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The best single batting seasons by players 40 and over, 1871 to 2025, ranked by OPS+ (100 x OBP/lgOBP + SLG/lgSLG - 1, same league-season, no park adjustment). The top season: David Ortiz, age 40, 2016 (OPS+ 172). Filter by era below; every row with a committed career page links to it, and players outside our top-3,500 career-page set render as plain names.
Showing 57 of 57 ranked seasons
| # | Player | Age | Year | Team | OPS+ | OBP | SLG | HR | RBI | SB | PA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | David Ortiz | 40 | 2016 | BOS | 172 | .401 | .620 | 38 | 127 | 2 | 626 |
| 2 | Willie Mays | 40 | 1971 | SFN | 166 | .425 | .482 | 18 | 61 | 23 | 537 |
| 3 | Ty Cobb | 40 | 1927 | PHA | 146 | .440 | .482 | 5 | 93 | 22 | 574 |
| 4 | Dave Winfield | 40 | 1992 | TOR | 142 | .377 | .491 | 26 | 108 | 2 | 670 |
| 5 | Edgar Martinez | 40 | 2003 | SEA | 136 | .406 | .489 | 24 | 98 | 0 | 603 |
| 6 | Deacon White | 40 | 1888 | DTN | 135 | .336 | .381 | 4 | 71 | 12 | 557 |
| 7 | Honus Wagner | 41 | 1915 | PIT | 133 | .325 | .422 | 6 | 78 | 22 | 625 |
| 8 | Rickey Henderson | 40 | 1999 | NYN | 132 | .423 | .466 | 12 | 42 | 37 | 526 |
| 9 | Carlton Fisk | 42 | 1990 | CHA | 132 | .378 | .451 | 18 | 65 | 7 | 521 |
| 10 | Darrell Evans | 40 | 1987 | DET | 131 | .379 | .501 | 34 | 99 | 6 | 609 |
| 11 | Pete Rose | 40 | 1981 | PHI | 130 | .391 | .390 | 0 | 33 | 4 | 484 |
| 12 | Luke Appling | 40 | 1947 | CHA | 129 | .386 | .412 | 8 | 49 | 8 | 572 |
| 13 | Luke Appling | 42 | 1949 | CHA | 128 | .439 | .394 | 5 | 58 | 7 | 619 |
| 14 | Nelson Cruz | 40 | 2021 | MIN | 126 | .334 | .497 | 32 | 86 | 3 | 580 |
| 15 | Graig Nettles | 40 | 1985 | SDN | 126 | .363 | .420 | 15 | 61 | 0 | 515 |
| 16 | Sam Rice | 40 | 1930 | WS1 | 125 | .407 | .457 | 1 | 73 | 13 | 668 |
| 17 | Joe Start | 42 | 1885 | PRO | 122 | .344 | .326 | 0 | 41 | 0 | 413 |
| 18 | Cap Anson | 40 | 1892 | CHN | 120 | .354 | .354 | 1 | 74 | 13 | 630 |
| 19 | Jim O'Rourke | 40 | 1891 | NY1 | 119 | .334 | .398 | 5 | 95 | 19 | 587 |
| 20 | Joe Start | 41 | 1884 | PRO | 119 | .337 | .344 | 2 | 32 | 0 | 416 |
| 21 | Cap Anson | 43 | 1895 | CHN | 118 | .408 | .422 | 2 | 91 | 12 | 545 |
| 22 | Cap Anson | 41 | 1893 | CHN | 118 | .415 | .384 | 0 | 91 | 13 | 467 |
| 23 | Cap Anson | 44 | 1896 | CHN | 118 | .407 | .400 | 2 | 90 | 24 | 459 |
| 24 | Carl Yastrzemski | 42 | 1982 | BOS | 116 | .358 | .431 | 16 | 72 | 0 | 523 |
| 25 | Reggie Jackson | 40 | 1986 | CAL | 115 | .379 | .408 | 18 | 58 | 1 | 517 |
| 26 | Joe Start | 40 | 1883 | PRO | 115 | .324 | .373 | 1 | 57 | 0 | 392 |
| 27 | Luke Appling | 41 | 1948 | CHA | 114 | .423 | .354 | 0 | 47 | 10 | 594 |
| 28 | Kenny Lofton | 40 | 2007 | TEX | 107 | .367 | .414 | 7 | 38 | 23 | 559 |
| 29 | Paul Molitor | 40 | 1997 | MIN | 105 | .351 | .435 | 10 | 89 | 11 | 597 |
| 30 | Dave Winfield | 41 | 1993 | MIN | 105 | .325 | .442 | 21 | 76 | 2 | 594 |
| 31 | Jimmy Ryan | 40 | 1903 | WS1 | 104 | .290 | .373 | 7 | 46 | 9 | 474 |
| 32 | Nap Lajoie | 40 | 1915 | PHA | 102 | .301 | .355 | 1 | 61 | 10 | 520 |
| 33 | Lave Cross | 40 | 1906 | WS1 | 101 | .303 | .322 | 1 | 46 | 19 | 538 |
| 34 | Darrell Evans | 41 | 1988 | DET | 101 | .337 | .380 | 22 | 64 | 1 | 522 |
| 35 | Cap Anson | 45 | 1897 | CHN | 101 | .379 | .361 | 3 | 75 | 11 | 497 |
| 36 | Carl Yastrzemski | 41 | 1981 | BOS | 101 | .338 | .355 | 7 | 53 | 0 | 390 |
| 37 | Pete Rose | 41 | 1982 | PHI | 99 | .345 | .338 | 3 | 54 | 8 | 718 |
| 38 | George Brett | 40 | 1993 | KCA | 99 | .312 | .434 | 19 | 75 | 7 | 612 |
| 39 | Honus Wagner | 40 | 1914 | PIT | 95 | .317 | .317 | 1 | 50 | 23 | 616 |
| 40 | Hank Aaron | 41 | 1975 | ML4 | 95 | .332 | .355 | 12 | 60 | 0 | 543 |
| 41 | Jim O'Rourke | 42 | 1893 | WAS | 93 | .354 | .356 | 2 | 95 | 15 | 604 |
| 42 | Craig Biggio | 40 | 2006 | HOU | 90 | .306 | .422 | 21 | 62 | 3 | 607 |
| 43 | Edgar Martinez | 41 | 2004 | SEA | 90 | .342 | .385 | 12 | 63 | 1 | 549 |
| 44 | Deacon White | 42 | 1890 | BFP | 90 | .381 | .308 | 0 | 47 | 3 | 525 |
| 45 | Eddie Murray | 40 | 1996 | CLE | 87 | .327 | .417 | 22 | 79 | 4 | 637 |
| 46 | Paul Molitor | 41 | 1998 | MIN | 87 | .335 | .382 | 4 | 69 | 9 | 559 |
| 47 | Nelson Cruz | 41 | 2022 | WAS | 85 | .313 | .337 | 10 | 64 | 4 | 504 |
| 48 | Dave Parker | 40 | 1991 | CAL | 80 | .288 | .365 | 11 | 59 | 3 | 541 |
| 49 | Kid Gleason | 40 | 1906 | PHI | 77 | .281 | .269 | 0 | 34 | 17 | 562 |
| 50 | Carlos Beltran | 40 | 2017 | HOU | 77 | .283 | .383 | 14 | 51 | 0 | 509 |
| 51 | Derek Jeter | 40 | 2014 | NYA | 76 | .304 | .313 | 4 | 50 | 10 | 634 |
| 52 | Craig Biggio | 41 | 2007 | HOU | 75 | .285 | .381 | 10 | 50 | 4 | 555 |
| 53 | Pete Rose | 42 | 1983 | PHI | 74 | .316 | .286 | 0 | 45 | 7 | 555 |
| 54 | Cal Ripken | 40 | 2001 | BAL | 67 | .276 | .361 | 14 | 68 | 0 | 516 |
| 55 | Omar Vizquel | 40 | 2007 | SFN | 66 | .305 | .316 | 4 | 51 | 14 | 575 |
| 56 | Rabbit Maranville | 40 | 1932 | BSN | 62 | .295 | .284 | 0 | 37 | 4 | 635 |
| 57 | Rabbit Maranville | 41 | 1933 | BSN | 60 | .274 | .266 | 0 | 38 | 2 | 532 |
Single seasons with PA >= 3.1 x the league's scheduled games that year (the batting-title rule shape, applied era-consistently). Season age = age as of June 30 of the season year (the Baseball-Reference convention); a July-or-later birthday means one less. Era adjustment is league-season normalization only, not park-adjusted. Unrecorded early-era stats (HBP, SF, RBI) display an em dash exactly as the source records them.
A season's age is the player's age as of June 30 of the season year, the Baseball-Reference convention. Players with no recorded birth year are excluded rather than guessed. The board shows the union of the all-time top 60 seasons and the top 20 of each era, so every era filter has rows.
Batting boards cover every batting line regardless of position, so two-way seasons (Babe Ruth 1919, Shohei Ohtani 2021) count their batting lines. Pitching boards qualify a season on the starter bar (an inning per scheduled team game) or the reliever bar (a third of that).
The records come from the SABR / Sean Lahman baseball database (2025 edition), used under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0. See the sources page for every dataset behind Legends Deck.