Edgar Renteria
Renteria's clutch gene remains criminally underrated — this is the shortstop who delivered World Series-winning hits for two different franchises, yet somehow gets forgotten in discussions of elite October performers. His 2003 Cardinals season represents peak offensive shortstop production for that era, when a .330 average and .874 OPS from the position was genuinely rare.
The Colombian's career numbers tell the story of steady excellence rather than flashy peaks. That 97 OPS+ across 16 seasons speaks to remarkable consistency, while his five All-Star selections and defensive hardware show he was a complete player. His 140 career homers might seem modest now, but Renteria played in the pre-steroid crash era when shortstops weren't expected to launch 25 bombs annually.
What modern fans miss is how valuable that reliability was — 2,152 games of solid defense and league-average offense from shortstop was gold in the late 90s and 2000s.
Career · Batting
16 seasons| Year | Team | G | AB | HR | RBI | AVG | OPS | OPS+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | FLO | 106 | 431 | 5 | 31 | .309 | .757 | 99 |
| 1997 | FLO | 154 | 617 | 4 | 52 | .277 | .668 | 88 |
| 1998 | FLO | 133 | 517 | 3 | 31 | .282 | .689 | 91 |
| 1999 | STL | 154 | 585 | 11 | 63 | .275 | .734 | 94 |
| 2000 | STL | 150 | 562 | 16 | 76 | .278 | .770 | 98 |
| 2001 | STL | 141 | 493 | 10 | 57 | .260 | .685 | 90 |
| 2002 | STL | 152 | 544 | 11 | 83 | .305 | .803 | 107 |
| 2003 | STL | 157 | 587 | 13 | 100 | .330 | .874 | 116 |
| 2004 | STL | 149 | 586 | 10 | 72 | .287 | .728 | 95 |
| 2005 | BOS | 153 | 623 | 8 | 70 | .276 | .721 | 96 |
| 2006 | ATL | 149 | 598 | 14 | 70 | .293 | .797 | 104 |
| 2007 | ATL | 124 | 494 | 12 | 57 | .332 | .860 | 113 |
| 2008 | DET | 138 | 503 | 10 | 55 | .270 | .699 | 93 |
| 2009 | SF | 124 | 460 | 5 | 48 | .250 | .635 | 85 |
| 2010 | SF | 72 | 243 | 3 | 22 | .276 | .707 | 97 |
| 2011 | CIN | 96 | 299 | 5 | 36 | .251 | .654 | 91 |
| Career | 2152 | 8142 | 140 | 923 | .286 | — | — | |
Matchups, projections, comps — grounded in Lahman, Retrosheet, and Statcast.