10 MLB Stars Who Played in the Little League World Series
Among all the good reasons (fun, etc.) to watch the Little League World Series, you just never know when you might be watching a future major leaguer.
The Little League World Series has been held in Williamsport, Pennsylvania since 1947. And starting with Jim Barbieri in 1953, dozens of players who have played in the event have gone on to play in Major League Baseball.
The list isn't a "Who's Who" of major league stars for the most part, but it does consist of several future World Series winners, two of the best outfielders in MLB today and a noted slugger of 509 career home runs.
So after beginning with some honorable mentions, let's run through 10 MLB stars who got their starts in the Little League World Series. They are ranked according to their career WAR in the majors.
Honorable Mentions
1 of 11
From Past MLB History
- Lloyd McClendon, 1971
- Charlie Hayes, 1977
- Dave Veres, 1978
- Derek Bell, 1980-1981
- Dan Wilson, 1981
- Wilson Álvarez, 1982
- Kevin Cash, 1989
McClendon, Cash and Wilson have all managed in the big leagues, and Wilson is even a member of the Seattle Mariners' Hall of Fame.
The other name that might stick out here is Charlie Hayes, though not entirely because he played 14 seasons in the majors. He's the father of Ke'Bryan Hayes, a two-time Gold Glove Award winner.
From Recent MLB History
- Jason Marquis, 1991
- Yusmeiro Petit, 1994
- Colby Rasmus, 1999
- Michael Saunders, 1999
- Randal Grichuk, 2003-2004
- Michael Conforto, 2004
- Jurickson Profar, 2004
- Jonathan Schoop, 2004
Conforto's career has hit a wall in the 2020s, but he's still a former All-Star with 17.4 career rWAR. That's almost as good as Rasmus, who managed to rack up 20.4 rWAR before retiring after his age-31 season in 2018.
Profar and Schoop were teammates for the Willemstad, Curacao team in 2004. They own a combined 28.6 rWAR and two All-Star selections as big leaguers.
10. Ceddanne Rafaela
2 of 11
Little League World Series: Willemstad, Curacao in 2012
Major League Service: 2023-2026
Career WAR: 13.2
Like Jurickson Profar and Jonathan Schoop before him, Ceddanne Rafaela got his start with the Willemstad team in the Little League World Series back in 2012. He only went 1-for-9 in the tournament, but made an impression with his Ozzie Smith-style acrobatics.
These days, Rafaela has a case as the best center fielder in the American League.
Last year saw him win his first Gold Glove, and the evolution of his bat has turned him into an All-Star in 2026. His OPS is a career high .796, and he has more extra-base hits than every center fielder except Pete Crow-Armstrong.
Because Rafaela will only turn 26 on September 18, he may only just now be coming into a long and fruitful prime.
9. Jason Varitek
3 of 11
Little League World Series: Almonte Springs, Florida in 1984
Major League Service: 1997-2011
Career WAR: 24.2
Jason Varitek occupies a unique place in Little League World Series lore.
As of 2020, he was the only LLWS alum to get elected to the College Baseball Hall of Fame, and one of only three to play in the World Series at the Little League, NCAA and major league levels.
As a major leaguer, he played all 15 of his MLB seasons with the Boston Red Sox and racked up plenty of accolades along the way.
At his peak in 2005, Varitek was an All-Star and a Gold Glove and Silver Slugger Award winner. He also won World Series titles in 2004 and 2007, ultimately hitting 11 home runs in 62 career postseason games.
Among catchers, the latter mark is tied for second all-time after only Yogi Berra.
8. Jason Bay
4 of 11
Little League World Series: Trail, British Columbia in 1990
Major League Service: 2003-2013
Career WAR: 24.7
When Jason Bay repped Canada in the Little League World Series in 1990, it wouldn't be the last time he took the international stage for his native country. He did so again in the inaugural World Baseball Classic in 2006.
In the years after the Little League World Series, Bay was traded three times before he completed his rookie season in 2004. So when he won the NL Rookie of the Year award that year, he achieved something that only Lou Piniella had achieved before him.
During a six-season heyday between 2004 and 2009, Bay's average season consisted of 30 home runs and 99 RBI. He was an All-Star three times, and his 222 major league home runs rank fifth all-time among Canadian-born players.
In 2019, Bay was elected into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.
7. Todd Frazier
5 of 11
Little League World Series: Toms River, New Jersey in 1998
Major League Service: 2011-2021
Career WAR: 25.8
Todd Frazier didn't just play in the Little League World Series championship game in 1998. He led off with a home run for Toms River, and later struck out the Japanese team's last hitter to seal the title.
As a major leaguer, Frazier was a bit of a late-bloomer who didn't truly break out until he was in his late 20s. But once he did, he clubbed 131 home runs in a four-year span between 2014 and 2017. That put him in the top 10 for those four seasons.
As a slugger, Frazier's most famous feat is winning the Home Run Derby in 2015. The sugar on top was getting to do it while representing the Cincinnati Reds in their home stadium at Great American Ball Park.
Unless, of course, one considers Frazier's greatest slugging feat to be that time he hit a no-handed home run in 2012.
6. Lance Lynn
6 of 11
Little League World Series: Brownsburg, Indiana in 1999
Major League Service: 2011-2024
Career WAR: 30.7
Lance Lynn's run in the Little League World Series in 1999 ended when he gave up a game-ending grand slam. Yet years later, he was still able to look back on the event as an inspiration.
Years later, Lynn was a first-round pick by the St. Louis Cardinals in 2008 and a World Series champion as a rookie in 2011. It was the first of two World Series that he ended up pitching in, putting him in an exclusive club among LLWS alumni.
Apart from that, Lynn is best known for being a workhorse who tallied 2,006.1 innings in his 13 major league seasons. He was an All-Star twice, and he had a run as an annual Cy Young Award contender between 2019 and 2021.
All told, Lynn was 12th among right-handed pitchers in rWAR between 2011 and 2024. The name directly underneath him on that list belongs to none other than Stephen Strasburg.
5. Rick Wise
7 of 11
Little League World Series: Portland, Oregon in 1958
Major League Service: 1964-1982
Career WAR: 31.9
When Rick Wise pitched for the Boston Red Sox in the 1975 World Series, it was technically his third World Series. In addition to the LLWS in 1958, he also pitched in the Babe Ruth World Series in 1961.
No matter which way you slice it, that 1975 season was Wise's big moment in the big leagues. He earned both Cy Young Award and MVP votes, and he was notably the winning pitcher in Game 6 of that year's World Series—as in, the one with the Carlton Fisk home run.
Wise was previously an All-Star in 1971 and 1973, and even an injury-shortened 1974 season only did so much to mar his track record as an innings-eater. Between 1969 and 1976, he averaged 221.1 innings per season.
Wise hung up his spikes in 1982, and he eventually took on a coaching career that lasted until 2008.
4. Cody Bellinger
8 of 11
Little League World Series: Chandler, Arizona in 2007
Major League Service: 2017-2026
Career WAR: 34.3
Cody Bellinger wasn't the only one making memories during the 2007 Little League World Series. That Chandler, Arizona team was coached by his father, Clay, who had been a two-time World Series champion for the New York Yankees.
In retrospect, how the younger Bellinger was only a fourth-round pick six years later is hard to fathom.
Though he's had to evolve his game over the years, Bellinger has a case as the most decorated player in MLB today. He's been a Rookie of the Year and the MVP of a regular season, a postseason series and an All-Star Game. He also has a Gold Glove and Silver Slugger, not to mention a World Series ring.
All of this is even though Bellinger just turned 30 on July 13.
3. Boog Powell
9 of 11
Little League World Series: Lakeland, Florida in 1954
Major League Service: 1961-1977
Career WAR: 39.1
Boog Powell is the first true major league star to come out of the Little League World Series, and it wasn't even his bat that made him a star in the tournament. At the time, he was a pitcher.
It was ultimately as a slugger that Powell left his mark on Major League Baseball. Between his first homer in 1962 and his last homer in 1976, Powell clubbed 339 home runs. It was the 10th-most for that span, sandwiching him in between Hall of Famers Willie Mays and Carl Yastrzemski.
Powell's peak was between 1964 and 1971, when he had four 30-homer seasons and averaged a 143 OPS+. He was a top-three finisher for the MVP three times, including when he won it in 1970.
That was also the year that Powell carried the Baltimore Orioles to a championship. Between the ALCS and the World Series, he hit .355 with three homers and 11 RBI in eight games.
2. Carney Lansford
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Little League World Series: Santa Clara, California in 1969
Major League Service: 1978-1992
Career WAR: 40.4
Carney Lansford's Little League World Series team went all the way to the finals in 1969, only to get shut out by the winners from Taiwan by a 5-0 final.
From there, he went on to be a third-round pick in 1975 and one of the better third basemen in MLB during his day. Between 1978 and 1992, only four players racked up more rWAR at the hot corner.
Lansford was a career .290 hitter who twice peaked as a .336 hitter in a given season, and both times had major ramifications. He was the AL batting champion the first time in 1981, and eventually a World Series champion the second time in 1989.
That was the only World Series that Lansford played in, and he made it count. In the then-Oakland Athletics' four-game sweep over the San Francisco Giants, he went 7-for-16 with a homer.
1. Gary Sheffield
11 of 11
Little League World Series: Tampa, Florida in 1980
Major League Service: 1988-2009
Career WAR: 60.5
Gary Sheffield had never been on a plane before he had to fly to Williamsport for the Little League World Series as an 11-year-old in 1980. He must have shaken off the nerves, because he ended up batting .600 in the series.
And so goes the origin story for one of the great major league careers in living memory.
Sheffield was the No. 6 overall pick in the draft in 1986, and he was an All-Star and MVP contender just six years later in 1992. It was also the first of eight 30-homer seasons between then and 2005. He retired with 509 career home runs in 2009.
Sheffield's perceived ties to performance-enhancing drugs were among several factors that may have affected his Hall of Fame candidacy in his final year on the ballot in 2024. But if nothing else, what nobody can deny him is that he might have the most oft-imitated swing of any right-handed hitter ever.
Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant.
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