Baseball is the most democratic of North American team sports. No one player can dominate the ball or decision-making like an NBA star or NFL quarterback can. No one player can make an impact like a hot-handed goaltender in hockey can. Batters get their turn once every nine plate appearances, while pitchers are limited in how often they can affect games by their health and durability.
Still, there are teams that are more reliant upon single talents than others, and in some cases, teams are even being carried by singular efforts. Let's examine which players are carrying a remarkable share of the burden as we near the midpoint of the season.
3B Jose Ramirez, Cleveland Indians
In a world without Mike Trout, Ramirez would be perhaps the American League MVP front-runner. Like Trout, Ramirez (along with Indians teammate Francisco Lindor) is carrying a large burden of his club's position-player production. The Indians have voids in the outfield and have endured up-and-down performances at second base, first and DH thus far in 2018. As of Tuesday, the Indians' position players had combined for 12.1 fWAR -- 4.6 wins of which had come from Ramirez. In other words, Ramirez has accounted for 38 percent of the club's position-player production. As Jay Jaffe researched for FanGraphs, Ramirez is having a truly historic season. At his current pace, he would be the first player in major league history to primarily play third base and post a 10-plus-WAR season.
LHP James Paxton, Seattle Mariners
After a rocky start to his season, which coincided with quality pitch-framing catcher Mike Zunino being on the DL, Paxton has been a dominant ace for the Mariners. The lefty has used his elite spin, fastball and bending breaking ball to dominate opponents. In 43 May innings, Paxton held opponents to a .143 average along with a 26.9 K-BB percentage and a 1.67 ERA. For the season, he has posted 2.5 fWAR and 11.3 K/9. He's a dark-horse AL Cy Young Award contender. The performance is particularly meaningful given the Mariners' place in the standings, with the club having a firm grasp of the second AL wild card and 78.8 percent odds of making the playoffs (likely as a wild card), according to FanGraphs projections. While the Mariners have outplayed their run differential, Paxton makes them a threat to advance beyond a wild-card play-in game.
CF Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels
Trout has been the best player in baseball for some time now, and no player is more responsible for a greater share of wins than Trout. As amazing as Trout has been, though, he has never been this good. He has already produced 6.2 fWAR, which is a superstar-level total for a season. He has produced 49 percent of the Angels' WAR total. Trout has a career-best 210 wRC+ mark, and a 100 wRC+ is a league-average offensive performance. He's on track to produce a career-best home run number and perhaps flirt with 50 home runs for the first time in his career. While the injury to the Angels' other superstar, Shohei Ohtani, threatens to derail the club's playoff hopes, Trout's greatness might be enough to keep the Angels in contention.
LHP Josh Hader, Milwaukee Brewers
The Brewers are in the thick of National League playoff contention, with 50 percent playoff odds, per FanGraphs. That's in large part thanks to Hader, who is enjoying one of the most dominant bullpen seasons on record. The Brewers entered Tuesday 22-2 this season in games in which Hader pitches. Hader is striking out 54.2 percent of batters faced, which would be an MLB record. He is threatening to top the all-time, strikeouts-per-nine record held by Aroldis Chapman (17.67 strikeouts per nine in 2014). Hader is striking out 17.92 batters per nine. His deception and high-velocity fastball have produced the 11th-best fWAR number this season among pitchers (2.1) despite his throwing a receiver's workload. WAR is a cumulative stat, so a better measure to evaluate reliever impact is win probability added, which adds up the change in win expectancy after every batter faced. Hader's 3.15 mark trails just those of aces Justin Verlander (3.45), Jacob deGrom (3.37) and Max Scherzer (3.16). That's how special Hader, a former starting pitching prospect, has been.
RHP Ross Stripling and 1B/3B Max Muncy, Los Angeles Dodgers
The Dodgers' DL list reads like an All-Star team, with names such as Clayton Kershaw, Corey Seager and Rich Hill. Considering the previous sentence, it seems only fair to acknowledge both a pitcher and a position player who have shouldered the burden. To remain in the NL West hunt, the club has enjoyed unexpected increases in production from Stripling and Muncy.
The analytical Stripling has absorbed, perhaps more than any Dodger, the wealth of data-based scouting material provided by the Dodgers' front office to maximize his skills through pitch type, locations and sequences. That has allowed him to become a sum greater than his parts this season, striking out more than a batter per inning and walking fewer than two per nine. For a team down four of its top five starting pitchers, Stripling's effort has been crucial. If and when the Dodgers return to full health, Stripling has pitched well enough to secure a role and deepen the staff.
We know about the Dodgers' pitching injury issues. The lineup has suffered its share of similar setbacks, but they can thank Muncy for his work at the plate to help paper over them. While the former A's farmhand has always had patience, had he enough plate appearances to qualify, he would rank fifth in wRC+ (165). Always a fly-ball hitter, Muncy has made a swing adjustment rooted in his lower half, including a leg kick that has better allowed him to drive the ball. At the moment, Muncy is the greatest swing-change success story of 2018, and he has helped keep the Dodgers' lineup afloat.
RHP Max Scherzer, Washington Nationals
Due to injuries and inconsistency, the Nationals haven't quite run away with the NL East and instead find themselves trailing the Braves. In fact, with the young, talented Braves and Phillies arriving ahead of schedule, the division might not be decided until the final weeks of the season. The Nationals' position would be even more precarious without Scherzer pitching as well as he ever has. Aging beautifully, Scherzer leads all pitchers in fWAR (4.2) and FIP (1.93). He has doubled the value produced by the next-most valuable Nats pitcher, Gio Gonzalez. To put it simply, without Scherzer, the Nats would be in trouble.
CF Mookie Betts, Boston Red Sox
Like Ramirez and Trout on this list, Betts is an AL MVP candidate, and he has accounted for about 40 percent of Boston's position-player WAR production. While Betts has always had elite hand-eye and bat-to-ball skills, his power has blossomed as he has become an extreme pull hitter. He's now a five-tool force and one of the few players who can be expected to consistently carry a team.
RHP Jacob deGrom, New York Mets
Although the Mets have essentially played themselves out of the NL East race, they are still mathematically alive thanks to the magnificence of deGrom, who, unlike uber-talented teammate Noah Syndergaard, has been able to stay on the mound. DeGrom leads the NL in ERA and WAR and is responsible for a third of the Mets' pitching WAR. The Mets are in a tough spot. The Nationals are still probably the team to beat in the division, and the Braves and Phillies are on the rise. The Mets have intriguing core pieces but a number of problem areas. DeGrom is under control through the 2020 season, but if the Mets were to consider moving him, they would have to nail the return.
C Francisco Cervelli, Pittsburgh Pirates
The Pirates have faded after a quick start, in part due to below-replacement-level production at corner spots such as right field and first base. However, they remain on the outskirts of the NL Central and wild-card races in large part because of a major bounce-back season from Cervelli, who leads the team in WAR (2.5). He has joined the air-ball revolution and enjoyed an unprecedented spike in fly balls and power. Cervelli has traditionally been an excellent framer, and though that number has been down this season, he continues to have an excellent batting eye. Cervelli, in the final year of his deal, could be a major trade-deadline asset for a team such as the catcher-needy Nationals, should the Pirates continue to fade.