The best baseball players born on Sept. 17

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 Sept. 17:

1. Orlando Cepeda (1937)
Cepeda spent nine of his 17 seasons with the Giants, unanimously winning the 1958 National League Rookie of the Year with San Francisco. “The Baby Bull” won the 1967 NL MVP Award with the Cardinals in ‘67, after getting traded to St. Louis in ‘66. Cepeda won his lone World Series title with the Cards that season, though he struggled in the Fall Classic after posting a .325/.399/.524 regular season, which helped earn the last of his 11 All-Star appearances. He became the second Puerto Rican (joining Roberto Clemente) in the Hall of Fame when he was elected by the Veterans Committee, though Edgar Martinez (2019), Iván Rodriguez (‘17) and Roberto Alomar (‘11) have joined them. When Cepeda signed with Boston in 1973, he became the first player to exclusively play as a designated hitter, and he hit 20 home runs for the Red Sox that season, becoming the first player to hit 20 or more homers with four teams.

2. Dan Haren (1980)
Haren enjoyed a productive 13-year career with eight teams, never spending more than three seasons with one team. After a couple of solid seasons with the Cardinals, he was dealt to the A’s in the Mark Mulder trade in December 2004, and he flourished as a member of Oakland’s rotation, going 43-34 with a 3.64 ERA from 2005-07, making his first All-Star team in ‘07. Haren moved on to the D-backs in a December 2007 trade, and his All-Star form continued in his first two seasons in Phoenix, with a 30-18 record and a 3.23 ERA in 2008-09. He recorded 11 seasons with double-digit wins, and when he beat the Phillies on Aug. 9, 2013, he became just the 13th pitcher to beat all 30 Major League teams.

3. José Ramírez (1992)
After breaking in with Cleveland in 2013, Ramírez spent a couple of seasons as a solid contributor, but he busted out in ‘16 and has been one of the top hitters in the American League since. He’s a five-time All-Star and has finished in the top six in AL MVP Award voting five times since ‘17. From 2017-22, Ramírez posted a .280/.363/.540 slash line, with 173 homers, 546 RBIs, 219 doubles, 24 triples, 531 runs scored and 132 stolen bases, winning four Silver Slugger Awards in that span. He became a member of the 30-30 club in ‘18, with 39 homers and 34 steals.

4. Ezra Sutton (1849)
Sutton was a star third baseman and shortstop with the Cleveland Forest Citys, Philadelphia Athletics, Boston Red Stockings and Boston Beaneaters from 1871-88, and he was particularly renowned for his strong arm from the hot corner. He played in the first National Association game on May 4, 1871, and the first National League game on April 22, 1876. Sutton hit the first home run in National Association history on May 8, 1871, for Cleveland vs. the Chicago White Stockings. Despite playing in an era with lesser offensive production, Sutton batted .294 and scored 994 runs in 1,263 games.

5. Marcus Semien (1990)
Semien has emerged as one of the top middle infielders over the past four seasons, with a .260/.330/.463 slash line with 126 homers and 370 RBIs in 697 games from ‘18-22 after posting a .246/.307/.409 line with 60 homers and 195 RBIs in 484 games from 2013-17. After playing second and third base in his first two seasons with the White Sox, he transitioned to shortstop in 2015 with the A’s, but he got off to a rough start at his new position with 35 errors (including 18 throwing errors). Semien settled in defensively in ‘16 by reducing his error total to 21, and he led the Majors with 477 assists that season. He moved back to second base in 2021 after signing with the Blue Jays in free agency, and he earned the All-Star Game start for the American League, en route to hitting 45 homers (which set an AL/NL single-season record for a second baseman) and finishing third in AL MVP Award voting. Semien also finished third in AL MVP Award balloting in ‘19 after recording 33 homers and 92 RBIs for Oakland. He inked a seven-year deal to join the Rangers prior to the 2022 season and was selected as an All-Star for the second time in his career in '23.

Others of note:

John Franco (1960)
Franco grew up in Brooklyn and attended St. John’s in Queens, so it was fitting that he spent 15 seasons of his 22-year career with his hometown Mets. He was a four-time All-Star (1986, ‘87, ‘89 and ‘90) and led the National League in saves three times (‘88, ‘90 and ‘93), en route to 424 saves, which is fifth in MLB history behind Mariano Rivera, Trevor Hoffman, Lee Smith and Francisco Rodriguez. Franco appeared in 1,119 games, which is an NL record.

Frank Schulte (1882)
Schulte hit 21 homers and had 107 RBIs for the Cubs in 1911, when he won the NL MVP Award. He finished that season with 30 doubles, 21 triples, 21 home runs and 23 stolen bases, becoming the first of only four players to join the 20-20-20-20 club. Schulte finished with 92 homers over his 15-year career, but 43 of those came in ‘10-12 during his peak three seasons with Chicago, with whom he also won two World Series in ‘07-08.

Want to see more baseball birthdays for Sept. 17? Find the complete list on Baseball Reference.