A World Series ring would seal these (potential) HOF legacies

A Hall of Fame resume is built from all sorts of materials, from MVPs to Cy Youngs to All-Star teams to counting stats to just how much fans (and media) loved you. But one of the most impressive ones is the simplest one: Did you win a World Series? Obviously, some of the greatest players of all time -- Ted Williams, Barry Bonds, Ernie Banks -- never won a World Series. But that World Series title tends to particularly sparkle on the Hall of Fame plaque. (You’ll sure notice it on Shohei’s after last season.)

This year, we’ve got some truly great players who sure seem ticketed for Cooperstown -- or are close enough to where a title would be a quite lovely selling point on their resume -- who are still missing that ring that really ties the room together. Here’s a look at the top eight players for whom a title would mean the most, either because it’s a critical data point for their case … or because their plaque would just look incomplete without one.

1) Bryce Harper, 1B, Phillies
This is the obvious first pick. Harper has been a star from the minute he debuted, a two-time MVP, an eight-time All-Star and an NL Rookie of the Year who has met all the phenom hype and matured into one of the most respected, beloved players in the game.

He’ll probably end up with 500 homers and 2,000 hits in his career, and his teams have made the postseason seven times. (He has a 1.016 OPS in those 53 postseason games.) But not only has Harper not won a title, his old team, the Nationals, quite famously won one the year after he left. There are many great players on this list, but none would be more celebrated than Harper for finally getting that title.

2) Aaron Judge, OF, Yankees
Judge hasn’t played as many games as some other hitters on this list -- this is still somehow only his 10th season; he didn’t make his MLB debut until he was 24 -- but he has already etched his name as one of the greatest Yankees of all time. There’s, of course, only one thing all those other Yankees have that he doesn’t: a World Series title.

The Yankees won their last title seven years before Judge entered the league, and while it’s obviously not Judge’s fault that they haven’t won one with him on the team -- he’s the primary reason the team has even been close -- his resume will obviously feel incomplete if he goes his entire Yankees career without one. Don Mattingly was a great player, but one of the first things brought up about him when discussing his career is that he never won a title as a Yankee. Judge would like to avoid that fate.

3) Manny Machado, 3B, Padres
Machado has never won an MVP Award -- he finished in the top 10 five times, including runner-up in 2022 -- but otherwise, he is building a clear Hall of Fame resume. Like Harper’s, it's also one we’ve watched him construct since he was a teenager, and the callow kid in Baltimore is now one of the steadiest, most reliable players in the sport.

Machado reached his lone World Series with the Dodgers, and now, he’s the beating heart of their rivals in San Diego, a team that desperately wants to take out their big brother in Southern California and reach their first World Series since 1998. More to the point: The Padres have never won a World Series. It’s difficult to overstate how revered Machado would be if he’s the one who got them a title.

4) Francisco Lindor, SS, Mets
We’re sorry to keep bringing up that Mets fans booed Lindor in his first month with the team, but the absurdity of the notion -- booing Francisco Lindor? Everybody loves Francisco Lindor! -- speaks to how far he has come with this team and fanbase … and how far they’ve come with him. If the Mets win a World Series, Lindor (and, to a lesser extent, Pete Alonso) would be seen as the primary driver. He'd also be viewed as the guy whose arrival signaled a new era in Mets baseball, one that no longer were the heartbreakers of the past; one that was built to dominate for the next decade. Maybe even be the new Yankees.

Lindor is the unquestioned leader of this team. A World Series would secure his place as an inner-circle legend for the franchise … and, one would think, a spot in Cooperstown. And unlike teammate Juan Soto, Lindor doesn’t already have a World Series title from his previous team.

5) Giancarlo Stanton, DH, Yankees
Stanton doesn’t seem like a Hall of Famer to some people, which is strange. He'll wind up with 500 homers (he could easily make it to 550), he has won an MVP Award, he’ll play more than half his career with the most visible team in the sport and he is famous for hitting baseball cartoonishly high and far. Stanton’s issue has been twofold: injuries, and the fact that he hasn’t been the superstar in The Bronx that he was in Miami. (He has made only one All-Star Game in eight seasons as a Yankee after making four in eight years as a Marlin.) All of that would go away if he’s a main reason the Yankees win their first World Series in 16 seasons. This is particularly true if they do it in a season during which Stanton has, in admittedly limited action, put up his best numbers as a Yankee, coming off a 2024 postseason in which he absolutely raked (seven homers in 14 games, and an ALCS MVP nod).

He is still seen, fairly or not, as a bit of a disappointment as Yankee. That would stop being the case immediately if he could help get them a title.

6) Paul Goldschmidt, 1B, Yankees
Think a title would mean a lot for the Yankees this year? They’re half the names on this list so far! Goldschmidt obviously has less history with the Yanks than Judge and Stanton do, but he might need a World Series title to open the door to Cooperstown more than either of them. Like both of them, Goldschmidt has won an MVP Award. He's also made more All-Star Games (seven) than Stanton (five) and just as many as Judge.

But Goldschmidt has never reached a World Series. He’s only even played in one NLCS, with the Cardinals in 2019, and he went 1-for-16 as the Nationals swept St. Louis. The general sense is that he has been more solid than spectacular throughout his career. That’s not entirely fair, and it’s possible the 2022 MVP he won with the Cardinals got him over the hump, but again, winning a World Series with the Yankees tends to go a long way.

7) Blake Snell, LHP, Dodgers
Is it weird to see Snell on this list? He has only thrown 1,154 career innings, a shockingly low number for a starter you’d consider for the Hall of Fame, and he has been wrecked with injuries throughout much of his career. But as my colleague Mike Petriello has pointed out, winning three Cy Youngs is basically a golden ticket to Cooperstown (only Roger Clemens has won more than two without reaching the Hall), and Snell has won two, and he is only 32 years old. It’s also noteworthy that his lone World Series appearance, in 2020, is most famous for the Rays collapsing right after Snell was pulled from a dominant start. Snell might not feel like an all-timer, but he’s one Cy Young away from being so.

8) Christian Yelich, OF, Brewers
Yelich has had a strange career, winning an MVP in 2018, finishing second in 2019 and looking for all the world like one of the five best players in baseball. He has been … fine since then. He did make an All-Star Game last season (his only one since the pandemic), and he has stayed healthy this year, but his numbers are back to the “fine” level rather than “star on a first-place team” level. That said, his team is in first place. It might, in fact, be the best team in baseball, and Yelich remains the most recognizable player on that team, one who is both its leader and its heart.

If the Brewers win the World Series -- and remember: They have the best record in baseball -- Yelich will be front and center. For a guy approaching 2,000 career hits, this is his chance to once again be the star we believed he’d forever be.