Is Randy Arozarena the greatest postseason hitter of all time?

There is currently a rookie taking the baseball world by storm.

Evan Carter of the Texas Rangers is enjoying quite the onset of his career in the big leagues, having played a major role in the Rangers postseason success thus far. However, the young budding star still would need to reach into another stratosphere in order to reach the heights of another rookie that made his name known in the postseason.

The player to which I am referring is, of course, Randy Arozarena.

One can easily say a player is the best playoff performer of all time, but Arozarena has the numbers to back up the claim and leave little dispute as to whether that statement is fact or opinion.

Since 1903, there have been 385 different players to accumulate at least 100 plate appearances in the postseason and since 1903, none of those players has had better offensive output than Randy Arozarena. During his historic 2020 dominance, Randy broke and set numerous offensive records for a player during a single postseason; among these were most homeruns (10), hits (29), and total bases (64).

Brett Phillips summed it up perfectly when he drew it up on a clipboard, “Rakes All Night Day Year.”

During the 2020 postseason, Arozerana ended up hitting .337/.442/.831 with 10 homeruns over 20 games and 86 plate appearances. Arozarena’s numbers during that postseason still hold up as some of the best ever produced during a single playoff run by a player.

Of the 557 players that have totaled at least 50 plate appearances during a single playoff run, here is how Arozarena fares:

wRC+: 240 - 5th (0.9 percentile)
AVG: .377 - 18th (3.2 percentile)
OBP: .442 - 32nd (5.7 percentile)
SLG: .831 - 4th (0.7 percentile)
OPS: 1.273 - 7th (1.3 percentile)
wOBA: .515 - 9th (1.6 percentile)
ISO: .455 - 4th (0.7 percentile)
HR: 10 - 1st (0.2 percentile)
Since postseason play began, Randy Arozarena is truly in among the greatest to ever play the game when it comes to offensive production and the numbers below easily prove this case:

PLAYERS RANKED BY POSTSEASON AVG (min. 100 PA)

1. .361 - Lou Gehrig
2. .359 - Paul Molitor
3. .357 - Thurman Munson
4. .339 -Darin Erstad
5. .338 - Steve Garvey
-
9. .336 - Randy Arozarena

PLAYERS RANKED BY POSTSEASON OBP (min. 100 PA)

1. .477 - Lou Gehrig
2. .467 - Babe Ruth
3. .442 - Gene Woodling
4. .433 - Lenny Dykstra
5. .433 - Barry Bonds
-
11. .414 - Randy Arozarena

PLAYERS RANKED BY POSTSEASON SLG (min. 100 PA)

1. .744 - Babe Ruth
2. .731 - Lou Gehrig
3. .690 - Randy Arozarena
4. .661 - Lenny Dykstra
5. .635 - Giancarlo Stanton

PLAYERS RANKED BY POSTSEASON wRC+ (min. 100 PA)

1. 199 - Randy Arozarena
2. 195 - Lenny Dykstra
3. 195 - Babe Ruth
4. 192 - Lou Gehrig
5. 182 - Paul Molitor

Despite not topping the leaderboards in several of the individual categories, Arozarena holds the best wRC+, thus indicating he is the most above average hitter in the postseason when adjusted for ballparks and era.

At least this far in his career, Randy is the GOAT.