We've reached the quarter mark of the 2000s, and to celebrate, theScore's MLB editors constructed each organization's best 26-man roster from the past 25 seasons. We conclude the series with the NL West.
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AL EAST
AL CENTRAL
AL WEST
NL EAST
NL CENTRAL
Most important player: Luis Gonzalez. "Gonzo" morphed from anonymous outfielder to star slugger almost overnight after he joined the D-Backs before the 1999 season. The offensive lynchpin of their 2001 championship club, his walk-off single to win Game 7 of the 2001 World Series is perhaps the most iconic moment in Arizona sports history. Gonzalez remains the franchise leader in hits, home runs, and RBIs, and his No. 20 was retired in 2010.
Best pitcher: Randy Johnson. The D-Backs' rotation boasts multiple All-Stars and Hall of Fame-caliber pitchers who won a combined four Cy Young awards and two World Series MVPs in Arizona this century. Three of those Cy Youngs belong to Johnson, arguably the greatest left-hander of all time and the first player to enter Cooperstown in a D-Backs hat.
Most underrated: Brandon Webb. The best pitcher developed by Arizona, Webb's career ended so suddenly that it's easy to forget he was briefly a top-five pitcher in baseball. Webb won the 2006 NL Cy Young and was the runner-up in each of the next two seasons. Unfortunately, he suffered a shoulder injury during his final big-league start on Opening Day 2009 and retired four years later after several ill-fated comeback attempts.
Best acquisitions: Randy Johnson and Luis Gonzalez. Some of the excellent moves the D-Backs have made over the past quarter-century include mining Peralta from indy ball, swapping Jean Segura and change for Marte, and Christian Walker off waivers. But it's hard to beat the time they landed two franchise legends - Johnson signed a four-year, $52.4-million free-agent deal; Gonzalez was acquired from Detroit for Karim García - 18 days apart in December 1998.
Best homegrown player: Paul Goldschmidt. An eighth-round pick in 2009, Goldschmidt developed into one of the best first basemen of his era in a D-Backs uniform and could represent them in the Hall of Fame some day. He won four Gold Gloves and five Silver Sluggers in the desert, and ranks either first or second in a slew of offensive categories in the franchise record book.
Toughest omission: Patrick Corbin. Corbin certainly deserved a rotation spot as a two-time All-Star who sits top-10 in a host of D-Backs pitching categories, but Zack Greinke was just a bit better overall during his three-plus seasons in Arizona.
Most important player: Todd Helton. It's going to be hard for anyone to ever top "Mr. Rockie." The franchise leader in virtually every offensive category, Helton's No. 17 was the first to be retired by Colorado in 2014.
Best pitcher: Ubaldo Jiménez. Pitching has always been a problem in Denver, and even the best arms in Rockies history wouldn't make the cut elsewhere. Somehow, though, Jiménez rose above the altitude to become the greatest of all Rockies pitchers. He's the lone qualified starter in team history with an ERA below four (3.66), and their only pitcher to earn a top-three Cy Young finish (third in 2010) - the same year he threw Colorado's only no-hitter.
Most underrated: Brian Fuentes and Manny Corpas. Unless you live in Colorado, you probably forgot about this lockdown bullpen duo. Fuentes is the Rockies' all-time saves leader (115) and made three straight All-Star teams in purple and black. Corpas' peak was much shorter, but quite memorable: During the famous "Rocktober" pennant run of 2007, he inexplicably turned into Mariano Rivera for a month.
Best acquisition: Larry Walker. The Rockies bought themselves a Hall of Famer by signing Walker to a four-year, $22.5-million deal in April 1995 - a contract that now looks like one of the biggest steals in the history of free agency. Though he won his MVP in 1997, Walker still picked up two Gold Gloves, a batting title, and nearly half of his 44.4 total fWAR with the Rockies after 2000.
Best homegrown player: Todd Helton. Drafted eighth overall in 1995, Helton spent his entire Hall of Fame career in Colorado. He was so great that the likes of Holliday, Arenado, Tulowitzki, and Blackmon - all iconic homegrown Rockies stars in their own rights - don't even come close to matching him.
Toughest omission: Kyle Freeland. The Denver native is one of only four Rockies pitchers with 800-plus strikeouts, and it wasn't easy leaving him off this already weak staff. If this was a six-man rotation, Freeland would be in it without question. Ultimately, he lost a coin flip to Aaron Cook, who somehow managed a 57.4% ground-ball rate while pitching at Coors Field for a decade.
Most important player: Clayton Kershaw. Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Fernando Valenzuela, Orel Hershiser, and now Kershaw. The three-time Cy Young winner and 2014 NL MVP continues to carry on the Dodgers' proud legacy of pitching excellence. L.A.'s ongoing run of success doesn't happen without the best left-hander of his generation leading the way for 17 years and counting.
Best pitcher: Clayton Kershaw. Since you already know why it's Kershaw, let's use this space to give some love to the Dodgers' second-best pitcher of this century, Greinke. Over just three seasons in L.A., Greinke put up the lowest ERA (2.30) in the Dodgers' 141-year history. Considering how many legendary pitchers have worn a Dodgers uniform, that's a remarkable feat.
Most underrated: Shawn Green. With so many active superstars on this roster, it's easy to overlook Green's excellence. Green's five-year run with L.A. in the early 2000s saw him post the 10th-highest slugging percentage (.510) in Dodgers history. Other highlights included a 49-homer 2001 campaign that was the franchise's single-season record until last year, and arguably the greatest single-game performance in MLB history on May 23, 2002.
Best acquisition: Mookie Betts. The Dodgers' smartest acquisitions this century were Turner and Muncy, who went from castoffs to icons after joining the team on minor-league deals. But the February 2020 deal that brought future Hall of Famer Betts (and David Price) to Hollywood for Jeter Downs, Alex Verdugo, and Connor Wong will go down as one of the best trades in MLB history ... unless you live in New England.
Best homegrown player: Clayton Kershaw. Who were you expecting, Erisbel Arruebarrena? Right behind Kershaw is Beltré, who might be better known as a Ranger now but developed into a superstar wearing Dodger blue. If you're looking for a homegrown Dodgers position player from the 21st century (Beltré was signed in 1994), we'll point you to Seager, who's a current star for Texas.
Toughest omissions: Multiple starters. Just too many worthy Dodgers starters were candidates for only five rotation spots, so a lot of really good arms - most notably Kevin Brown, Hiroki Kuroda, and Odalis Pérez - got squeezed out. All these guys and several others were excellent over long stretches with the team, but none could match Greinke's Dodgers career. Chris Taylor and Joc Pederson were also reluctant cuts from the bench.
Most important player: Manny Machado. Machado's impact on the Padres since 2019 cannot be overstated. His signing turned them from literal afterthought into a destination almost overnight, and it kick-started the franchise's longest run of sustained on-field success. Machado's already cemented himself as one of the three greatest position players in Padres history, behind only Hall of Famers Tony Gwynn and Dave Winfield.
Best pitcher: Trevor Hoffman. No starting pitcher comes close to matching the Hall of Fame closer's resume in San Diego. In fact, very few Padres hitters can even measure up. Hoffman's 25.1 fWAR over 16 total seasons with the Padres (including 1993-99) is higher than all but two position players - the aforementioned Gwynn and Winfield - in team history.
Most underrated: Brian Giles. The perennially underrated Giles broke through the marine layer to serve as an offensive anchor and on-base machine for his hometown team. Giles compiled a .380 OBP in seven seasons with the Padres, never struck out more than 80 times in a season, and had more Ks than walks just once.
Best acquisitions: Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., and Trevor Hoffman. Only four members of this squad were drafted or signed as amateurs by the Padres, so there's plenty of excellent transactions to pick from. Three franchise-altering moves are tied for first: signing Machado to a 10-year, $300-million contract in 2019; trading James Shields to the White Sox for Tatis - before he'd ever played a professional game - in 2016; and acquiring Hoffman from Florida as part of a package for Gary Sheffield in June 1993.
Best homegrown player: Jake Peavy. The Padres found Peavy in the 15th round of the 1999 draft, and he quickly developed into one of the best pitchers in franchise history. The 2007 NL Cy Young and pitching Triple Crown winner is their all-time strikeout leader, and was elected to the Padres Hall of Fame in 2023.
Toughest omission: Brian Lawrence. A 17th-round pick in 1998, Lawrence owns the third-most fWAR (11.5) among Padres pitchers this century. But WAR isn't everything. While Lawrence had some decent seasons, Ross ultimately outdid him across the board in almost 300 fewer innings.
Most important player: Buster Posey. If we're talking the best Giants player of this century, the answer is obviously Bonds. But Posey's importance to the Giants is on another level. He was the heartbeat of their 2010s championship clubs, one of the top three catchers of his era, and unlike Bonds was a career Giant. It's no coincidence their 55-year title drought ended the moment Posey showed up.
Best pitcher: Madison Bumgarner. Choosing between Bumgarner, Lincecum, and Cain is practically impossible given how much they meant to the franchise and the depth of their contributions to the Giants' 2010s dynasty. But someone has to get this, and MadBum's legendary postseason heroics serve as a fair tiebreaker.
Most underrated: Randy Winn and Ray Durham. Winn and Durham are probably better known for their tenures with the Devil Rays and White Sox, respectively. However, they enjoyed several excellent seasons as teammates in San Francisco and made this team thanks to their quiet contributions to the Giants' successes.
Best acquisition: Barry Bonds. Signing the eventual home-run king to a then-record six-year, $43.75-million free-agent contract Dec. 8, 1992, worked out nicely. From 2000-07, Bonds slashed .322/.517/.724, won four NL MVPs (consecutively from 2001-04), slugged a single-season record 73 homers in 2001, hit above .360 twice, and drew an astounding 1,128 walks - 390 of which were intentional - compared with just 427 strikeouts.
Best homegrown player: Buster Posey. The Giants drafted the future Hall of Fame catcher fifth overall in 2008, making him the easy winner of this category. Tied for second are the "Big Three" of Bumgarner, Lincecum, and Cain, who worked with Posey for most of their careers and helped pitch the Giants to three titles in a six-year stretch.
Toughest omissions: Russ Ortiz and Liván Hernández. Building the Giants' rotation was remarkably easy, but it also meant Ortiz and Hernández - two very good pitchers who played key roles on winning teams - never even stood a chance.
