The best baseball players born on October 25

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 Oct. 25.

1) Pedro Martinez (1971)
Martinez is Oct. 25th’s only Hall of Famer -- for now, at least. The righty was inducted in 2015 after an 18-year career with the Dodgers, Expos, Red Sox, Mets and Phillies. He won three Cy Young Awards in a four-season span from 1997-2000, was an eight-time All-Star and won the 2004 World Series with the Red Sox. He racked up 3,154 career strikeouts and posted a 2.93 career ERA in more than 2,800 career regular-season innings.

2) Juan Soto (1998)
Soto made his MLB debut on May 20, 2018, but also has a home run that counted for May 15 that season, due to a suspended game that was resumed after the date of his debut. How? Because he’s Juan Soto. The young slugger has drawn comparisons to Ted Williams. He won the 2019 World Series with the Nationals and is a four-time Silver Slugger winner and won the ‘20 NL batting title. A fearsome hitter with spectacular plate discipline, he led the Majors in on-base percentage in '20 and '21. Upon joining the Yankees in '24 after a trade from the Padres, Soto helped to lead the Bombers to their first pennant in 15 years.

3) Smoky Joe Wood (1889)
Wood was one of baseball’s most dominant pitchers from 1911-12 by wins, racking up 57 in that span, second only to Walter Johnson (58). Wood had 60 complete games in that span, third behind Johnson (70) and Ed Walsh (65). He threw a no-hitter in ‘11, too, blanking the St. Louis Browns on July 29 in the first game of a doubleheader. Joe racked up 12 strikeouts in the outing. He won an ERA title in 1915, leading the AL at 1.49.

4) Bobby Thomson (1923)
Thomson hit the famous "Shot Heard ‘Round The World," etching his name in history with his walk-off home run off Ralph Branca in the third game of a tiebreaker series with the Dodgers for the NL pennant in 1951. He was a three-time All-Star, in 1948-49 and ‘52. Born in Glasgow, his 33.8 career WAR, per Baseball Reference, is the second-highest total for any player born in the United Kingdom, behind Jim McCormick (76.2), who was also born in Glasgow.

5) Roy Smalley (1952)
Smalley played 13 MLB seasons for the Rangers, Twins, Yankees and White Sox. He was an All-Star in 1979, a season where he played 162 games and led the AL with 729 plate appearances. He won the World Series in 1987 with Minnesota in his final big league season. Smalley’s father, Roy, also played in the Majors, and his uncle, Gene Mauch, managed for 26 seasons.

Others of note:
Danny Darwin (1955)
Darwin won an NL ERA title in 1990, with a 2.21 mark for the Astros. He pitched 21 MLB seasons and threw more than 3,000 innings.

Jack Doyle (1869)
Born in Killorglin, Ireland, Doyle amassed the third-most WAR of any player born in Ireland.

Want to see more baseball birthdays for October 25? Find the complete list on Baseball Reference.