The best baseball players born on Dec. 12

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 Dec. 12.

1) Orlando Hudson (1977)
Hudson won four Gold Glove Awards and made a pair of All-Star teams during his 11-year career with five teams. He played in the postseason for the Dodgers and Twins but had his best years for the D-backs, posting an OPS north of .800 in three straight seasons from 2006-08. Hudson’s best asset, however, was his glove; when he won back-to-back Gold Glove Awards in 2005 with the Jays and ’06 with the D-backs, he became the sixth player to win that award in both the American League and National League.

2) Gorman Thomas (1950)
The power-hitting center fielder swung hard and lived hard, swilling postgame beers with fans in the parking lot after taking his four at-bats for the day. “They come to see me strike out, hit a home run, or run into a fence,” Thomas once said. “I try to accommodate them at least one way every game.” Sports Illustrated once referred to Thomas as, “the only Brewer hitter who looks as if he chews glass.” On a roster stocked with characters, that qualified as high praise. Manager George Bamberger gave Thomas a shot to play in 1978 and Thomas capitalized, belting 32 home runs for the Brewers’ first-ever contender. A year later, Thomas led the American League with 45 homers. In ’82, he tied the Angels’ Reggie Jackson for another league home run crown. For his career, Thomas hit 268 taters.

3) Ervin Santana (1982)
The 2021 season marked Santana’s 16th and final in the Majors after he elected not to play in ’20, and he finished the year with a 151-129 record and a 4.11 ERA in nearly 2,500 career innings. He made All-Star teams with the Angels in 2008 and the Twins in ’17, threw a no-hitter in ’11 and topped 200 innings in six seasons. He was born Johan Ramon Santana but changed his name in 2003, two years before his MLB debut, to avoid confusion with former Twins and Mets left-hander Johan Santana.

4) Luis Castillo (1992)
Known for his devastating changeup, Castillo made the NL All-Star team during a breakthrough 2019 season in which he struck out 226 batters for the Reds and posted a 3.40 ERA in 32 starts. During the 2022 season, he was traded to the Mariners and helped end their 21-year postseason drought by going 4-2 with a 3.17 ERA and 77 strikeouts in 65 1/3 innings down the stretch. He was just as effective in his first full season with Seattle, going 14-9 with a 3.34 ERA and 219 strikeouts while finishing fifth in the AL Cy Young Award voting.

5) Ralph Garr (1945)
Garr batted .306 over a 13-year career spent mostly with the Braves, for whom he won a National League batting title in 1974 with a .353 average. Garr also made the NL All-Star team that year, led the Majors with 17 triples and reached the 200-hit plateau for the third time in four seasons. He retired in 1980 but his baseball career continued as a scout; he was named Midwest Scout of the Year in 2021.

Others of note:

Steve Farr (1956)
The 5-foot-10 righty logged 132 saves for the Royals, Yankees, Cleveland and Red Sox from 1984-94, including a 30-save season for New York in 1992.

Tully Sparks (1874)
Sparks had a 2.82 ERA over 2,343 2/3 innings from 1897-1910. He was 22-8 with a 2.00 ERA for the 1907 Phillies.

Phenomenal Smith (1864)
The left-hander once pitched 491 1/3 innings in 1887 while making 55 starts for the Baltimore Orioles of the American Association. Alas, that placed him second on his own team in both categories, but it was a phenomenal improvement from two years earlier in Brooklyn, where Smith's teammates purposely tanked his only start in response to some brash talk from the youngster. The resulting pitching line: Eight innings, 12 hits, 18 runs (11 earned) and one ticket out of town.

Want to see more baseball birthdays for Dec. 12? Find the complete list on Baseball Reference.