Batting Around: Who’s the greatest baseball player of all time? Willie Mays, Barry Bonds, more options

Throughout the season, CBS Sports MLB experts will bring you a weekly Batting Around roundtable breaking down just about everything. The latest news, a historical issue, thoughts on the future of baseball, all sorts of things. Last week, we picked from struggling former No. 1 overall picks. This week we will debate the GOAT.

Who is the greatest baseball player of all time?

RJ Anderson: Wow, that’s a difficult question to answer. Willie Mays has an excellent case, being a good hitter and fielder at a premium defensive position for so long. He would be my answer most days. At the very least, I think you have to describe him as the most complete player of all time. You can make a case for Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, and even Barry Bonds. I think Shohei Ohtani is also in the conversation. I know he hasn’t racked up those big round numbers yet, but we’re talking about an elite two-way player at the highest level of the game – something none of us had seen before, or even thought possible. Again, at the very least, maybe you would describe Ohtani as the most talented player of all time. I think he already deserves this treatment, no matter what happens next.

Matt Snyder: Babe Ruth is the greatest player of all time in Major League Baseball if you compare it to contemporary Major League Baseball players. He was much better than his competition and that’s not really an argument. It must be said, of course, that he lacked competition due to segregation. Josh Gibson and Oscar Charleston were segregated from MLB and have an affair, so they should be mentioned as well. On the pitching side of that unfortunate era are Walter Johnson and Satchel Paige. After integration, Willie Mays was the most complete all-around player and Hank Aaron is the greatest hitter of all time without a PED-era asterisk. Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez are the PED Era guys on the position player side, while Roger Clemens has a case for being the greatest pitcher of all time (Pedro Martinez or Sandy Koufax in their primes could have been better, but Koufax had a short window and Pedro doesn’t have the longevity of a Clemens or Johnson). I think it would be possible to make a “this is the greatest player of all time and here’s why” case for any of the names mentioned above.

To me, without caveats or asterisks, I think Mays has a great case and possibly the best case. If pressed to answer, I’ll say Mays instead of Ruth for a nose. I also don’t think it’s possible to give a definitive answer here. There are so many moving parts to each player’s argument.

Dayn Perry: I have to say May. He put up his numbers in the Integrated Era, which for me is a requirement in discussions like this, and was exceptional in every phase of the game. For example, 18 WAR would be a very good career in the majors. Mays had 18 WARs on the field alone. I just can’t get away from the peak of it. Over a 13-year period beginning in 1954, Mays led the WAR championships eight times and led the NL on two other occasions. In the three seasons in which he didn’t reach the top in WAR, he put up numbers of 7.6, 7.8 and 8.7 – MVP-caliber value, in other words. This is just an absurd spike that lasted much longer than spikes normally do. I know Mays played in a distant era, but make available to him modern hitting labs and everything we know now about fitness and performance diets, and I have no doubt he would have been a cut above the competition in this era as well. For me, he is the GOAT.

Mike Axisa: I don’t believe there is a “correct” answer to this question. Babe Ruth stood out from the rest of the sport when he played. He was the greatest player of all time when compared to the competition at the time. Barry Bonds was in this conversation even before he started breaking home run records and racking up .500 on-base percentages. Hank Aaron was the most consistently excellent hitter of all time. The guy never had a down season. Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson stand out among pitchers for their excellence and longevity. You can defend them all.

I’m going to side with my colleagues here and say that Willie Mays was the greatest player of all time. He was one of the best hitters of all time, one of the best basestealers of all time, and also one of the best defensive outfielders of all time. Many players were one of those things, several were two, but really only Mays was all three. He is 1 of 1. The list of players I would like to have seen play is very long and the “Say Hey Kid” is at the top. He’s my pick for the best of all time.