Shortest Baseball Player in MLB History and Their Impact

Jose Altuve of the Houston Astros, Sal Frelick of the Milwaukee Brewers, Jose Ramirez of the Cleveland Guardians, and Cedric Mullins of the Baltimore Orioles are among the current MLB players who have thrived despite being 5-foot-8 or shorter.

Let’s look at the impact of the shortest baseball players of all time.

Short Baseball Players Who Left a Mark in MLB

Notable Short Baseball Players in MLB History

The 5-foot-4 Willie Keeler is the shortest MLB player inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Keeler hit .341 in his 19-year career to earn a spot in the Baseball Hall of Fame. He led MLB in hits three times and hit .424 during the 1897 season. Keeler ended up with 2932 hits, 495 stolen bases, and 1719 runs. When he retired, he might not have been considered among the best MLB players of all time, but he was good enough to become a Hall of Famer.

Another Hall of Famer was 5-foot-5 Rabbit Maranville, who finished in the top 10 in the Most Valuable Player voting five times while playing his entire 23-year career in the National League.

Freddie Patek, listed at 5’4” or 5’5”, was a three-time All-Star shortstop for the Kansas City Royals from 1971 to 1979, when the Royals were in the running for World Series titles on multiple occasions. Being one of the shortest players in MLB history didn’t hold Patek back.

Phil Rizzutto, a 5-foot-6 shortstop, played on seven World Series championship teams with the New York Yankees. Rizzuto was named the 1950 American League Most Valuable Player. His popularity grew during his time as an announcer on Yankees television broadcasts after he retired as a player.

Shortest Current MLB Player

Who is the Shortest MLB Player Right Now?

There are 23 players who began the 2025 Major League Baseball season on the active roster of one of the 30 teams who are 5-foot-8 or shorter.

Houston Astros star Jose Altuve holds the title of the shortest current MLB player.

The three-time American League batting champion was the League’s Most Valuable Player in 2017, hitting .346 with 112 runs, 39 doubles, 24 home runs, 81 RBIs, and 32 stolen bases. He is a popular choice in the MLB player prop odds.

He was known as the answer to the trivia question of who is the shortest MLB player right now. However, his accomplishments would be impressive if he happened to be 6-foot-4.

Altuve had four consecutive 200-hit seasons. After years as the starting second baseman for the Astros, he moved to the outfield for the 2025 season. Can the Astros deliver in the MLB World Series odds?

The two-time World Series champion has 27 home runs in 105 career postseason games. Those are not bad numbers for somebody who is the shortest current MLB player.

Smallest MLB Player of All Time

The Smallest MLB Player Ever to Step on the Field

Legendary owner and showman Bill Veeck would do almost anything to win and put fans in the seats. One of his moves was signing the 3-foot-7 Eddie Gaedel, figuring that his strike zone was so small, he was sure to draw a walk. In his lone plate appearance in 1951 with the St. Louis Browns, that is precisely what happened.

That was the only time he came to the plate in the major leagues. American League president Will Harridge voided his contract. Gaedel finished his “career’ with an on-base percentage of 1.000. That is a record that has been tied but can never be broken.

Who is the Shortest MLB Player Right Now?

Comparison of Today’s Shortest MLB Players

It would be easy to field a team consisting of players 5-foot-8 or shorter for at least one game.

Marcus Stroman of the New York Yankees would lead the pitching staff. Alejandro Kirk of the Toronto Blue Jays and Christian Vazquez of the Minnesota Twins would share the catching duties. Their impact is evident when looking at the MLB odds.

The starting infield would be Tampa Bay’s Taylor Walls, Ozzie Albies of the Atlanta Braves, Miami’s Xavier Edwards, and Jose Ramirez of the Cleveland Guardians.

Baltimore’s Cedric Mullins, Steven Kwan of the Cleveland Guardians, Altuve, Milwaukee’s Sal Frelick, and TJ Friedl of the Cincinnati Reds would fight it out for the three starting outfield slots, with one of them being the designated hitter.

That is a good lineup made up of short baseball players. They are short in stature but not in talent or drive.

Why Height Doesn’t Define Talent in MLB

Batters and pitchers come in all shapes and sizes. Bat speed is more important than a massive physique, and Stroman is a perfect example that you don’t need to be 6-foot-5 and 235 pounds to be a dominant pitcher at the Major League level.

The Cincinnati Reds, Milwaukee Brewers, and Toronto Blue Jays led all MLB teams with 10 players under six feet on the opening day rosters. Atlanta and Milwaukee, who are no strangers to postseason baseball, top the list with three players either 5’7” or 5’8” on the roster. The size of the players on the roster doesn’t impact the MLB futures odds.

One issue with the lack of height is the range for defensive players. Middle infielders can get away with being undersized. However, finding a productive MLB first baseman under 6-feet tall is hard.

Josh Naylor, who began his MLB career with the Cleveland Guardians before being traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks, is a notable exception.

What has been interesting is the emergence of catchers who are 5-foot-11 or shorter. Kirk and Vazquez haven’t let their lack of height force them into another position. It does make for an interesting image when the 5-foot-8 Vazquez stands next to Minnesota’s 6-foot-9 pitcher Bailey Ober.