A common question from sports card collectors, new and old, is what are the best rookie cards to get in each Topps Baseball set? That’s what everyone wants, right? The top rookie cards from each Topps flagship set, whether it’s Series 1, Series 2 or Topps Update.
Over the past couple years, I’ve started to dive deeper into my sports card collection, and something that dawned on me is that I’ve never seen a full page with all the best Topps rookie cards from each year. So I said to myself, “Self, get to writing!”
Here’s the thing – I need you to help me out with this. This is obviously subjective because some people might value some rookie cards more than other rookie cards, and I might consider one player worthy of notation, while others think I omitted some great names.
Please comment which rookie cards I’m missing from these sets – but I’ve gone to great lengths to try to get the top Topps rookie cards for each set/series.
I’ve used both CardConnection.com and DACardWorld.com to track down many of the most attractive rookie cards for each series, but there could certainly be some errors.
(One of the reasons I wrote this article is because I’m kind of obsessed with making up for lost time, and I’m backfilling my sports card collection with the top rookies over the past couple decades from which I wasn’t collecting. One of the ways I’m doing that, other than just outright buying the singles on eBay, is buying old boxes and packs to rip from sites like DACardWorld.com, BlowoutCards.com and BBCExchange.com. Do you rip old packs or boxes? Let me know!)
While this article is currently only covering the best baseball rookie cards over the past 10 years, I do plan on going all the way back through the 71 years of Topps baseball card series – probably 10 years at a time. So bookmark this article and come back often!
Best Rookie Cards From Each Topps Baseball Set – Dating Back to 2012
This article will be updated throughout the years as some player’s ascend in value and some decline. This is only including Topps flagship set, not Topps Chrome, not Topps Archives, not Topps Heritage, or any other series. So don’t make those comments.
Best 2012 Topps Rookies Cards
Series 1:
Series 2:
- Yoenis Cespedes — 396
- Yu Darvish — 660
- Bryce Harper — 661 (short print)
Update:
- Patrick Corbin — US16
- Matt Harvey — US23
- Yasmani Grandal — US104
- Starling Marte — US109
- Dallas Keuchel — US188
- Trevor Bauer — US213
Best 2013 Topps Rookies Cards
Series 1:
Series 2:
Update:
- Anthony Rendon — US8
- Gerritt Cole — US150
- Wil Myers — US200
- Yasiel Puig — US250
- Nolan Arenado — US259
- Marcell Ozuna — US270
- Christian Yelich — US290
Best 2014 Topps Rookies Cards
Series 1:
- Xander Bogaerts — 133
- Nick Castellanos — 195
Series 2:
- Jose Ramirez — 424
- Marcus Semien — 429
- Jose Abreu — 496
- Masahiro Tanaka — 661
Update:
- George Springer — US-10
- Mookie Betts — US-26
- Jacob deGrom — US-50
- Marcus Stroman — US-197
Best 2015 Topps Rookies Cards
Series 1:
- Jorge Soler
- Joc Pederson
- Maikel Franco
- Javier Baez
Series 2:
Update:
- Carlos Correa
- Noah Syndergaard
- Byron Buxton
- Francisco Lindor
- Carlos Rodon
- Joey Gallo
Best 2016 Topps Rookies Cards
Series 1:
- Miguel Sano
- Corey Seager
- Kyle Schwarber
- Michael Conforto
- Trea Turner
- Ketel Marte
Series 2:
Update:
- Tim Anderson
- Mike Clevinger
- Trevor Story
- Jose Berrios
- Lucas Giolito
Best 2017 Topps Rookies Cards
Series 1:
- Dansby Swanson
- Yoan Moncada
- Aaron Judge
- Alex Bregman
- Tyler Glasnow
Series 2:
Update:
- Matt Chapman
- Cody Bellinger
- Luke Voit
Best 2018 Topps Rookies Cards
Series 1:
- Rafael Devers
- Rhys Hoskins
- Ozzie Albies
- Alex Verdugo
- Victor Robles
- Walker Buehler
Series 2:
- Shohei Ohtani
- Ronald Acuna Jr. (short print)
- Gleyber Torres (short print)
Update:
- Juan Soto
- Gleyber Torres (true RC)
- Ronald Acuna Jr. (true RC)
- Austin Meadows
Best 2019 Topps Rookies Cards
Series 1:
- Kyle Tucker
- Jeff McNeil
- Brandon Lowe
- Adolis Garcia
- Corbin Burnes
- Cedric Mullins
Series 2:
- Fernando Tatis Jr.
- Pete Alonso
- Patrick Wisdom
- Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (No # short print)
Update:
- Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
- Bryan Reynolds
- Jared Walsh
- Austin Riley
- Will Smith
- Mike Yastrzemski
Best 2020 Topps Rookies Cards
Series 1:
- Bo Bichette
- Randy Arozarena
- Yordan Alvarez
- Kyle Lewis
- Gavin Lux
Series 2:
- Luis Robert
- Emmanuel Clase
Update:
Best 2021 Topps Rookies Cards
Series 1:
- Jo Adell
- Alec Bohm
- Joey Bart
- Dylan Carlson
- Ryan Mountcastle
- Casey Mize
- Nick Madrigal
- Cristian Pache
- Nate Pearson
- Bobby Dalbec
Series 2:
- Ke’Bryan Hayes
- Alex Kiriloff
- Jake Cronenworth
- Garrett Crochet
- Jazz Chisholm
- Luis Garcia
Update:
- Jarred Kelenic
- Trevor Larnach
- Taylor Trammell
- Ian Anderson
- Andrew Vaughn
- Jonathan India
- Akil Baddoo
- Alek Manaoh
Best 2022 Topps Rookies Cards
Series 1:
- Wander Franco
- Jarren Duran
- Vidal Brujan
- Brandon Marsh
- Matt Manning
- Reid Detmers
- Tyler Gilbert
As I mentioned at the start of this article, this is going to be an often updated page. Some rookie cards will be removed as players decline in value to their baseball team, and some rookie cards will be added as they bloom later than we expected. Either way, feel free to comment below and share some of the players you think are the best rookies from each Topps baseball set.
