Wade Boggs. Wade Boggs. Wade Boggs. The top 10 third-base seasons for Red Sox

Continuing our look position-by-position through the greatest individual seasons in Red Sox history, we next move to third base, where the franchise history is so thoroughly dominated by one man that our rules became subject to change.

The rules are that each player can be represented only once. At least, that’s the plan.

MORE TOP 10 SOX SEASONS: RF | CF | LF | SS | 3B | 2B | 1B | DH | C | RP | SP

1. Wade Boggs — 1985

Ranked by OPS+, the top six seasons by a Red Sox third baseman belong to Boggs. The top four are consecutive seasons from Boggs, from 1985 to 1988, in which he led the league in batting average and on-base percentage and finished top 10 in MVP voting every year. What an incredible hitter, No. 47 on Joe Posnanski’s list of the top 100 players in history.

Left to choose just one Boggs season, we’re torn between two, unconvinced there’s a right or wrong answer.

The best pure Boggs season is probably 1985. It was something of a breakout for a Hall of Famer who was once overlooked. He had a whopping 240 hits, a .368 batting average and league-leading 758 plate appearances — all career highs. Boggs also made his first of 12 straight All-Star teams. By the numbers and the narrative, 1985 stands out.

But 1987 is the outlier. It’s unusual by Boggs’ standard because he hit 24 home runs, more than double his total from any other season. In fact, Boggs had only one other season (1994) when he hit more than eight homers. The surge of power gave Boggs the highest OPS and highest OPS+ of his career, but he also had almost 100 fewer plate appearances than in 1985 and played 150 fewer innings at third base. That 1987 season is the only one from 1983 and 1990 in which Boggs didn’t rank top 10 in the American League in plate appearances. It might be his best performance, but perhaps not his best season, if that makes sense.

According to Baseball-Reference’s version of WAR, 1985 was significantly more valuable (9.1 WAR vs. 8.3 WAR). FanGraphs gives 1987 a very slight advantage (8.9 vs. 8.8). We’ll go with 1985 because it seems to typify Boggs’ greatness, but it’s hard to go wrong when Boggs provides this many elite choices.

2. Adrian Beltre — 2010

Is it possible a Hall of Fame career did not begin taking shape until age 31? That’s how old Beltre was in his lone season with the Red Sox. It was the first time he made an All-Star team, the second time he won a Silver Slugger award, and the only time he led the league in doubles. He would eventually retire with the 11th-most doubles in major-league history.

Beltre had been in the big leagues since 1998, when he was a 19-year-old phenom, but he’d really lived up to the hype only once in his first decade (when he finished second in MVP voting in 2004). Otherwise, he’d won a couple of Gold Gloves but did not appear to be one of the all-time greats.

That began to change in 2010, the start of a remarkable seven-year run in which he averaged a .310/.359/.521 slash line — good for an .880 OPS that was more than 100 points higher than in his previous 10-plus seasons. Beltre finished top 10 in MVP voting five times during that stretch, including a ninth-place finish during his Red Sox season. The JAWS system now ranks him as the fourth-best third baseman of all time, right behind — you guessed it — Wade Boggs.

3. Jimmy Collins — 1901

Until Boggs came around, Collins spent nearly a century as the best third baseman in Boston baseball history. He spent five-plus seasons with the Boston Beaneaters, then jumped to the Boston Americans — eventually called the Red Sox — when the team formed in 1901. He was their manager, third baseman and best overall position player behind ace Cy Young, and Collins would pretty much stay that way through the first five seasons of the franchise.

His best American League season — as a player, anyway — was his first, when he finished third in the league in doubles, ninth in home runs, fifth in batting average and sixth in OPS.

The engraving on his Hall of Fame plaque reads: “Considered by many the game’s greatest third baseman. He revolutionized the style of play at that bag. Led Boston Red Sox to first world championship in 1903. A consistent batter, his defensive play thrilled fans in both major leagues.”

4. Bill Mueller — 2003

First, recall how good Rafael Devers was last season. Now, consider the fact Mueller was better in almost every regard during his tremendous 2003 Red Sox debut.

Shea Hillenbrand had been an All-Star the year before, and so he opened that season as the Red Sox everyday third baseman, but Mueller took over the position with easily his best campaign ever. He led the American League with a .326 batting average, reached career highs with 19 home runs and 45 doubles, won his only Silver Slugger, and finished 12th in MVP voting. By Baseball-Reference WAR, Mueller was better that season than Manny Ramirez, Trot Nixon, Johnny Damon or David Ortiz. It was the next year that Mueller hit the famous walk-off home run against Mariano Rivera in the A-Rod vs. Varitek fight game — and he would go on to bat .429 during the 2004 World Series win against St. Louis — but it was in 2003 that Mueller delivered his best season, and one of the best by any Red Sox third baseman in history.

5. Larry Gardner — 1912

When the Red Sox were winning a string of championships in the early 1900s, Gardner was a steady presence at third base. He was at the hot corner for three title teams from 1912 to 1916, and when he was traded to Philadelphia and then to Cleveland, Gardner won a fourth World Series with the Indians.

Although Gardner never hit much in those World Series — career .198 hitter in the playoffs — he did hit the only two Red Sox home runs during the low-scoring 1916 series, and he led the Red Sox in RBIs during the 1912 series, ending it with a walk-off sacrifice fly against Christy Mathewson in the deciding eighth game (the second game had been a tie).

According to the Society for American Baseball Research: “After a celebration the next day at Boston’s Faneuil Hall, Larry returned to a hero’s reception in Enosburg Falls (his Vermont hometown). His train arrived bedecked with red lights from engine to rear coach, and explosions of railroad torpedoes went off every few rods as it swept into the village. Fully 500 people were on hand to greet him.”

Gardner finished top 10 in batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage in 1912. He was eighth in RBIs, fifth in triples and 14th in MVP voting.

6. Wade Boggs — 1984

We know, we know. Only one season per player. But we’re listing Boggs twice only to make a point about just how thoroughly he stands alone in Red Sox history.

By WAR, 1984 was Boggs’ eighth-best season in Boston. He didn’t make the All-Star team, didn’t get any MVP votes, didn’t lead the league in any significant category. The 1984 season could be removed from Boggs’ resume, and he’d still have a Hall of Fame career.

Yet, only two third basemen in Red Sox history have had a better year than Boggs in 1984. He has eight of the top 10 third-base WAR seasons in Red Sox history. Eight! And the competition is not particularly close. Beltre and Collins pretty easily crack the top 10, but Gardner’s 1912 season ranks 11th in WAR, and that season was more than a half-win worse than Boggs’ in 1984, which is a meaningful gap, and — again — this was Boggs’ eighth-best season in Boston!

There has not been another third baseman remotely like him in Red Sox history. We could have justified putting Boggs’ name on 80 percent of this list. Giving him a second spot really doesn’t do him justice.

7. Mike Lowell — 2007

No. 7 is really a toss-up between Lowell’s terrific 2007 campaign and the breakout season that comes next on our list, but we’ll give Lowell the tiebreaker because he was the World Series MVP.

Lowell took a curious path to becoming a Boston luminary. He was drafted by the Yankees, traded to the Marlins for three pitchers you likely don’t remember, and then traded to the Red Sox as part of the massive Hanley Ramirez-for-Josh Beckett swap. Lowell was very good for four years with the Red Sox, but never better than in 2007 when he finished fifth in RBIs, fifth in MVP voting, and positively dominated the postseason, batting .353/.410/.608 with hits in 12 of 14 games and a 1.300 OPS in the World Series.

8. Rafael Devers — 2019

Some of the numbers are pretty similar to Lowell’s great 2007 season — some measurements favor Devers — so feel free to consider them Nos. 7a and 7b. Thing is, Lowell’s 2007 was his high point. He’d been perhaps just as good a couple of seasons in Florida, but ’07 was as good as it got in Boston.

In the coming years, Devers could easily surpass his 2019 totals.

Last season was Devers’ third in the majors. He was still only 22 years old, yet emerged as one of the best all-around hitters in the American League. He led the league with 54 doubles, a huge number. He also led in total bases, finished second in hits and had the ninth-best OPS. His defensive numbers, while still generally underwhelming, were noticeably better than the year before.

It was unquestionably one of the best third-base seasons in Red Sox history. The big question is how many times Devers can beat these totals in the coming years.

9. Billy Werber — 1934

We’ll just let SABR’s C. Paul Rogers III tell the story of a season that ended with Werber 12th in MVP voting but that could have been much better.

“But for a bucket kick, Bill Werber might reside in the Hall of Fame rather than be remembered as a good major-league ballplayer of the 1930s … It happened in 1934, toward the end of Werber’s second full season in the big leagues. He was playing third base for the Boston Red Sox and leading the league in batting average, steals, and runs scored. Ed Barrow, the general manager of the Yankees, called Werber the best player in the American League.

“In those days before air conditioning, teams kept a bucket full of ammonia water in the dugout so that players could sponge off. Werber’s teammate Lefty Grove had a habit of kicking the bucket and sending water flying everywhere after a bad inning on the mound. The team, unbeknownst to Werber, had replaced the bucket with a heavier one with iron bands, to discourage Grove from taking out his frustrations. One afternoon Werber, who had a bit of a temper himself, popped up with men on base and proceeded to attack the bucket with the front of his foot. The result was a broken toe on his right foot. Werber continued to play for the rest of the season and still finished with a .321 batting average in 152 games, leading the league with 40 stolen bases and pounding out 200 hits and scoring 129 runs. But his toe continued to bother him for the rest of his 11-year big-league career, and he was never able to replicate his 1934 performance.”

10. Carney Lansford — 1981

One reason to include the second Boggs season is that the bottom of this list comes down to a handful of fairly similar seasons, none of which fully separates from the rest of the pack.

Kevin Youkilis was the primary Red Sox third baseman only once, in 2011, when he had his fifth-best season with a 3.8 WAR and a 123 OPS+. George Kell put up similar advanced metrics in 1953: a 3.1 WAR and a 129 OPS+. Same for Tim Naehring in 1995: 4.2 WAR and a 123 OPS+. And Rico Petrocelli in 1971: 4.9 WAR, 123 OPS+. John Valentin in 1998 (4.8 WAR) and Shea Hillenbrand in 2002 (4.3) had WAR totals to fit on this list, but each had an OPS+ barely above league average. All were good years, but do any of them have to be on a top 10 list like this?

The last spot or two really comes down to personal preference and might come down to which season carries the most personal significance. We’ll go with Lansford largely because it might have been much better than the numbers suggest.

This was the strike-shortened season immediately after the Red Sox acquired Lansford from the Angels, and Lansford led the league in batting average while finishing sixth in MVP voting. A limited season meant limited at-bats, and Lansford played only 102 games. Give him a full 1981 season and his numbers might stand out a little more.

(Photo: Ron Vesely / MLB Photos via Getty Images)