As we make our way through the 2025 AL and NL League Championship Series, I got the idea to research and write about the greatest postseason performances that baseball has seen.
Note: I could have shoved the 2004 Postseason in your face with a number of performances, but decided to hold it to one so that I could get some variety in the write-ups. That is why only Beltrán is written up for 2004, when I could’ve also included the likes of David Ortiz or Albert Pujols, both of whom tore it up that October.
Carlos Beltrán, 2004, Houston Astros
Beltrán was 27 at the time he was traded to Houston from Kansas City in 2004. A rising superstar, Beltrán was coming off putting together 6.5 WAR in 2001, 4.4 WAR in 2002 and 5.8 WAR in 2003. He could hit and play center with the best of them.
2004, however, saw Beltrán blossom into the stud everyone saw coming. Because he was due to hit free agency following the season, the Royals traded Beltrán to the Houston Astros in a 3-team deal that saw Kansas City receive John Buck, Mark Teahen, and Mike Wood.
Beltrán would finish the 2004 regular season with 6.8 WAR over 159 games, slamming 38 HR and driving in 104 RBI. He totaled a .915 OPS (his best outside his 2006 OPS with the Mets). He had a regular season .383 wOBA and a 128 wRC+.
However, we’re here for his 2004 postseason performance that could perhaps be one of the best baseball’s ever seen. In 56 PA in October, Beltrán slashed .438/.536/1.022–that’s his SLG, not his OPS, which was 1.557. Yeah…
In 12 games he hit 8 home runs, walked 9 times while only striking out 8 times, held a .618 wOBA and an unfathomable 284 wRC+, and to top it off, he stole 6 bags. Numbers-wise, this is monstrous.
Beltrán hit a home run in Games 1 and 3 of the NLDS against the Braves, both wins, before tallying 4 hits and hitting 2 home runs in the decisive game 5. That final NLDS game was just the start of 5 straight games with a home run, hitting a bomb in the first 4 games of the NLCS against the Cardinals. Unfortunately, Houston would lose that series in seven games, but Beltrán’s performance was not lost on the baseball world. He was special.
Yes, all of these are going to be small sample sizes, I know. In fact, Beltrán’s 2006 playoff performance reflected a bit of what we call “regression to the mean,” given he only put up a meager .978 OPS in 45 PA.
Randy Arozarena, 2020, Tampa Bay Rays
A more recent example, Randy Arozarena, was the definition of “you can’t predict baseball.”
Arozarena defected from Cuba in 2015 before being signed by the St. Louis Cardinals for a bonus of $1.25 million as a 21-year international free agent. In January of 2020, with only a handful of major league experience, the Cards traded Arozarena to the Tampa Bay Rays.
Beginning the shortened 2020 season in Triple-A and fighting off a bad case of COVID-19, Arozarena came up and played really well with the big league team. In just 76 PA, Arozarena hit 7 HR, complemented by a 1.023 OPS, .422 wOBA and 177 wRC+.
Now, this Rays team wasn’t expected to do much that season. Obviously, it was a weird year amid the COVID pandemic, but the Rays have always been a low payroll club. In 2020, though, the Rays had the 3rd-lowest team ERA (3.36) and 7th-lowest FIP (3.94). A large part of that success came from their lockdown bullpen.
The AL Wild Card round saw the Rays sweep the Toronto Blue Jays, go 5 games with the Yankees in the ALDS and survive a near collapse after being up 3-0 against the Astros by winning the ALCS in 7 games! They would lose the World Series in 6, but Arozarena shined.
In 20 games and 86 PA, Arozarena accumulated an MLB-postseason-record 10 HR, while driving in 14 RBI. He slashed .377/.442/.831 with a 1.273 OPS, while putting up a .515 wOBA and a 240 wRC+! His .455 ISO tells us his production was mainly power-driven, and is way above what an average ISO would look like for any given player.
Randy’s MO was home runs during this run. His home run-to-fly ball ratio (HR/FB) of 52.6% is astronomically high compared to what an average rate looks like. What’s more crazy is that Carlos Correa also had an insane HR/FB rate of 54.5%! However, he did that in 7 less games and 31 less plate appearances, so who knows if he could’ve kept that up.
I’m gonna get a little weird and give a new metric I haven’t brought up on this blog: WPA/LI, or context-neutral wins. Arozarena’s 1.36 WPA/LI takes his Win Probability Added metric (WPA) that he provided his team and neutralizes the context at which those events happened in. Far and away, Arozarena’s 1.36 WPA/LI leads the batters with 40+ PA in this postseason, further proving just how dominant this stretch was for him.
And guess what? He’s still battling in October right now with Seattle–although not as dominantly as he was in 2020 with Tampa.
David Freese, 2011, St. Louis Cardinals
Even though the Cardinals won the World Series with the likes of Albert Pujols, Lance Berkman and Yadier Molina, the 2011 MLB postseason cannot be talked about without the mention of David Freese.
Whether it was the World Series Game 6 bottom-of-the-ninth triple to tie the game and send it to extra innings, or the walk-off home run in the 11th to force a game 7, Freese was an atomic bomb this entire postseason. Cue Joe Buck: We will see you tomorrow night!
After trailing 10.5 games of the Wild Card on August 25, the Cardinals rallied to catch and overtake the Braves on the last day of the season to take the last spot on the NL side. What would happen next can only be summed up to: when you’re hot, you’re hot.
Freese had just capped his best season as a big leaguer yet, despite missing 50+ games with a hand fracture. In 97 games and 363 PA, Freese posted a .791 OPS, .348 wOBA and 123 wRC+. His regular season ISO was just .144, hitting 10 home runs and 16 doubles.
In the postseason, Freese turned it up a notch… and then some. The Cardinals would beat the Phillies in 5 in the NLDS, beat Milwaukee in 6 in the NLCS and ultimately defeat Texas in the World Series in 7.
Freese is the reason they got to Game 7 of the World Series. As I mentioned before, Freese hit a bottom-9th triple, tied the game and sent it to extras, while later he hit a home run in the 11th and won Game 6 for them. In addition to the NLCS MVP (12 hits in 6 games) he had just claimed, he took home the World Series MVP as well that year.
His final line from the 2011 postseason was .397/.465/.794 with a 1.258 OPS, .527 wOBA and 245 wRC+.
Paul Molitor, 1993, Toronto Blue Jays
The Toronto Blue Jays won back-to-back World Series titles in 1992 and 1993. Since then, only the Yankees in 1998-2000 have been able to match that.
Paul Molitor was not part of that 1992 World Series-winning roster, but he was a part of the 1993 team. In December ‘92, Molitor signed a free agent contract with the Blue Jays to DH and play 1B. Coming off 15 years with the Brewers, Molitor was entering his twilight years. In those 15 seasons in Milwaukee, Molitor had accumulated 59.5 WAR, had 2,281 hits, including 160 HR, and put up an .811 OPS (125 OPS+).
Not only did he delay the entry to his twilight years, he showed why he should still be considered one of the best hitters in the MLB, even at age 36. He led the league with 211 hits, slashing .332/.402/.509, posting a 143 OPS+. He kept that going into October.
The Jays won the AL East, going 95-67, before going on to beat the White Sox in the ALCS in 6 games and the Phillies in the World Series in 6 games.
Molitor only played 12 games in the postseason, less than the other highlighted players of this bunch, but he mashed. An unreal slash line of .447/.527/.851, a .557 wOBA, and a 260 wRC+ are just some of the numbers that illustrate just how good Molitor was in the ‘93 postseason. He walked 6 times, while only striking out 3 times.
Years of baseball lore are likely to overshadow the dominance Molitor displayed when he won MVP of the 1993 World Series. 12 hits in 24 at-bats with 0 strikeouts is simply unfathomable in today’s game. Paul Molitor did it.
Inner Half 