John Lackey Marquee

He was twenty-three and had been in the major leagues four months when Anaheim gave him the seventh game of the 2002 World Series. He won it. He won another with Boston in 2013, starting the clinching game, and a third with the Cubs in 2016, which makes three titles with three clubs across fourteen years.

Fifteen seasons gave him 188 wins against 147, a 3.92 earned run average, 2,840 innings and 2,294 strikeouts. He never won 20 in a season and was never seriously considered for a Cy Young Award; he was the pitcher clubs wanted in October, and five different Octobers bear that out.

Elbow reconstruction cost him the whole of 2012, between the two Boston titles. He was argumentative on the mound about balls, strikes and his own fielders, which the people who played behind him have described as a feature. The 2023 ballot gave him one vote of 389.