In 1957, the National League All Stars started an outfield of Frank Robinson in left, Willie Mays in center, and Hank Aaron in right. Those three players would combine for a few,001 home runs, 6,012 runs batted in, and 407 wins above replacement over their careers. It would be challenging to build a better outfield should you could look at MLB The Show 18 Stubs a list of every player in baseball history, a lot less a group of players involved in the same year from the same league.

That could be the best All-Star outfield in baseball history for hundred years, I’m guessing. It might always the top outfield ever sold if the machines control and stuff you in their lanthanum mines, effectively ending baseball forever. Either way, it’s the best outfield of all time as of right this moment, even though they started only one game together.

The 2018 American League All-Star outfield of Aaron Judge, Mike Trout, and Mookie Betts probably won’t combine for 407 wins above replacement into their respective careers*. It’s prematurily . to compare these to Robinson, Mays, and Hank freaking Aaron. It’s too soon to compare these phones the Albert Belle, Kenny Lofton, and Brady Anderson outfield in the 1996 All-Star Game. There are a lot of winding paths the careers can still take.

But there’s grounds why I chose that Robinson-Mays-Aaron outfield to the intro, in addition to the obvious allure of three inner-inner-circle Hall of Famers. In ‘57, all 3 of them were 26 or even younger. Robinson and Aaron were both 22, and Mays was 26. Not only was it the top outfield ever assembled; that it was also a sluggish start their brilliant careers.

While it’s far to soon to compare this trio to all-time greats, it’s not too soon to wonder the best way rare it truly is for a starting All-Star outfield to become this young and also this excellent.

Spoiler: It’s pretty rare.

I checked out all in the starting outfields in All-Star Game history, within the MLB 18 Stubs National and American League, for just a trio of players under 26. There are two explanation why I chose this arbitrary age as being the cutoff:

It allowed me to write down an entire article about these three players, which can be incredibly convenient.
It’s just before the age of 27, which can be the classic baseball peak, based on Bill James. Which suggests that Judge, Trout, and Betts could even get better.

They don’t need to, naturally. This is just the 5th time make fish an outfield in a choice of league continues to be comprised entirely of players 26 or much younger, but we don’t must go back very far to search for the last one. That was a student in 2016, when Trout and Betts were both inside the outfield ... together with Jackie Bradley, Jr. While Bradley could/should rescue their life from his funk, he’s currently a cautionary tale to remind us that players aren’t guaranteed to get as valuable when they’re 28 as is also at 26.

Another all-26-or-younger All-Star outfield was Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, and Jeff Heath in 1941. If you’re wondering who Heath was, apparently he would be a really good freaking hitter. He might are already closer on the Hall of Fame if not to get a gruesome ankle injury, but he’s another reminder not every All-Star in their early 20s turns out to get Ted Williams or Joe DiMaggio.

The first all-26-or-younger All-Star outfield of all time was Williams, DiMaggio, and Charlie Keller, which proves my point as well, even though Keller would have been a tremendous hitter in their own right.

The fifth all-26-or-younger All-Star outfield was Robinson, Mays, and Aaron, which, holy crap, seriously, just type those three names out together and think of how good these were for decades.

This is arbitrary, which suggests we’re leaving off some pretty important young outfields. When Tim Raines, Andre Dawson, and Dale Murphy started their 1982 and 1983 All-Star Games, it didn’t matter that Dawson was 27 and 28 in those seasons. What mattered is that it turned out a historically significant and young outfield of brilliance that featured two future Hall of Famers and another could-be-maybe-should-be-ask-me-again-on-the-right-day Hall of Famer in Dale Murphy. The same goes for Tony Gwynn, Darryl Strawberry, and Murphy, but time Murphy was that old timer.

Al Kaline and Mickey Mantle started three straight All-Star Games when these folks were younger than 27, nevertheless they didn’t makes list concerning was some crusty ol’ dude named Ted Williams starting alongside them each and every time. The inclusion of Williams didn’t imply Kaline and Mantle weren’t the heralds of an new, thrilling era of super outfielders. It just meant Williams was perfect at baseball deep into his third decade. He was superior to some 26-or-younger rando who wasn’t Ted Williams, because, really, who had been?

In short, you'll find nothing inherently special concerning the young, ludicrously outfield of Aaron Judge, Mike Trout, and Mookie Betts even though they all happened for being young concurrently. There were young, brilliant outfielders before them, high will be young, brilliant outfielders after them. Sometimes, those young, brilliant outfielders will bookend old farts whorrrre still brilliant. Getting three repeatedly isn’t a scratch-off lottery ticket which allows us to take pleasure from baseball more.

But this might be something. This could be something makes your grandchildren jealous. We have Aaron Judge, who used to get only a myth informed by feral woodlanders. We have Mookie Betts, the fast-twitch hero we require in this fast-twitch era. And we have Mike Trout, who might be the closest thing to Willie Mays we’ll ever see.

It’s rare to get a young outfield starting the All-Star Game similar to this. You’re not seeing things. That doesn’t mean this could be the next Robinson-Mays-Aaron or anything in close proximity to it. It just shows that, goodness, three from the top five players in baseball right this moment happen to become outfielders from the same league, all under age of 27.

Appreciate this danged outfield. And have fun here next year, and also the year next if we’re so lucky. Judge-Trout-Betts isn’t a normal starting outfield. It’s style of freaky. The best thing we could do is whistle and say something cute. In half a century, maybe they’ll be looking back with this outfield using a measure of awe and wonder that only seems reasonable in retrospect.