Coming in at #89 on the list is third baseman Adrian Beltre. While somehow managing to play two decades in relative anonymity, Beltre’s credentials are no less worthy of a spot in the top 100. Beltre’s standing among third basemen as both an offensive and defensive contributor is second to none. Among third basemen who played at least half their career at the hot corner, he is the all-time leader in hits, RBIs, games played, and plate appearances. He’s second in doubles, third in home runs and WAR, and fourth in runs. His 1,151 career extra-base hits are the most all-time for a third baseman and the 14^th most in Major League Baseball history regardless of position. He’s second all-time in dWAR among third basemen, and he has the 13th highest dWAR total in history regardless of position. He’s the only player in history in the top-15 in both extra-base hits and dWAR. Beltre is also the only player in history with 3,000 hits, 450 home runs, and 27 dWAR, and he’s the only third baseman in history with 3,100 hits, 600 doubles, and 400 home runs.

Cleaning up the list at #90 is “The Human Vacuum Cleaner” Brooks Robinson. It’s hard to argue that Robinson isn’t just the greatest defensive third baseman of all time, but the greatest defensive player of all time regardless of position. Playing the hot corner, Robinson amassed an astounding 39.1 defensive WAR. He finished among the top-8 in dWAR a remarkable 14 seasons. Among third basemen, he’s the all-time leader in games, assists, putouts, double plays turned, total zone runs, and range factor per game. He led the league in fielding percentage at third base 11 times which is three more than any player from any other position in history. His 16 gold gloves are also the most for any position player in history. There’s no question that Robinson was superior with the glove, but the fact that he’s 13^th all-time in sacrifice flies and produced a minuscule 8.4 career strikeout percentage shows he was skilled with the bat as well. Although he led the American League in RBIs in 1964 and finished in the top 10 in RBIs eight times, Robinson was at his best in the postseason. When merely equaling regular season rates is considered impressive, Robinson elevated his batting average 36 points and his OPS 62 points in the playoffs on his way to helping the Orioles win two World Series titles in four World Series appearances. After winning the World Series MVP in 1970, he joined teammate Frank Robinson as the only two players in history to win a regular-season MVP, a World Series MVP, and an All-Star game MVP.

When Major League Baseball formed in 1903, there were three players who could stake a claim as the greatest player of all time. That list included Cy Young, Honus Wagner, and #88 on our list, Nap Lajoie. Close to 120 years later, Lajoie is still arguably the greatest second baseman in American League history. He led the league in batting average and doubles five times, becoming one of three players in history along with Honus Wagner and Stan Musial to do so. He led the league in slugging %, and total bases four times, RBIs, OPS and OPS+ three times,  OBP twice, and home runs and runs once each. In terms of all-time standing among second basemen, Lajoie is the all-time leader in RBIs, second in doubles and hits, third in batting average, and fourth in triples. After 12 decades of Major League Baseball baseball, Lajoie remains the only player in history with 3,000 career hits, 600 doubles, and fewer than 350 strikeouts.