The best baseball players born on March 21

Who are the best players born on each day of the year? We have a list for every day on the calendar.

Here’s a subjective ranking of the top five for March 21.

1) Manny Sanguillen (1944)
Few players can match the kind of long-lasting impact on an organization that the Panamanian-born backstop has had with the Pirates. Sanguillen, who was inducted into the Pirates' Hall of Fame in 2024, was one of the most accomplished catchers of his era, posting a career .296 batting average and making three All-Star teams. He won World Series titles with the Pirates in 1971 and '79, helping the Bucs even the '79 Fall Classic with a game-winning pinch-hit in Game 2. After his close friend and teammate Roberto Clemente died in a plane crash on New Year’s Eve in 1972, Sanguillen joined the search party and braved shark-infested waters to look for Clemente and other victims. Sanguillen, who is perhaps best-known to younger Pirates fans for his beloved BBQ stand at PNC Park, also had the rare distinction of being traded for a manager -- fellow Bucs legend Chuck Tanner.

2) Tommy Davis (1939)
Davis won consecutive National League batting titles with the Dodgers in 1962 and '63, leading the Majors in average (.346), hits (230) and RBIs (153) and finishing third in the NL MVP Award voting behind teammate Maury Wills and the Giants’ Willie Mays in the first of those seasons. In Game 2 of the 1963 Fall Classic against the Yankees, he became the fifth player to record multiple triples in a World Series game. Davis is also part of the fraternity of players who have played for 10 or more franchises.

3) Carlos Carrasco (1987)
Carrasco took some time to find his footing, but he eventually became one of the top pitchers in the American League, recording a 3.27 ERA (133 ERA+) with 963 strikeouts over 856 innings with Cleveland from 2014-18. The right-hander was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia during the 2019 season, but he was able to return to the mound and was named the AL Comeback Player of the Year. Carrasco was sent to the Mets with shortstop Francisco Lindor in a blockbuster trade prior to the 2021 season, and in '22 put together a 15-win season for New York. After returning to Cleveland for the '24 campaign, Carrasco signed a free-agent deal with a Yankees in February 2025.

4) Aaron Hill (1982)
Hill played for five teams in 13 seasons and hit 162 homers, including 36 for the Blue Jays in 2009. As a member of the D-backs in 2012, Hill hit for the cycle on June 18 and 29, becoming the second player in the modern era (since 1900) to record multiple cycles in a season (Babe Herman was the first in 1931).

5) Shawon Dunston (1963)
After being selected with the first overall pick in the 1982 MLB Draft by the Cubs, Dunston played 18 seasons in the Majors and earned two All-Star selections. He broke a scoreless tie with a fifth-inning homer off Kevin Appier in Game 6 of the 2002 World Series with the Giants, which turned out to be the final game of his career.

Other notables:

Frankie Montas (1993)
Montas has gone 44-46 with a 4.09 ERA over nine seasons with five teams. His best year thus far was 2021, when he recorded a 2.24 ERA over his final 17 starts to earn a sixth-place finish in the AL Cy Young Award voting. After going 7-11 with a 4.84 in 30 starts between the Brewers and Reds in '24, Montas signed a two-year deal with the Mets.

Cristian Guzman (1978)
Initially a Yankees farmhand, Guzman was included in the 1998 trade that sent second baseman Chuck Knoblauch from Minnesota to the Bronx. The shortstop earned an All-Star selection with the Twins in 2001 and another with the Nationals in 2008. He’s one of only six players in the expansion era (since 1961) to record 20 triples in a season, joining George Brett, Willie Wilson, Lance Johnson, Curtis Granderson and Jimmy Rollins.

Want to see more baseball birthdays for March 21? Find the complete list on Baseball-Reference.