How UNLV became the unlikely center of the college football universe
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Max Olson
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Max Olson
ESPN Staff Writer
- Covers the Big 12
- Joined ESPN in 2012
- Graduate of the University of Nebraska
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Kyle Bonagura
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Kyle Bonagura
ESPN Staff Writer
- Covers college football.
- Joined ESPN in 2014.
- Attended Washington State University.
LAS VEGAS — Erick Harper wrapped his head football coach in a hug. The UNLV athletic director met Barry Odom at the goal line inside Allegiant Stadium and embraced for one long moment Saturday afternoon before walking off the field together.
They had just reached new heights in the seemingly endless roller-coaster ride they were on, a 59-14 blowout win over Fresno State in which the Rebels were dominant in every way. Still, they looked more exhausted than exhilarated.
“You look at each other like, ‘It’s been a tough week, but I’m proud of how you handled this week. I’m proud of how you’ve led this team,'” Harper said. “There’s more for us out there.”
Last week, UNLV became the unlikely center of the college football universe as it navigated two unique situations, both of which could help shape the future of the sport. Harper arrived at a defining decision for the university, rejecting overtures from the rebuilding Pac-12 to remain in the Mountain West. This played out as Odom dealt with his starting quarterback quitting the team over NIL compensation and a public back and forth about what may or may not have been promised.
On their own, either situation would have been testing for an athletic department.
“It’s been good in the sense that we wanted to be on the national scene,” Harper said. “We got there, we just didn’t know it’d all be in one week.”
Ultimately, the school landed somewhere it feels comfortable. The football team moved into the AP Top 25 on Sunday for the first time in program history, and a Mountain West title — with a potential berth in the expanded, 12-team College Football Playoff — is a reasonable objective.
The Rebels are trying to go places they’ve never been before — including a Power 4 autonomy conference — and with that comes new challenges and a more intense spotlight.
“Unfortunately, it’s not always going to be sunny and 75,” Odom said. “There are things that happen and you work together, you find a way to continue to move the program and the athletic department forward. I know our leadership is strong and, you know, unfortunately, there’s no experience like sitting in the chair.”
WHEN NEWS BROKE on Sept. 11 that four Mountain West schools — Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Diego State — were leaving for the Pac-12, Harper had no warning. He learned the news on social media and was miffed why UNLV had been excluded from the process.
“Immediately, it was, ‘Where’d that come from?'” Harper said. “Tell me what decisions were made to include those four and not us? And I’m not saying we would’ve jumped in on the first wave, don’t get me wrong.”
The next 48 hours didn’t provide much clarity. During a news conference announcing the moves the next day, San Diego State president Adela de la Torre was asked about UNLV’s omission and said metrics used by the Pac-12 objectively determined the “best four” to be selected.
“I’m like, “What are the metrics?'” Harper said. “Based on what I understand, we are a Research 1 institution. We’ve got some recent success in football performance. We sit in a top-40 market. We have donor support, we have community support. We’re in the sports and entertainment capital of the world. Explain to me how some of those other schools can compare?
“If we try to read between the lines, the message I got is we’re not good enough. I’m sorry, but I do believe we are.”
After the Pac-12 added the four Mountain West schools, its primary focus shifted to the American Athletic Conference, with the hope to siphon some of its top schools — with Memphis as the priority — to create a best-of-the-rest football conference outside the Power 4.
As those conversations took place, Mountain West commissioner Gloria Nevarez worked to shore up her conference’s remaining membership, knowing the likelihood of the Pac-12 circling back. After Memphis, Tulane, UTSA and South Florida all released statements last Monday reaffirming their commitment to the AAC, the Pac-12’s focus shifted back to the Mountain West.
On that same day, the Mountain West began collecting signed commitments from member schools to remain in the conference, including one from UNLV. However, those were predicated on all eight remaining schools agreeing to stay. When Utah State decided to jump to the Pac-12 that evening, all bets were off. UNLV backed away from its pledge to the Mountain West and reconsidered a move to the Pac-12.
Harper and UNLV president Keith Whitfield remained in near-constant contact by phone or in person — mostly in Harper’s office, where he had piles of handwritten notes, typed notes and other documents they would use to inform their decision.
“Neither one of us has been through this before, but we wanted to make sure that we were on the same page,” Harper said.
One challenging part of the process, Harper said, was that any decision was going to be made largely based on projections. The Pac-12 couldn’t provide a financial guarantee about distribution without a media rights deal. The Mountain West doesn’t have a deal beyond the 2025-26 school year, either. It was safe to assume the distributions would eventually be much better because of the Pac-12’s stronger lineup of schools, but it’s unclear by how much.
With the five departing schools expected to pay about $18 million each in exit fees, the Mountain West found itself in a position to where it could use those funds to incentivize UNLV — and others — to stay.
But as all of this was being sorted out, UNLV found itself thrust into the national spotlight for a different reason.
LAST MONDAY, MATTHEW SLUKA was UNLV’s starting quarterback. On Tuesday, he was missing from practice. By Wednesday, he was gone.
The graduate transfer quarterback from Holy Cross had an extra season of eligibility following a decorated four-year run in the Patriot League and moved across the country to play at the FBS level. His father and agent both allege he was verbally promised $100,000 by offensive coordinator Brennan Marion during his recruitment. The problem? They never got that agreement in writing with UNLV’s NIL collective or leadership.
After receiving just $3,000 from the collective for a community event, Sluka’s agent, Marcus Cromartie, reached out in late August to discuss the quarterback’s deal. His father, Bob Sluka, said payments kept getting deferred. When it became clear the money wasn’t coming, Matthew Sluka opted to redshirt for the rest of the season and transfer in December. From Sluka’s perspective, this wasn’t about demanding more money after a 3-0 start, it was about getting what he believed he was originally owed.
“We have no idea what the hell happened,” Bob Sluka told ESPN. “No one can explain this. Why would you let your starting quarterback walk out of the building?”
Former Holy Cross coach Bob Chesney told reporters Monday that Sluka turned down more money from Power 4 programs this spring — in the range of $350,000 to $600,000 — out of loyalty to his commitment to UNLV.
“Whatever happened there, I can’t necessarily speak to, but I can assure you that it has nothing to do with money,” said Chesney, who’s now leading James Madison. “Maybe trust and [keeping your] word and things of that nature.”
UNLV officials have said little publicly. In a statement last Wednesday, the school said Sluka’s “representatives made financial demands upon the University and its NIL collective in order to continue playing.”
The school added that it viewed those demands for payment as impermissible pay-for-play and didn’t respond to “implied threats.” Harper said all football-related NIL dealings go through Odom, not assistant coaches, and he’s confident the school has handled the issue appropriately.
“We’ve done our due diligence and we move on,” Harper said. “I wish Sluka the best.”
Last Wednesday morning, a rep for Circa Resort and Casino CEO Derek Stevens called UNLV to ask if he could cover the $100,000 to keep Sluka on the team and keep the program’s CFP hopes alive. By then, it was too late.
But Odom had a feeling they were going to be just fine. Sluka’s sudden exit was an unprecedented twist to a promising season, but players weren’t panicking.
“I thought our Tuesday practice was the best one we’ve had all year,” Odom said. “I thought our Wednesday was even better than that.”
BY THE TIME the Sluka fiasco had mostly been dealt with, Harper and Whitfield had inched closer to, again, committing to a future in the Mountain West.
There were constructive conversations with the Pac-12 over the previous two days, but the financial package engineered by Mountain West chief financial officer Gary Walenga provided short-term financial guarantees in a way that UNLV felt it would not have by exiting.
UNLV expects to receive a lump sum payment of between $10-14 million from the Mountain West in 2025, with additional payments between $1.5 to $1.8 million annually starting in July 2026. Staying also meant UNLV would avoid being on the hook for the $18 million exit fee (less what is believed to have been a roughly $6 million portion the Pac-12 would have covered.)
Several industry sources were puzzled by the decision, citing a belief that the eventual gap between the Pac-12 and Mountain West media deals will likely be large enough to pay off in the long run.
On top of that, there’s what this signals about the school’s ambition.
By choosing to align with the Mountain West, UNLV has grouped itself with schools that have not invested in football on the level of their peers in the western part of the country. At almost every juncture in realignment over the past several years, schools have attempted to move to conferences with stronger competition. UNLV is an outlier, content to stay loyal to a league that lost five of its best brands within a matter of weeks.
As part of the release announcing its decision Thursday, UNLV said it “will also have the flexibility to explore future membership in an autonomous “Power Four’ conference without penalty should the opportunity become available.”
While this is technically true, the idea that UNLV will generate interest from a Power 4 conference in the next few years is a long shot, at best, and suggesting that possibility played a role in remaining in the Mountain West is unconvincing.
Harper was undeterred by some of the negative reaction that arrived when UNLV announced it would stay Thursday.
“The shots we took on social media for not just jumping at it right away — well, sometimes one plus one doesn’t equal two and two plus two doesn’t always equal four,” he said.
“If I could release all the financials, everybody would understand more of our decision. There’s a lot that still needs to play out, but it’s kind of interesting how the Memphis AD said [the Pac-12’s offer] was a bad deal for them. I think at this point that’s probably about all I would say. Yeah, overall complexity of the deal and all the evaluation, it wasn’t a good deal once you look at the now, the middle and the future. It didn’t make sense.”
HAJI-MALIK WILLIAMS dropped the football in the end zone, looked up to the crowd and tapped a finger to his left wrist.
After punching in his first touchdown as a Rebel, a 6-yard run on a perfectly executed option keeper, Williams was making a declaration: It’s his time now.
UNLV’s new starting quarterback is no rookie. The sixth-year senior will turn 25 in November. Like Sluka, Williams had an extra season of eligibility after a record-setting career at the FCS level at Campbell. He joined this program back in January and worked to earn his teammates’ trust. Williams lost a close competition with Sluka in preseason camp. Now he’s getting his chance.
“He’s a leader,” said senior linebacker Jackson Woodard, a team captain. “He knows what it takes. He’s the first one in the building.”
Twenty minutes before kickoff against Fresno State, Williams was announced as UNLV’s starter on Allegiant Stadium videoboards to roaring applause. A young fan had a front-row seat right behind the Rebels’ sideline and held up a large white sign: “Hey Sluka it’s UNLV not UNILV.”
Williams won over the fan base with ease. The 6-foot-1, 205-pound playmaker demonstrated impressive command of Marion’s Go-Go offense and its triple option concepts. He put up big numbers against the Bulldogs and did so with efficiency, hitting 13 of 16 passes for 182 yards and three touchdowns and turning 12 rushes into 119 yards and another score.
“The change, it was definitely good for us,” UNLV receiver Ricky White III said.
Odom was careful not to heap praise on his new QB1. Williams played with poise, he said, but everybody around him stepped up. Four interceptions on defense. Two touchdowns on special teams. They never trailed and never doubted.
“They were on a mission to try to be as good as we can get,” Odom said. “We’re not there yet, but I knew we would take a step this week in galvanizing as a team and continuing to move forward.”
The 45-point win in fact was the program’s largest margin of victory in a Mountain West game since the league formed in 1999. The Rebels are off to their first 4-0 start since 1976. They’ve firmly established themselves as a front-runner for the Group of 5 automatic bid in the expanded playoff. Boise State (No. 21) and UNLV (No. 25) are the only G5 teams currently ranked in the AP poll. They’ll meet on Oct. 25.
As the Rebels made their way off the field after the rout, senior defensive lineman Alexander Whitmore held a souvenir from a chaotic week. He folded up the fan’s white Sluka sign and took it with him.
“We’ve got 109 guys in the locker room now,” Odom said. “We need all 109 to accept their role, continue to improve in what they’re doing and then put the team first.”
That’s what White had in mind when he spoke up at the end of UNLV’s postgame news conference. He wished to send a message to Stevens and Circa Sports.
“I would ask that somebody reach out to the Circa CEO and ask him, with that $100,000 that he wanted to donate, give it to our O-line please,” White said with a smile.
Harper chuckled when he heard that line. He says he’s ready to meet with Stevens and discuss a much grander deal. He knows it’s going to take some serious fundraising if they hope to sustain this success and retain their head coach.
“Donors, get ready,” Harper said. “Because we’ll be coming and asking.”
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David Schoenfield
For almost a decade, Mike Trout was the unquestioned best player in baseball.
From 2012 to 2019, he won the American League MVP award three times and finished second in the voting four times. In the years he didn’t win, he led the AL three times in WAR; in 2017, he led the AL in OBP, slugging and OPS, but he sat out some time and finished a mere fourth in the voting; and in 2018, it took a herculean season from Mookie Betts to beat out Trout in what was one of Trout’s best seasons. Really, he wasn’t that far away from winning eight consecutive MVPs.
But since then, it feels as if we’ve been robbed of the second half of the career of one of the game’s all-time greats. Trout has been injured much of the time since 2021, playing in only about 42% of the games the Los Angeles Angels have played. Right now, he’s injured again because of a bone bruise in his left knee; when he has played this season, he cracked nine home runs in 29 games but was also hitting just .179. He had similar results in the 29 games he played before tearing the meniscus in his left knee last season, when he hit .220 with 10 home runs. Admitting the injuries and Trout’s age — he’s 33 — have caught him up, the Angels finally moved him off center field this season.
Those prolonged absences have allowed Betts, who continues to play at a high level and ranks third among position players in WAR this decade, to slowly close the gap on Trout. It’s now an argument to consider: Is Betts poised to pass Trout as the best player of their generation?
First, we need to define what “their generation” is. When generations are discussed in demographic terms, the division is done by birth years, usually lasting 15 to 20 years or so. Trout was born in 1991, so under this definition, his “generation” could extend all the way from players born in the 1970s to the late 2000s and include the likes of Derek Jeter (born in 1974), Alex Rodriguez (1975), Albert Pujols (1980), Clayton Kershaw (1988), Juan Soto (1998), Paul Skenes (2002) and Jackson Merrill (2003).
That’s a broad swath of birth dates — too broad. Instead, let’s categorize generational value using the same years as defined in pop culture — Baby Boomers, Gen X, etc. — but with a twist: looking at value accumulated only in those specific years (not the years in which the players were born).
This is a thought exercise as much as a hardcore statistical study, because we do talk about generations (or eras) all the time in baseball — the dead ball era, the steroid era, the wild-card era and so on. As we take a deeper dive into how Trout and Betts compare, let’s also go through each generation to see which players ruled those periods in the sport, ending with the great Generation Alpha debate between Trout and Betts (and yes, Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani might pop up, too).
Trout vs. Betts by the numbers
Trout was piling up so much WAR at such a young age that we used to do monthly updates on all the players he had just passed on the career WAR list. His run began as a rookie in 2012 in his age-20 season, when he hit .326 with 30 home runs and led the AL in runs scored and stolen bases. And for a long time, he looked destined to become one of the greatest players of all time — the inner circle of the inner circle. Look at where he ranked on the career WAR leaderboard for position players through each age:
Age 20, 2012 season: 11.0 (second behind Mel Ott)
Age 21, 2013: 19.9 (first, ahead of Ott)
Age 22, 2014: 27.6 (first, ahead of Ty Cobb and Ott)
Age 23, 2015: 37.1 (first, ahead of Cobb and Ted Williams)
Age 24, 2016: 47.5 (first, ahead of Cobb and Mickey Mantle)
Age 25, 2017: 54.4 (second, behind Cobb)
Age 26, 2018: 64.3 (first, ahead of Cobb and Mantle)
Age 27, 2019: 72.2 (first, ahead of Cobb and Mantle)
Then, starting with the COVID-shortened 2020 season, Trout’s pace took a downturn.
Age 28, 2020: 74.0 (fourth, behind Cobb, Rogers Hornsby and Mantle)
Age 29, 2021: 75.9 (sixth, now behind Ott and Alex Rodriguez)
Age 30, 2022: 82.0 (fifth, climbing back ahead of Ott)
Age 31, 2023: 84.9 (10th, with Babe Ruth, Henry Aaron and Willie Mays passing him)
Age 32, 2024: 86.0 (15th, with Barry Bonds jumping ahead for the first time)
This takes us to 2025, Trout’s age-33 season. He’s currently squeezed on the all-time list between Jimmie Foxx and Eddie Mathews — two players, coincidentally, who had already compiled more than 89% of their career WAR total through their age-32 seasons.
Meanwhile, with Trout sitting out so many games in the past several years, Betts started making a run at Trout for best player of their generation. Trout still has a significant lead in lifetime WAR, 85.8 to 72.2, but consider Betts’ advantages in this statistical chase:
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He’s a year younger (Trout was born in August 1991, Betts in October 1992).
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He’s playing at a higher level, averaging 7.8 WAR per 162 games since 2022, compared to 6.2 for Trout (we went back to 2022 to include Trout’s high rate of production that season).
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He obviously has stayed on the field much more, playing 579 games since 2021 compared to 295 for Trout.
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His ability to move to shortstop means he’ll continue to accumulate more defensive value.
And Betts has also been incredibly consistent in the age/WAR chart:
Through age 23: 18.1 (33rd)
Through age 26: 42.5 (21st)
Through age 29: 57.0 (28th)
Through age 31: 70.3 (24th)
Betts took a small dip through age 29 due to the COVID-shortened season and then had the worst season of his career in 2021, when he produced 4.1 WAR (still a strong season for most players), but he bounced back with 6.7, 8.6 and 4.8 WAR over the next three seasons. (That 2024 number of 4.8 WAR came in 116 games, as he sat out time because of a broken hand after getting hit by a pitch).
He’s not off to a sizzling start in 2025, but he’s still on pace for another 6-win season. If he does do that this season and next, he would be around 83 career WAR at the end of 2026, his age-33 season, which would move him into 20th in the rankings at that age — just behind where Trout sits.
There’s no guarantee how Betts will age into his late 30s, but one key attribute he has been able to maintain as he gets older is his contact ability. In fact, the lowest strikeout rates of Betts’ career have been 2024 (11.0%) and 2025 (9.2%). Trout, meanwhile, has posted his worst strikeout rates in 2023 (28.7%) and 2025 (29.8%). Those numbers point to Betts continuing to age well and post respectable offensive numbers while Trout probably will continue to post low batting averages mixed in with some home runs.
It makes Betts catching Trout feel attainable, unless Trout has a career renaissance. History might show how unlikely that is. Mantle and Ken Griffey Jr., two other all-time great center fielders, battled injuries in their 30s and were never able to reclaim their past glory. Mantle had just 11.9 WAR from age 33 on, and Griffey had just 6.4.
Where do Judge and Ohtani fit in? Back to Generation Alpha in a moment, after we look back at how the debates over past generations’ greatest players played out.
Generational breakdown
Asking “Who is the greatest player?” isn’t necessarily an easy question with a simple answer. There can be three different ways to approach this:
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Who has the most accumulated value in this period? We’ll use WAR, as we did above with Trout and Betts.
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Who has the highest peak level of performance over a shorter number of seasons? Trout dominated the sport for eight seasons.
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Who is the most iconic player of this generation? That’s a fuzzier notion, but it’s more about which player will be most remembered or who best defines the particular era.
We’ll dig into all three of those for each generation. Let’s start back in 1901.
The Greatest Generation (1901-27)
Top five in WAR
Walter Johnson: 155.1
Ty Cobb: 149.4
Tris Speaker: 134.4
Babe Ruth: 133.5
Eddie Collins: 124.2
Next five: Honus Wagner (113.8), Grover Alexander (111.3), Christy Mathewson (101.1), Rogers Hornsby (100.8), Nap Lajoie: 89.3
Best peak: 1. Ruth, 1921-27 (10.3 average WAR per season); 2. Johnson, 1912-19 (11.5 average WAR per season); 3. Hornsby, 1920-25 (9.9 average WAR per season, hit .397)
Most iconic player: Ruth
This generation’s biggest debate: Cobb and the dead ball era vs. Ruth and the home run
Ruth, of course, had additional value beyond 1927 that pushed him past Cobb in career WAR. But the idea that Ruth was the superior player wasn’t necessarily the consensus view until around maybe 1960 or so — and, of course, modern metrics now clearly show Ruth as the more valuable player. In the first Hall of Fame vote in 1936, Cobb received more votes and many contemporaries appreciated him in an era of more “scientific” baseball.
“The Babe was a great ballplayer, sure, but Cobb was even greater. Babe could knock your brains out, but Cobb would drive you crazy,” said Speaker, who played against both.
The Silent Generation (1928-45)
Top five in WAR
Mel Ott: 111.8
Lefty Grove: 98.0
Lou Gehrig: 91.2
Jimmie Foxx: 90.9
Charlie Gehringer: 79.9
Next five: Arky Vaughan (75.9), Carl Hubbell (68.8), Joe Cronin (64.5), Paul Waner (62.2), Babe Ruth (58.9)
Best peak: 1. Ruth, 1928-32 (9.5 average WAR per season); 2. Gehrig, 1930-36 (8.8 average WAR per season, averaged 155 RBIs); 3. Grove, 1928-33 (8.8 average WAR per season, averaged 25 wins)
Most iconic: Ruth/Gehrig/Joe DiMaggio
This generation’s biggest debate: DiMaggio vs. Ted Williams
That’s how good Ruth was: He cracked the top 10 in career value in two different generations, including that monster five-year stretch when he hit .348/.475/.701 and topped the AL four times in WAR while averaging 47 home runs and 150 RBIs. Ott’s career perfectly overlaps with this timeline, as his first full season was as a 19-year-old with the New York Giants in 1928 and his last as a regular was in 1945. He was a truly great — and underrated — player but rarely remembered now.
But the most compelling debate kicked off near the end of this generation. DiMaggio reached the majors in 1936 and the Yankees immediately won four straight World Series and then another in 1941. Williams reached the majors in 1939 and hit .406 in 1941 — and finished second in the MVP voting to DiMaggio (who had his 56-game hitting streak that season). Who was better? Are DiMaggio’s World Series rings more impressive than Williams’ statistical superiority? The player with the record hitting streak or the last player to hit .400? The debate would continue into the early years of the next generation (Williams won the Triple Crown in 1947, but DiMaggio again won MVP honors).
Baby Boomers (1946-64)
Top five in WAR
Willie Mays: 108.9
Stan Musial: 104.1
Mickey Mantle: 98.4
Warren Spahn: 92.5
Ted Williams: 87.7
Next five: Eddie Mathews (85.9), Henry Aaron (80.8), Robin Roberts (80.6), Duke Snider (65.9), Richie Ashburn (64.3)
Best peak: 1. Mays, 1954-64 (9.4 average WAR per season for over a decade); 2. Mantle, 1955-58 (10.2 average WAR per season); 3. Williams, 1946-1949 (9.4 average WAR per season)
Most iconic: Mantle
This generation’s biggest debate: Mays vs. Mantle
Mays over Musial and Mantle as the best player of the Baby Boomer generation isn’t a slam dunk. Musial gets two of his three MVP awards in this time frame and Mantle gets all three of his; Mays won only one (with his second coming in 1965). Musial also finished second in the MVP voting four times and had a slew of other top-10 finishes (as did Mays, of course). At his best, Mantle was a better hitter than Mays:
Mantle, 1954-64: .312/.440/.605, 397 HRs, 185 OPS+, 622 batting runs above average
Mays, 1954-64: .318/.392/.601, 429 HRs, 166 OPS+, 561 batting runs above average
As for iconic, it’s Mantle over Mays, Musial and Williams with Jackie Robinson deserving an honorable mention as a different sort of icon. Musial might have been the most popular player across the sport at the time. Mantle was in the World Series almost every year with the Yankees, won seven of them, and even now, his baseball cards still carry the ultimate premium. Ask any Baby Boomer: The Yankees defined the 1950s and Mantle defined the Yankees.
Generation X (1965-80)
Top five in WAR
Joe Morgan: 88.8
Tom Seaver: 88.8
Gaylord Perry: 84.0
Phil Niekro: 82.5
Carl Yastrzemski: 80.3
Next five: Ferguson Jenkins (78.2), Pete Rose (76.7), Johnny Bench (72.9), Reggie Jackson (70.0), Rod Carew (69.8)
Best peak: 1. Morgan, 1972-76 (9.6 average WAR per season); 2. Bob Gibson, 1965-70 (7.6 average WAR per season, led all players in WAR 1968, 1969 and 1970); 3. Mike Schmidt, 1974-80 (8.2 average WAR per season)
Most iconic: Rose or Reggie … or Nolan Ryan?
This generation’s biggest debate: Rose or Reggie … or Nolan Ryan?
This generation shows how peak value can cement a player’s legacy. Gibson didn’t have the career value of fellow pitchers Perry or Niekro, but his legacy is much stronger. In fact, that five-year peak would be even higher except he broke his leg in 1967, only to return and win three games in the World Series.
The most iconic debate is the interesting one. Throughout the 1970s, Rose and Reggie were the towering figures in the game — Charlie Hustle and Mr. October. They weren’t the best players, but Rose was the most popular, Jackson more controversial. Even Rose’s recent reinstatement shows how he continues to impact the headlines, even in death. Ryan would be a late entry to the icon discussion. He didn’t really become an iconic figure until late in his career with the Texas Rangers in the late 1980s and early 1990s — when he kept racking up no-hitters and strikeouts deep into his 40s — but he now possesses a larger-than-life persona that might even exceed Rose and Jackson.
Millennials (1981-96)
Top five in WAR
Rickey Henderson: 95.7
Cal Ripken: 88.8
Wade Boggs: 88.2
Barry Bonds: 83.6
Roger Clemens: 80.8
Next five: Ryne Sandberg (67.1), Ozzie Smith (66.9), Tim Raines (66.5), Lou Whitaker (65.1), Alan Trammell (63.0)
Best peak: 1. Bonds, 1990-96 (8.6 average WAR per season, three MVP awards); 2. Greg Maddux, 1992-96 (8.1 average WAR per season, four Cy Young Awards); 3. Roger Clemens, 1986-92 (8.3 average WAR per season, three Cy Youngs)
Most iconic: Ken Griffey Jr.
This generation’s biggest debate: Bonds vs. Griffey
Look … even pre-alleged-PED Bonds was a better player than Griffey. Bonds’ 1993 season, right before the offensive explosion across the sport, was a season for the ages: .336/.458/.677, 9.9 WAR. He had an OPS+ of 206; from 1962 through 1993, only four players had an OPS+ over 200: Willie McCovey in 1969, George Brett in 1980 and Bonds in 1992 and ’93.
From 1991 to 1998, Griffey’s peak, he averaged 7.2 WAR per season and led AL position players three times in WAR. From 1990 to 1998, Bonds averaged 8.5 WAR and led NL position players seven times in WAR. Bonds got on base more and was the better base stealer, and though he didn’t play center field, he was a spectacular left fielder (especially earlier in his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates). In those pre-WAR days, the debate was a lot more hotly contested and Griffey was generally regarded as the better player.
But most iconic? The Kid in a landslide.
Generation Z (1997-2012)
Top five in WAR
Alex Rodriguez: 107.0
Albert Pujols: 91.5
Barry Bonds: 79.1
Chipper Jones: 76.2
Randy Johnson: 74.1
Next five: Pedro Martinez (71.6), Scott Rolen (70.4), Derek Jeter (69.9), Roy Halladay (66.5), Carlos Beltran (65.5)
Best peak: 1. Bonds, 2000-04 (10.2 average WAR per season, four MVP awards); 2. Johnson, 1999-2002 (9.5 average WAR per season, four straight Cy Young Awards, averaged 354 strikeouts); 3. Martinez, 1997-2000 (9.4 average WAR per season, 2.16 ERA)
Most iconic: Jeter
This generation’s biggest debate: Jeter vs. A-Rod
This era might top the others in terms of peak performances. We could have also listed Rodriguez, who averaged 8.3 WAR and 46 home runs from 1998 to 2005 (and that doesn’t include 9.4 WAR seasons in 1996 and 2007). Or Pujols, who had seven consecutive 8-plus WAR seasons from 2003 to 2009. Or Mark McGwire’s four-year run from 1996 to 1999, when he averaged 61 home runs. Or Sammy Sosa averaging 58 home runs in a five-year span. Or Ichiro Suzuki’s incredible 10 consecutive seasons with 200 hits.
But the Jeter/A-Rod debate takes in everything about this complicated era. In the end, Rodriguez had the numbers and Jeter had the rings and the fist pumps from the top step of the dugout.
Generation Alpha (2010-25)
Top five in WAR
Mike Trout: 85.8
Mookie Betts: 72.2
Max Scherzer: 71.9
Clayton Kershaw: 70.1
Justin Verlander: 65.8
Next five: Paul Goldschmidt (63.9), Freddie Freeman (62.7), Manny Machado (59.1), Nolan Arenado (57.4), Aaron Judge (56.4)
Best peak: 1. Trout, 2012-19 (9.0 average WAR per season); 2. Shohei Ohtani (2021-??); 3. Aaron Judge (2022-??)
Most iconic: Umm …
Now we get back to Generation Alpha. There seems to be some disagreement on when it begins — maybe it’s 2010, maybe 2012 or 2013. And maybe it ends in 2025 or 2027. But for this exercise, we started in 2010, which is convenient when discussing Trout and Betts since their entire careers encompass this time frame.
Trout, even sitting out all that time in recent seasons, holds the lead in career WAR. What’s interesting is he’s not yet at 400 home runs, 1,000 RBIs or close to 2,000 hits, so his career counting totals lag behind players with similar WAR.
His value at his peak was posting high on-base percentages and high slugging percentages in the 2010s, when offense was somewhat down for much of the decade. His career wRC+, which makes those era-related adjustments, is 168, seventh all-time behind Ruth, Williams, Bonds, Gehrig, Hornsby and Mantle. That’s with a cutoff of 5,000 plate appearances. If we lower it to 4,500 plate appearances, Judge comes in third behind Ruth and Williams.
Ahh, yes, Judge and Ohtani. Both are close to Trout and Betts in age (Judge is only a few months younger than Trout, and Ohtani was born in 1994, making him three years younger). Neither made their debut until halfway through this generation and are thus currently significantly behind in career value — Judge is at 56.4, Ohtani at 46.4. Both are accumulating it at Secretariat-like speed, but even if we extend this generational period a few more years, they won’t catch Trout or even Betts in WAR within the time frame.
But most iconic? That’s a debate. Trout, despite the MVP honors, has one postseason appearance way back in 2014, a bunch of losing seasons on a franchise that failed to build around him, and — fair or not — never had that undefinable “it’ factor the way Griffey did.
Maybe the most iconic is Judge, although he has never won a World Series either, struggled for the most part in his playoff appearances and his peak seasons are, for now, limited to 2017, 2022, 2024 and 2025. Still, he seems to be improving at 33 years old; who knows how many more historic seasons he still has in him. Maybe it will be Ohtani, who is now in the fifth season of his unicorn status. He has pitched in three of those seasons, had the first 50/50 season in 2024 that earned him his third MVP award and now he’s maybe on his way to a fourth MVP, especially if he returns to pitching later this season, which is still the plan.
Or maybe it’s even Betts. He has played for two of the sport’s glamour franchises: the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers. He has won an MVP, six Gold Gloves and seven Silver Sluggers. He’s also won three World Series titles — and is still going strong. He’s like Jeter in that he’ll do whatever it takes to win, like moving from the outfield to second base or shortstop (and he already has more career WAR than Jeter).
The answer? Well, the answer is we still have a lot of baseball for these guys to play — and that makes us all fortunate baseball fans.
Ranger Suárez pitched into the seventh inning to outduel German Márquez, and the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Colorado Rockies 2-0 on Thursday to sweep a four-game series.
Colorado fell to 8-42 — the worst 50-game start in Major League Baseball’s modern era (since 1901). Before that, you have to go back to the 1895 Louisville Colonels (7-43) to find a worse start.
The Rockies are 5-20 at home and on pace to lose 136 games this season, which would pass the 1899 Cleveland Spiders (20-134) for the most losses by an MLB team. By contrast, the Chicago White Sox set the modern-era record for losses last season with 121.
Philadelphia, meanwhile, has won seven straight overall and 11 of its past 12 on the road en route to the best 50-game mark (32-18) in the National League this season. The Phillies have won four straight road series. They have also won all seven games against the Rockies this season — the first time in franchise history they have swept a season series of at least seven games.
Suárez (3-0) struck out six and walked three in 6⅔ innings. He left after giving up a two-out double to Jordan Beck and a walk to Ezequiel Tovar.
Orion Kerkering came on and retired Hunter Goodman on one pitch to end the threat. Jordan Romano got the final three outs for his sixth save.
Márquez (1-7) gave up two runs — one earned — on four hits, struck out five and walked two.
“I feel like every day is our day, and we have to go out there and do the best to win,” Márquez told reporters after the game. “I feel we need to be together, and I feel we’re closer to that point.”
Márquez walked Kyle Schwarber leading off the seventh, and Max Kepler drove him home with a one-out double to make it 2-0.
Bryce Harper‘s double in the fourth scored Bryson Stott, who reached on an error leading off the inning.
Colorado had an opportunity to get on the scoreboard in the second inning. Brenton Doyle tripled with one out, but Tyler Freeman grounded out to Trea Turner at short and Kyle Farmer flew out to end the inning and keep the game scoreless.
The Rockies have been shut out eight times this season, and their 45 errors through 50 games are the most by an MLB team since the 2019 Seattle Mariners.
With the New York Yankees arriving to start a three-game series Friday, it continues to look bleak for the Rockies, who have yet to announce a starter for that game.
ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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