Texas Rangers: The most valuable players in team history

Throughout Washington Senators and Texas Rangers history, these players proved to be most valuable.

MLB.com defines WAR as “a player’s value in all facets of the game by deciphering how many more wins he’s worth than a replacement-level player at his same position.”

In an era when sabermetrics are kind, WAR rules above them all.

Rating players based off their WAR helps differentiate the studs from the duds, and is becoming more important in deciding awards, All-Stars and Hall of Fame votes.

MLB.com says that WAR is useful because of how it compares players, especially players with similar stats at different positions.

"WAR quantifies each player’s value in terms of a specific numbers of wins. And because WAR factors in a positional adjustment, it is well suited for comparing players who man different defensive positions."

For example, if a shortstop and a first baseman have similar production(offensively, defensively and on the bases), the shortstop will get the higher rating because of positional importance.

With all that being said, these are the top-15 WAR leaders in Texas Rangers history.

Texas Rangers all-time WAR leaders: 15-11

In descending order, Josh Hamilton, Alex Rodriguez, Michael Young, Frank Howard and Elvis Andrus make up the back third of the All-Time Rangers WAR leaders.

Josh Hamilton sits at 15th with a career 23 WAR.

The 2010 MVP had one of the greatest five year stretches in franchise history, making five straight All-Star games and leading the Rangers to back-to-back World Series, and not to mention hitting 28 homers in the 2008 Home Run Derby.

A-Rod signed one of the largest contracts in baseball history, signing for 10-years at $252 million. He finished his Rangers career with a 25.5 WAR.

Mr. Ranger Michael Young finished his career at 13th in WAR in franchise history. He sits at a 25.9 WAR.

At the time of his retirement, he put together 2,230 hits, 177 HR’s, 984 RBI’s, seven All-Star Appearances, five straight seasons hitting over .300, a Gold Glove, and a Batting Title for the Texas Rangers

Franchise great Frank Howard has a franchise WAR of 26.8 and sits at 12th all-time.

Howard hit .277 with the Rangers and collected 246 homers while driving in 701 over his eight years with the franchise.

Rounding out the back third is the franchise’s all-time leader in stolen bases, Elvis Andrus.

Although Elvis has declined over the last several years, he still sits at 11th all-time in franchise WAR at 30.5.