The best baseball players born on Aug. 21

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 Aug. 21.

1) J.D. Martinez (1987)
Power develops late, they say, and that certainly was the case for Martinez, a 20th-round Draft pick of the Astros in 2009 who made it to the Majors by 2011 but didn’t develop into a star until after he moved to the Tigers in 2014 on a Minor League deal and remade his swing. The following year, he hit 38 home runs and earned his first of six All-Star selections. In 2017, he hit a career-high 45 home runs between Detroit in Arizona, and after signing as a free agent with the Red Sox for 2018, he led the Majors with 130 RBIs, finished fourth in American League MVP balloting and helped Boston win the World Series. Martinez led the Majors with 42 doubles in 2021 and was an All-Star each season from '21-'23. He spent 2023 with the Dodgers, before inking a deal to join the Mets in '24.

2) Craig Counsell (1970)
The Notre Dame product only had one season in which he played more than 100 games and posted an OPS+ north of 100, but statistics don’t tell the full story. Counsell was regarded for his leadership, his defensive versatility and pesky at-bats; he was on base for the walk-off run in a pair of World Series Game 7s. In 1997 with the Marlins, Counsell scored that run himself on Edgar Renteria’s base hit, and in 2001 with the D-backs, Counsell was hit by a Mariano Rivera pitch to load the bases for Luis Gonzalez’s Series-winning single. Counsell was the NLCS MVP that year. All told, Counsell played 16 seasons in the Majors before retiring with his hometown Milwaukee Brewers, whom he subsequently managed from 2015-23. Counsell was then hired as manager of the Cubs prior to the start of the 2024 season.

3) Murry Dickson (1916)
Dickson stood 5-foot-10 and lost two prime years to military service during World War II, but still managed to stick in the Majors for parts of 18 seasons, most of them with the Cardinals and Pirates. He returned from the war to go 15-6 with a 2.88 ERA for the Cardinals in 1946, starting a pair of games against the Red Sox in the World Series, including the famed Game 7. Dickson hit an RBI double and pitched into the eighth inning with a two-run lead before he was pulled amid a Boston threat. So enraged was Dickson after the lead became a tie, according to the Society for American Baseball Research, that he left the ballpark and was listening on a car radio when Enos Slaughter made his legendary Mad Dash from first to home on what looked like a harmless base hit for what proved the winning run for the Cardinals. Dickson was purchased by Pittsburgh in 1949 and was a 20-game winner for the Pirates in ’51.

4) Corbin Carroll (2000)
The speedy outfielder was selected by the D-backs in the first round of the 2019 Draft and needed just 142 Minor League games before being called up to the big leagues in 2022. Carroll stood out during his 2023 campaign, as he became the first rookie in National and American League history with 15 homers and 25 stolen bases before the All-Star break. The Seattle native was named an All-Star starter for the Midsummer Classic at T-Mobile Park. He finished the season with a .285 average with 25 homers, 10 triples and 54 stolen bases, and he was named the 2023 NL Rookie of the Year Award winner.

5) Ismael Valdez (1973)
Valdez, nicknamed “The Rocket” in Mexico, broke into the Major Leagues as a 20-year-old with the Dodgers in 1994 and was 61-54 with a 3.38 ERA in his first 1,025 innings over his first six seasons. Then he bounced around for six more seasons and had a 4.99 ERA over his final 802 1/3 innings in the big leagues.

Others of note:

John Stearns (1951)
Stearns, the second overall pick in the 1973 Draft who became known by the nickname “Bad Dude,” made his debut with the Phillies but spent most of his 11-year career catching for the Mets. He made four All-Star Games before an elbow injury impacted his throwing and shortened his career.

Gerry Staley (1920)
A right-handed pitcher who excelled as a starter early in his career and as a reliever later on, Staley made four All-Star teams, all while in his 30s. He won at least 17 games in three straight seasons for the Cardinals from 1951-53. In 1959, he helped the White Sox win the American League pennant by leading the Majors with 67 relief appearances while delivering a 2.42 ERA.

Felix Millan (1943)
The Braves and Mets second baseman won a pair of Gold Glove Awards and made three All-Star teams. He finished as a .279 hitter who struck out only 242 times in 6,325 Major League plate appearances. Since 1966, Millan’s first season, no player has been more difficult to strike out.

John Wetteland (1966)
A three-time All-Star, Wetteland broke into the Majors as a swingman for the Dodgers but ultimately found a home in the bullpen, topping 30 saves in every full Major League season from 1992-2000, including an AL-best 43 saves for the World Series champion Yankees in 1996 when he was the World Series MVP.

B.J. Upton (1984)
Upton, the second overall pick in the 2002 Draft, spent most of his 12-year career with the Rays. He finished with 300 stolen bases, including five seasons of 30-plus steals.

Jason Marquis (1978)
Marquis pitched in the Majors for parts of 15 seasons and made an All-Star team with the Rockies in 2009.

“Chief” Wilson (1883)
Wilson played the outfield for the Pirates and Cardinals from 1908-16 and hit 36 triples for Pittsburgh in 1912. That’s considered the all-time record in organized baseball.

Tuffy Rhodes (1968)
Karl Derrick Rhodes hit only 13 home runs in a career that spanned parts of six seasons, but he's best remembered for hitting three of them on 1994 Opening Day for the Cubs. Rhodes hit all three homers off Dwight Gooden in Chicago's loss to the Mets at Wrigley Field.

Want to see more baseball birthdays for Aug. 21? Find the complete list on Baseball Reference.