Best players to only play for one team

Only a select group of players can spend their entire Major League careers with a single franchise. And even fewer can accomplish that feat while also producing at an elite level.

Here is a look at the top 10 players to accumulate the most wins above replacement (WAR), per Baseball-Reference, while only ever suiting up in one uniform. The one active player who is threatening to join this list is Mike Trout, who currently ranks 16th and whose contract with the Angels runs through 2030, his age-38 season. This is a list to remember for Aaron Judge, who may be a "Yankee for life" over the course of his career.

1) Walter Johnson, Senators: 164.9 WAR
Johnson ranks second all time in WAR, trailing only Babe Ruth, and leads the way for players who played their entire careers with one team. Johnson spent each of his 21 seasons with the Washington Senators, amassing a 417-279 record in 802 career games, 666 of which were starts. He threw 531 complete games, including 110 shutouts, which is 20 more than any other player all time. Through his age-26 season, Johnson compiled 71.1 WAR, the most of any player through that point, regardless of position.

2) Stan Musial, Cardinals: 128.6
Stan the Man played his entire 3,026-game career with the Cardinals over 23 seasons (one of which he missed for World War II service). A three-time MVP Award winner, Musial was a member of the 3,000-hit club and captured seven batting titles and three World Series championships.

3) Ted Williams, Red Sox: 122.0
Williams missed three seasons due to World War II but still managed to accumulate 34.2 WAR through his age-23 season. He returned in 1946 -- his age-27 season -- and promptly won the first of two MVP Awards. Williams is the all-time AL/NL leader in on-base percentage (.482) and is still the last player to hit .400 for a qualified season, when he hit .406 in 1941. He played his 19th and final season with the Red Sox in 1960.

4) Lou Gehrig, Yankees: 113.6
Gehrig played his entire 17-year career -- which was cut short by ALS -- with the Yankees. He won two MVP Awards and accumulated a .340 batting average, as well as a consecutive-games-played streak that would stand until Cal Ripken Jr. showed up. He played his final game at age 35 in 1939 and was inducted into the Hall of Fame via special election later that year.

5) Mel Ott, Giants: 110.8
Ott debuted as a 17-year-old for the Giants in 1926 and played until he was 38 -- a span of 22 seasons. He won the 1933 World Series with the Giants, and while the All-Star Game didn’t come into existence until Ott’s eighth year in the Majors, he was still a 12-time All-Star. Ott finished with 511 home runs, 342 of which came before his age-30 season.

6) Mickey Mantle, Yankees: 110.2
Through his age-26 season, Mantle had 61.4 WAR and already had won two MVP Awards. Mantle went on to win a third MVP Award, hit 536 home runs and play for 18 years, all with the Yankees. Mantle won the batting Triple Crown in 1956. He retired in the spring of 1969 at 37 years old after dealing with leg and knee injuries throughout his career.

7) Mike Schmidt, Phillies: 106.8
Schmidt played his entire 18-year career in Philadelphia, winning three MVP Awards and 10 Gold Glove Awards at third base, while making 12 All-Star teams and slamming 548 homers. The first MVP came in 1980, when Schmidt also captured one of his eight NL home run titles and led the Phillies to a championship, with Schmidt also taking World Series MVP honors.

8) Carl Yastrzemski, Red Sox: 96.5
The 18-time All-Star spent his entire 23-year career with the Red Sox, playing in two World Series but never winning it all. Yaz lasted until he was 44, giving him plenty of time to accumulate WAR. He had 12.5 WAR in 1967, when he won his only MVP Award, in his age-27 season. That’s the third-highest single-season WAR mark by a position player, and the only position player with a higher single-season WAR was Ruth, who did it twice.

9) Cal Ripken Jr., Orioles: 95.9
Ripken won the AL Rookie of the Year Award in 1982 and the AL MVP Award a year later -- the first of two in his career. He made 19 consecutive All-Star Games from 1983-2001, which was the last of his 21 MLB seasons. Ripken owns the all-time consecutive-games-played record (2,632) and is a member of the 3,000-hit club. And he did it all for the Orioles, who drafted him out of high school in Aberdeen, Md., in 1978.

10) Roberto Clemente, Pirates: 94.8
Clemente’s entire 18-year career came with the Pirates, and it would’ve been longer if not for his tragic death while delivering supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua in 1972. In the final 11 seasons of his career, Clemente hit .329 with a .502 slugging percentage, and that’s to say nothing of his defense, which was spectacular.

Honorable mentions: Al Kaline (92.9 WAR with Tigers), Bob Gibson (89.2 with Cardinals), George Brett (88.6 with Royals), Chipper Jones (85.3 with Braves), Charlie Gehringer (84.8 with Tigers), Trout (82.4 with Angels), Jeff Bagwell (79.9 with Astros), Joe DiMaggio (79.2 with Yankees), Brooks Robinson (78.5 with Orioles), Luke Appling (77.6 with White Sox), Robin Yount (77.4 with Brewers), Clayton Kershaw (75.9 with Dodgers)