS+
May 14: 1B/3B Tony Pérez (R) 53.9 WAR, 379 HR, 49 SB, .279/.341/.463, 122 OPS+
May 15: 3B George Brett (L) 88.6 WAR, 317 HR, 201 SB, .305/.369/.487, 135 OPS+
May 17: CF Cool Papa Bell (S) 30.9 WAR, 57 HR, 285 SB, .325/.394/.446, 126 OPS+
May 18: 3B Brooks Robinson (R) 78.5 WAR, 268 HR, 28 SB, .267/.322/.401, 105 OPS+
May 18: C Jim Sundberg (R) 40.5 WAR, 95 HR, 20 SB, .248/.327/.348, 90 OPS+
May 18: RF Reggie Jackson (L) 74.0 WAR, 563 HR, 228 SB, .262/.356/.490, 139 OPS+
May 19: 2B/3B/SS Gil McDougald (R) 40.7 WAR, 112 HR, 45 SB, .276/.356/.410, 111 OPS+
May 20: 3B Ken Boyer (R) 62.8 WAR, 282 HR, 105 SB, .287/.349/.462, 116 OPS+
May 21: CF Earl Averill (L) 51.6 WAR, 238 HR, 70 SB, .318/.395/.534, 133 OPS+
May 22: LF/CF Al Simmons (R) 68.3 WAR, 307 HR, 88 SB, .334/.380/.535, 133 OPS+
May 23: LF Zack Wheat (L) 60.4 WAR, 132 HR, 205 SB, .317/.367/.450, 129 OPS+
May 25: SS Miguel Tejada (R) 47.1 WAR, 307 HR, 85 SB, .285/.336/.456, 108 OPS+
May 25: SS/OF/1B/3B/2B/P Martin Dihigo (R) 12.4 WAR, 68 HR, 47 SB, .307/.389/.528, 138 OPS+
May 26: 3B/1B Darrell Evans (L) 58.7 WAR, 414 HR, 98 SB, .248/.361/.431, 119 OPS+
May 26: 2B/OF/SS Ben Zobrist (S) 44.5 WAR, 167 HR, 116 SB, .266/.357/.426, 113 OPS+
May 27: 1B Jeff Bagwell (R) 79.9 WAR, 449 HR, 202 SB, .297/.408/.540, 149 OPS+
May 27: DH/1B Frank Thomas (R) 73.8 WAR, 521 HR, 32 SB, .301/.419/.555, 156 OPS+
May 28: SS Jhonny Peralta (R) 30.4 WAR, 202 HR, 17 SB, .267/.329/.423, 102 OPS+
May 30: LF/RF Manny Ramirez (R) 69.3 WAR, 555 HR, 38 SB, .312/.411/.585, 154 OPS+
May 31: CF Kenny Lofton (L) 68.4 WAR, 130 HR, 622 SB, .299/.372/.423, 107 OPS+

Beyond all of these position players that I included, several others at least deserve honorable mention, including: 3B Larry Gardner, 1B Joe Judge, 3B/C Lave Cross, CF Edd Roush, LF/CF Augie Galan, CF Earle Combs, 1B Adrián González, 2B Davey Lopes, OF/1B Felipe Alou, 1B Kent Hrbek, OF Kirk Gibson, OF Eric Davis, and old-timer 2B/SS Ross Barnes.

For the starting pitchers, you could certainly debate how to rank the various guys I included on the dream team roster above. Ed Walsh has the lowest ERA and highest ERA+, John Smoltz was the best strikeout pitcher of the bunch, and for what its worth, Rick Reuschel has the highest career WAR (baseball-reference.com’s version.) In the end I went with Smoltz as the top of the list, and then Walsh, Hal Newhouser, Roy Halladay, and old-timer Amos Rusie rounding out the starting five.

There also several other starting pitchers who at least deserve honorable mention, including: Eppa Rixey, David Wells, Babe Adams, Dennis Martinez, Bartolo Colon, Milt Pappas, Jack Morris, Charles Bender, Curt Simmons, Deacon Phillippe, Mike Cuellar, Jake Peavy, Josh Beckett, Barry Zito, and Brandon Webb.

Here are the starters I chose in order by birthday and with some career numbers for each:

May 3: Red Ruffing (R) 55.3 WAR, 273-225 W-L, 3.80 ERA, 109 ERA+
May 14: Roy Halladay (R) 65.4 WAR, 203-105 W-L, 3.38 ERA, 131 ERA+
May 15: John Smoltz (R) 66.4 WAR, 213-155 W-L, 3.33 ERA, 125 ERA+
May 16: Rick Reuschel (R) 68.1 WAR, 214-191 W-L, 3.37 ERA, 114 ERA+
May 19: Ed Walsh (R) 64.4 WAR, 195-126 W-L, 1.82 ERA, 146 ERA+
May 20: Hal Newhouser (L) 60.1 WAR, 207-150 W-L, 3.06 ERA, 130 ERA+
May 22: Tommy John (L) 62.1 WAR, 288-231 W-L, 3.34 ERA, 111 ERA+
May 25: Martin Dihigo (R) 10.1 WAR, 27-19 W-L, 3.34 ERA, 141 ERA+
May 30: Amos Rusie (R) 65.1 WAR, 246-174 W-L, 3.07 ERA, 129 ERA+

The bullpen for this May Birthdays All-Time Dream Team lacks any Hall-of-Famers—for now. As noted Craig Kimbrel is fifth on the all-time saves list, and he was dominant early in his career, so I could see him getting into Cooperstown down the road. The other relievers listed each had some fine seasons as closers, and you could again debate how to rank them depending on how you weigh peak performance, overall career accomplishments, etc. I also included John Smoltz at the end of the bullpen list in recognition of his three seasons as good closer in the middle of his career.

As with the position players and starting pitchers, a few more relievers deserve honorable mention, including: Trevor Rosenthal, Joe Borowski, Neftali Feliz, Andrew Bailey, Larry Andersen, and Tony Watson. You could have included some of these guys in place of Dave LaRoche or Tippy Martinez, but I went with them in order to have a couple of lefties in the mix.

Again, here are the relievers I included in order by birthday and with some numbers for each:

May 2: Clay Carroll (R) 143 SV, 2.94 ERA, 121 ERA+
May 11: Francisco Cordero (R) 329 SV, 3.38 ERA, 135 ERA+
May 14: Dave LaRoche (L) 126 SV, 3.53 ERA, 106 ERA+
May 18: Joakim Soria (R) 229 SV, 3.11 ERA, 137 ERA+
May 22: José Mesa (R) 321 SV, 4.36 ERA, 100 ERA+
May 28: Duane Ward (R) 121 SV, 3.28 ERA, 124 ERA+
May 28: Craig Kimbrel (R) 425 SV, 2.42 ERA, 170 ERA+
May 31: Tippy Martinez (L) 115 SV, 3.45 ERA, 112 ERA+

All data is from Baseball-Reference.com, and also their subscription service Stathead.com. If you are a big sports fan, be sure to check out the latest features at Stathead and the Sports Reference family of sites.

Did you know? I wrote a book with the same title as this Substack newsletter / blog: Now Taking the Field: Baseball’s All-Time Dream Teams for All 30 Franchises. It was published in early 2019, by ACTA Sports, the publisher of the annual Bill James Handbook and other popular titles. You can learn more about it at www.NowTakingTheField.com, or buy directly at Amazon and other booksellers.

Now Taking the Field

Baseball's May Birthday Dream Teams

Lots of great players have May birthdays. But who would make an all-star team amongst active players? And who would make an all-time May Birthdays dream team?

All-Time May Birthdays Dream Team

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