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. 29:

1) Jason Schmidt (1973)
A three-time All-Star, Schmidt was drafted by Atlanta in 1991 and made his Major League debut in 1995, embarking on a career that would cover 14 years and four clubs (Braves, Pirates, Giants and Dodgers). His finest season came with San Francisco in 2003. He was named the National League starter in the Midsummer Classic before ending the season first in the Majors in WHIP (0.95), leading the NL in ERA (2.34) and winning percentage (.773), and finishing second in NL Cy Young voting behind Eric Gagne of the Dodgers. Fun fact: Schmidt was the final Pirate to wear No. 42 before it was retired across Major League Baseball in honor of Jackie Robinson. He would end his career with Robinson’s Dodgers in 2009.

2) José Abreu (1987)
Abreu, the only active player in the Top 5, made his debut with the White Sox in 2014. That year he was the unanimous winner of the American League Rookie of the Year Award, took home a Silver Slugger and finished fourth in AL MVP balloting. That MVP Award would be his in 2020, as would the Hank Aaron Award and his third Silver Slugger. (He won his second in 2018.) Fun fact: Abreu made history in 2021, when he launched a line drive into the cornfields at the Field of Dreams Game for the first AL/NL homer hit in Iowa. The three-time All-Star went on to join the Astros with a three-year deal after the 2022 season.

3. Steve Sax (1960)
“Saxie” played 14 seasons in the Majors, the majority -- and the most successful -- of them with the Dodgers, with whom he’d win two World Series (1981 and 1988) and the 1982 National League Rookie of the Year Award, and make three of his five All-Star rosters. A prolific singles hitter, he thrice led his league in that category (1986 and 1988 in the NL, 1989 in the AL). Fun fact: Sax has appeared on several television shows, most notably the “Homer at the Bat” episode of “The Simpsons” in 1992 along with such other baseball luminaries as Ken Griffey Jr., Ozzie Smith and Darryl Strawberry.

4) Alex Avila (1987)
The catcher, who split his 13 seasons among six teams, was drafted by the Tigers and made his Major League debut for Detroit in 2009. He was an All-Star and a Silver Slugger in 2011; the Silver Slugger was the first won by a Tigers catcher since Iván Rodríguez in 2004. Avila was the team’s primary backstop during its four-year stretch winning the AL Central, catching Cy Young winners Justin Verlander (including his no-hitter in 2011) and Max Scherzer in that span. Fun fact: One year before he was behind the dish for Verlander’s no-no, Avila came within one out of catching a perfecto -- Armando Galarraga’s controversial “imperfect perfect game.”

5) Bobby Bolin (1939)
We go a little farther back for the fifth entry -- and second Giant -- on the list. Bolin was one of only two pitchers in 1968 to finish the season with an ERA below 2.00 -- his 1.99 was second only to Hall of Famer Bob Gibson’s 1.12. Bolin spent nine seasons with San Francisco before ending his career with stints in Milwaukee and Boston. Fun fact: Bolin struck out 1961 NL MVP and future Hall of Famer Frank Robinson for his first career K.

Want to see more baseball birthdays for Jan. 29? Find the complete list on Baseball Reference.