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Top 10 First Basemen RIGHT NOW
The battle with MLB Network continues as we match up our best first sackers!
Joe Posnanski
February 12, 2025
I will be at the Bender JCC of Greater Washington in Rockville, Maryland, next Sunday, February 23, for a Franks and Football extravaganza. Commanders’ play-by-play guy and the excellent broadcaster Bram Weinstein will moderate the event. I would love to see you there.
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We’re continuing our series of “Top 10 Position Players RIGHT NOW,” where we compare our current Top 10 players against those of MLB Network’s infamous Shredder. So far, we’ve done:
Today, we’re at first base, and I’ve been thinking about the adjective “slick.” There are certain positions where you can be a slick fielder and others where you most definitely cannot. You really never hear about a “slick fielding catcher.” Shortstops are often slick fielders. Outfielders can be nicknamed “Slick” — Andy Van Slyke was*, and so was Negro Leagues outfielder Slick Surratt** — but it generally doesn’t have much to do with their defense.
*Outfielder Andy Van Slyke was called “Slick” — and he was a good fielder — but I always assumed that nickname was just a play on his last name and the way he carried hiumselfe. As his wife Lauri said when asked about the nickname: “So cocky, so cool, so arrogant, so full of pride.”
**Slick Surratt, who was a founding member of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, was good friends with the late Fay Vincent. Every time they got together, Vincent would ask Surratt to explain why he was called “Slick.” And every time Surratt refused. Finally, after years of this, a mutual friend asked Vincent if he’d ever figured it out.
“No,” Vincent said. “He won’t ever tell me why he’s called Slick.”
“Well,” the friend said, “that’s you’re answer right there, isn’t it?”
Anyway, my favorite use of the adjective “Slick” is when they talk about “slick-fielding first basemen.” That’s an image, right? When I hear those words — slick-fielding first baseman — I immediately think about Willie Montañez, who wasn’t necessarily a great defensive first baseman, but, wow, was he slick. Mark Grace was a slick fielder, I think. When I was a kid, I often heard Keith Hernandez and Don Mattingly referred to as slick fielders. Sometimes, an announcer would say that Jason Thompson was surprisingly slick.
I don’t know that there are any slick first basemen anymore. There are some good defensive first basemen for sure — Christian Walker has probably moved to the head of the line defensively, Carlos Santana somehow has emerged in his later years as a defensive dynamo, but slick? No. It just doesn’t quite fit. I think maybe it’s because to be a slick first baseman, you have to be left-handed much in the same way that to have a “sweet swing,” you have to swing left-handed.
Hey, I don’t make the rules here.
Player I wish I had room for on my list.
Triston Casas, Boston Red Sox
Having watched Casas a lot, I’m super-bullish on him. I just couldn’t justify putting him on the list until we see a full season from him.
No. 10
MLB Network: Paul Goldschmidt, New York Yankees
Me: Vinnie Pasquantino, Kansas City
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