The best baseball players born on April 20

Who are the best players born on each day of the year? We have a list for every day on the calendar.

Here’s a subjective ranking of the top five for April 20.

1) Don Mattingly (1961)
Donnie Baseball had plenty of highlights during his 14-year playing career with the Yankees, including six All-Star selections, nine Gold Glove Awards at first base and three Silver Slugger Awards. The best years of Mattingly's career came between 1984-86, when he slashed .340/.382/.560, led the American League in doubles all three seasons, in hits in '84 and 86, total bases in '85-86 and plate appearances, slugging percentage and OPS in '86. Mattingly won the batting title in 1984 with a .343 average and was the AL's Most Valuable Player in '85. A five-time Yankee captain (1991-95), Mattingly's No. 23 was retired by New York. He went on to manage the Dodgers for five seasons (2011-15) before serving in the same role with Miami for seven seasons (2016-22). The Blue Jays hired Mattingly as their bench coach before the start of the 2023 season, and Toronto added “offensive coordinator” to his title in '24.

2) Dave Bancroft (1891)
The lone Hall of Famer born on April 20, Bancroft has the highest career WAR among the birthday bunch (49.7) after a 16-year career with the Phillies, New York Giants, Boston Braves and Brooklyn Robins. Bancroft, who earned the nickname "Beauty" for his defensive prowess at shortstop and was an exceptionally cerebral athlete, won World Series with the Giants in 1921 and '22. He retired after the 1930 season with a .279 career batting average, 2,004 hits and 4,623 putouts at shortstop, the latter good for third on the all-time AL/NL charts.

3) Brandon Belt (1988)
Along with 167 career homers, an All-Star nod and two World Series titles (with the Giants in 2012, '14), Belt's also had some fun in his career. First, who doesn't want a giraffe named after them? Belt -- who earned the moniker "Baby Giraffe" in 2011 from a Giants announcer after the way Belt tracked down balls in the outfield -- was honored by a local Six Flags theme park as the namesake of their newest arrival, a baby giraffe born in August of that year. Oh, and he was also Man of the Hour(s) after belting the go-ahead homer that put to rest an 18-inning, six-hour, 23-minute marathon between the Giants and Nationals on Oct. 4, 2014.

4) Milt Wilcox (1950)
The best years of Wilcox's 16-season campaign came at the perfect time, with the right-hander earning a career-best 17 wins to help the Tigers win a World Series in 1984. A solid middle-of-the-rotation workhorse, Wilcox didn't have quite the flash of staff aces Dan Petry and Jack Morris but was every bit as consistent that year, working an average of 5.9 innings across a career-high 33 starts. Wilcox is perhaps best known for an "almost" feat on April 15, 1983, when he came within one out of the first perfect game in the Tigers' storied franchise history.

5) Kyle Higashioka (1990)
Higashioka has achieved some pretty impressive feats. The slugger began his adventure in pinstripes in 2018 with an 0-for-22 showing at the plate, the longest funk to start a career of any Yankees position player. Dues apparently paid, he then busted his slump with his first Major League hit, a home run, on July 1. That felt pretty good, so Higashioka's next two hits were homers, too, making him just the ninth since 1920 to homer for his first three career hits. Other worthy feats: Higashioka clubbed three homers in one game against the Blue Jays on Sept. 16, 2020, and he was behind the dish for Corey Kluber's no-hitter on May 19, 2021. After seven seasons with the Yankees, Higashioka was traded to the Padres in the deal which sent Juan Soto to New York in December of 2023.

Others of note:
Todd Hollandsworth (1973)
Hollandsworth earned NL Rookie of the Year honors with the Dodgers in 1996 and finished with a .273 career batting average across 12 seasons with eight teams.

Tom Hutton (1946)
Hutton played 952 games during his 12-season career and made 1,290 plate appearances ... without ever being hit by a pitch.

Want to see more baseball birthdays for April 20? Find the complete list on Baseball Reference.