Cardinals all-time best second basemen in franchise history

The St. Louis Cardinals have had several terrific keystone players in the long, storied history of the franchise.

The history of National League baseball in the Gateway City stretches back in time to 1900 using their current nickname and all the way back to 1882 when the Perfectos, Browns, and Brown Stockings appellations are included. Since the start of the 20th century, St. Louis has had a number of very good second basemen over those dozen-plus decades of baseball.

The best of the best second sackers have reached Hall of Fame status, though none of them has played his entire career with the Cardinals. Others have been very good if not worthy of induction in Cooperstown. And there have been a number of notable second basemen who deserve recognition if not a position among the all-time team's top five.

The most recent honorable mention is Kolten Wong, who played his first major league seasons with St. Louis. After a brief appearance in 2013, Wong had a strong full rookie season in 2014, finishing third in Rookie of the Year voting. Pairing a roughly league-average bat with terrific defense, Wong was a solid contributor throughout his Cardinals tenure, peaking in 2019 with a Gold Glove and a 20th-place finish in MVP voting, tied with this year's Cardinals MVP, Paul Goldschmidt.

One of the longest-tenured Cardinals among everyone in this article, Jose Oquendo has endeared himself with St. Louis fans since joining the franchise in a 1985 trade with the New York Mets. The Secret Weapon not only manned second base 649 times, he played shortstop in 364 games, and in fact, in 1988 he played all nine positions at various times throughout the year. Following his playing career, Oquendo coached and managed in the minors before getting back to the majors and serving as the team's third-base coach during the 200-2015 period.

There have been a number of other players who were solid contributors or burned brightly for a short period of time as St. Louis second basemen, but with this prelude out of the way, it's time to get to the top five players ever at this position.

This is a part of a running series on Redbird Rants ranking the top 5 Cardinals at each position. You can find the other position groups we have ranked so far below.

Top 5 Catchers

Top 5 First Basemen

5. Tommy Herr

Tommy Herr got a cup of coffee with St. Louis in 1979 and played about a half-season worth of games the next season, not making much of an impression at that time. However, in 1981 campaign he earned a bit of MVP consideration and cemented himself as the starter at the keystone position.

Of course, the next year was a stellar one for the Cardinals, as the '82 teams defeated the Milwaukee Brewers in seven games to win their first World Series title since 1967, with Herr playing second base 135 times during the regular season.

Never a home run threat, Herr nevertheless had 110 RBI in 1985 while clearing the fence just eight times. He remains the last NL player to reach the century mark in ribbies while not achieving a double-digit homer total. A .302 average, .379 on-base percentage, and 97 runs scored earned Herr a fifth-place finish in MVP voting and his only All-Star appearance.

That '85 season was the second time Herr and the Cardinals reached the World Series together, and they repeated the feat in 1987. Unfortunately, both of those Fall Classics ended in seventh-game losses for St. Louis, first to the Kansas City Royals, then to the Minnesota Twins. In 1988, those same Twins acquired Herr from the Cardinals, ending his time with his original franchise.

During his time in St. Louis, Herr recorded 1,021 hits, scored 498 times, drove in 435 runs, swatted a whopping 19 home runs, and stole 152 bases while hitting .274/.349/.355 in 1029 games. Never a real star, he was a consistent presence for the Cardinals during the '80s, one of the most successful decades in franchise history.

4. Julian Javier

Julian Javier joined the Cardinals on May 28, 1960, via a trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates, making his team and major league debut that day by going 2-for-3. (His big-league batting average would never be that high again.) While he had more over-the-fence power than Herr, his bat overall was less productive, which a much lower walk rate and significantly higher strikeout rate.

However, not to be outdone by Herr when it comes to successful decades, Javier also came along at the right time to be a part of three World Series teams, this group winning two of the three in which they appeared, capturing titles in 1964 and '67 while falling short in '68, another seven-game loss. Javier finished ninth during that '67 championship season, with Triple Crown numbers of .281/14/64, 68 runs scored, and six steals (in 13 attempts!).

A two-time All-Star, Javier edges past Herr in this ranking mostly due to his 50% edge in games played with the Redbirds. The Phantom, as he was known, played 1,578 games for St. Louis, making over 1,800 plate appearances more than Herr. Javier also scored 719 runs, drove in 494, hit 76 home runs, and stole 134 bases while hitting .258/.297/.356 in an era of low offense during the 1960-'71 period. However, if someone wanted to bump Herr in front of Javier, I wouldn't put up too much of a fight.

3. Frankie Frisch

We've now surged into the Hall of Famer portion of the rankings, a major step up as we reach the top three. Acquired from the New York Giants in December of 1926 in exchange for a player we'll discuss in depth later in this article, Frankie Frisch is known not only as a HOF-caliber player but also for the numerous contemporaries he helped join him in Cooperstown.

Setting aside his cronyism, Frisch was a terrific ballplayer during his time in New York, and he demonstrated his continued excellence in St. Louis by finishing second in MVP voting during his first season with the team. Frisch's 208 hits and .337 batting average would have been quite eye-catching in 1927, even if his 10 homers and 78 RBI seem rather pedestrian. He also crossed the plate 112 times and led the majors with 48 stolen bases.

Demonstrating just how different value was viewed back then, in 1931 Frisch captured the MVP award with .311-10-114 Triple Crown numbers, along with 121 runs scored and a league-leading 28 steals. He received MVP votes in five other seasons and received All-Star recognition the first three years the Midsummer Classic existed, 1933-'35.

Overall, Frisch hit .312/.370/.423 as a Cardinal, with 51 homers, 720 RBI, 831 runs scored, and 195 stolen bases in 1311 games. Adding in his Giants tenure makes him obviously worthy of his place in Cooperstown, but since we're just considering time with the Cardinals, Frisch is edged out in these rankings by two other players.

1. Rogers Hornsby
Choosing the best second baseman in Cardinals history is kind of like the Capital One commercials in which the schoolyard basketball captain selects Charles Barkley or the rock band picks Slash as their new guitarist. The Rajah is far and away the greatest player ever to man the keystone for the Redbirds.

Roger Hornsby was a Cardinal for the first dozen seasons of his career, during which time he produced a stunning triple-slash line of .359/.427/.570 over more than 1,500 games for a 178 OPS+. He smashed 191 home runs, drove in 1051 runs, scored 1080 times, and walked much more often than he struck out, with 648 free passes compared to 474 whiffs.

Sure, it was a different game a century ago, but Hornsby clearly was one of the best players of his time. He captured an MVP award in 1925 after being the runner-up in 1924. The Rajah also led the National League in batting average six times (1920-1925) - including a stunning .424 mark in 1924 - on-base percentage those same six seasons, and slugging percentage and OPS those same those half-dozen years plus 1917.

In addition to those rate stats, Hornsby was first in RBI, doubles, and hits four times - with a major league-record 250 in 1922 - and runs scored three times during his Cardinals tenure. He was a league leader several more times in these categories after leaving St. Louis. For those interested in WAR, Hornsby had 90.8 bWAR for the Cardinals, a stunning average of 7.6 per season.

Whether you prefer accumulated numbers, rate stats, or the more modern perspective of WAR, the statistics above more than make the case that Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby clearly was the best second baseman ever to wear a St. Louis Cardinals uniform.