Top Four Greatest Shortstops In Boston Red Sox History

Shortstop is one of the most important positions in baseball, and Boston fans have been treated to some great ones over the course of the Red Sox’s rich history.

These great Red Sox shortstops came in all shapes, sizes and playing styles, too. Some dazzled the Fenway Faithful with their imposing stature and power bat. Others were famously known for their lack of pop and instead relied on fundamentals and intangibles to help out their respective ballclubs.

Let’s take a trip down memory lane and look back on four of the greatest shortstops to ever put in a Boston uniform.

4. Johnny Pesky (1942, 1946-52)
Pesky wasted no time putting his name on the map in both Boston and the Major League Baseball landscape as a whole. After signing with Boston as an amateur free agent in 1940, Pesky in 1942 led the American League in hits with 205, which at the time was a Red Sox rookie record. The Oregon native finished third in MVP voting that season behind Joe Gordon and Ted Williams.

Pesky’s baseball career then was put on a three-season hiatus due to World War II, but he picked up right where he left off upon returning to the diamond. In 1946, Pesky logged a league-leading .335 batting average, earned an All-Star selection and finished fourth in MVP voting.

He ultimately played in Boston through 1952 and his contributions to the organization were recognized in a variety of ways. Pesky, a Red Sox Hall of Famer, had his number retired by the franchise in 2008 and the right field foul pole at Fenway Park is unofficially named after him.

3. Xander Bogaerts (2013-2022)
Bogaerts’ Boston tenure was one front offices dream about when it comes to homegrown talent.

Signed by the Red Sox as an amateur free agent in 2009, Bogaerts received his first taste of the big leagues in August 2013, two months before Boston won its third World Series of the 21st century. As a 21-year-old, Bogaerts played in 12 playoff games across that championship run and set the tone for a successful decade in Boston.

The Aruba native was a fixture at the Midsummer Classic during his Red Sox stint, earning All-Star selections in four of his nine full seasons with the club. Bogaerts also collected five Silver Slugger Awards and finished fifth in AL MVP voting in 2019. And a year prior to his highest MVP finish with the Red Sox, Bogaerts tacked another World Series championship onto his résumé. The star shortstop was a big reason why Boston won a franchise-record 108 regular-season games in that memorable 2018 season.

2. Joe Cronin (1935-1945)
Boston was the last stop along Cronin’s 20-year, Hall of Fame playing career and it certainly was a memorable run, to say the least.

After stops in Pittsburgh and Washington, Cronin pulled double duty for the Red Sox for a full decade, serving as both the starting shortstop and the manager. Boston didn’t see overwhelming team success in this era, but it was to no fault of Cronin, who was named an All-Star in half of his 10 seasons playing for the Red Sox. The San Francisco native logged over 100 RBIs three times over that stretch and twice finished inside the top 10 of MVP voting.

Cronin’s career was immortalized in 1956 when he earned his deserved spot in Cooperstown, NY. A little less than three decades after that honor, Cronin became the second player in Red Sox history to have his number retired by the franchise, joining only Williams at the time.

1. Nomar Garciaparra (1996-2004)
Well before Bogaerts flourished in Boston, Garciaparra captured the hearts of Red Sox Nation as a homegrown superstar.

Boston selected the Georgia Tech product with the 12th overall pick in the 1994 MLB Draft. Three years later, Garciaparra burst onto the scene with a Year 1 for the ages. He blasted 30 home runs, collected 209 total hits and logged a league-leading 11 triples. The memorable campaign, which included a 30-game hitting streak and an All-Star nod, concluded with Garciaparra winning the AL Rookie of the Year Award.

Those figures effectively turned into the norm for Garciaparra, who earned four more All-Star selections with Boston and won the AL batting crown in both 1999 and 2000. The .372 average Garciaparra registered at the turn of the century ranks fourth highest in Red Sox history as of 2022.

For his nine-year run in Boston, Garciaparra batted a remarkable .323 to go along with 178 home runs and 690 RBIs. Although he never won an MVP with the Red Sox, Garciaparra finished inside the top 10 of voting for the prestigious award five times.