The best baseball players born on Jan. 23

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 Jan. 23.

1) Chico Carrasquel (1926)
Carrasquel debuted with the Chicago White Sox in 1950 and became the game’s first great Latin American defensive player. Following in the footsteps of his two big league uncles -- Alex Carrasquel and Chucho Ramos -- the shortstop became the third Venezuelan to make the Majors and the first Latin American to start an All-Star Game. Chico Carrasquel played in four Midsummer Classics during his six years on the Southside before finishing his 10-year career with stops in Cleveland, Kansas City and Baltimore.

2) Frank Sullivan (1930)
Sullivan debuted with the Red Sox in 1953 and spent six seasons in Boston, making two All-Star teams and leading the American League with 18 wins in ‘55. The 6-foot-7 right-hander is tied for 16th in Sox’s history with 90 wins, one more than Babe Ruth and Josh Beckett. Sullivan turned down a Stanford basketball scholarship to sign with the Red Sox as an 18-year-old. His development in the Minors was interrupted by his service as an Army infantryman in the Korean War.

3) Jeff Samardzija (1985)
Samardzija was an All-American wide receiver at Notre Dame, but the Cubs were able to lure the right-hander from the gridiron after making him a fifth-round pick in the 2006 MLB Draft. Samardzija debuted in ‘08 and spent seven seasons on the North Side. He earned an All-Star nod in ‘14 but was not eligible to play in the game because he had been traded to the AL’s A’s the week prior. That December, Oakland flipped Samardzija to the White Sox for a package that included shortstop prospect Marcus Semien. Samardzija later had five solid seasons in San Francisco, leading the NL with a career-high 15 wins in ‘17.

4) Red Donahue (1873)
Donahue, the bWAR leader for players born on Jan. 23, was a right-handed pitcher who won 164 games during the turn of the 20th century. He set an AL/NL record with 35 losses in 1897 for the St. Louis Browns before moving on to Philadelphia for the ‘98 season. Donahue found more success with the Phillies, winning 20-plus games twice in four seasons. His 13-year career also included stops in Cleveland and Detroit before retiring in 1906 to open a hotel in the Motor City. He would later coach at Yale and LaSalle University.

5) Sam Jethroe (1917)
Jethroe became the first Black player to play for a team in Boston when the center fielder debuted for the Boston Braves in 1950 and won the NL Rookie of the Year Award, but his professional career started over a decade earlier when he was still in high school. Jethroe, nicknamed “The Jet” for his elite speed, broke into pro ball with the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League in 1938 then signed with the Cleveland Buckeyes in ‘42. He made seven All-Star teams with the Buckeyes before eventually being signed by Branch Rickey and playing with Jackie Robinson in the Dodgers’ Minor League system.

Others of note:
Addison Russell (1994)
The shortstop recorded 11.3 bWAR and made an All-Star Game during five years with the Cubs before off-the-field issues interrupted his career. Coincidentally, he was part of the package the Cubs received from the A's for Samardzija.

Mark Wohlers (1970)
The right-handed reliever was an All-Star in 1996 and won a World Series in ‘95 with the Braves.

Want to see more baseball birthdays for Jan. 23? Find the complete list on Baseball Reference.