Highest Team OPS Differentials, 1901-2021

OPS Differential is a team's OPS minus the OPS it allowed. I have posted on this before using data from searches at Stathead. But Stathead is probably wrong on SLG allowed for many teams in the past. It might have something to do with not knowing how many 2Bs and 3Bs a team allowed.

For example, in 1920, the AL had a league SLG of .387. But BB Reference shows in the pitching splits that AL pitchers allowed a .373 SLG. BB Ref shows that the White Sox that year allowed an SLG of .371 while Retrosheet shows .380.

So for all teams from 1951-59 I replaced the OPS allowed that I found from a Stathead search with what can be found at Retrosheet. I stopped at 1959 because that is when I started to get agreement for all teams from both websites.

Click here to open an Excel file that has all the teams from 1901-2021.

The table below has the top 25. HOPS is the OPS a team's hitters compiled and POPS is what their pitchers allowed. The Dodgers the last 3 years claim 3 of the top 12. Of course, 2020 was a short season with only 60 games. This shows how dominant the 1927 Yankees are. Also, it is actually the top 26 since the last 2 teams each have a differential of .115 (see update below from March 8, 2023 since 2 teams from 2022 make the top 25).

Rank	Team	Year	HOPS	POPS	Diff	W-L%
1	NYY	1927	0.873	0.676	0.197	0.714
2	LAD	2020	0.821	0.627	0.194	0.717
3	HOU	2019	0.848	0.681	0.167	0.660
4	NYY	1939	0.825	0.667	0.158	0.702
5	PIT	1902	0.719	0.570	0.149	0.739
6	LAD	2019	0.810	0.661	0.149	0.654
7	NYG	1905	0.718	0.576	0.142	0.686
8	CHC	2016	0.772	0.633	0.139	0.640
9	ATL	1998	0.795	0.657	0.138	0.654
10	BAL	1969	0.756	0.620	0.136	0.673
11	CHC	1906	0.671	0.536	0.135	0.762
12	LAD	2021	0.759	0.624	0.135	0.654
13	NYY	1936	0.865	0.733	0.132	0.667
14	STL	1944	0.745	0.615	0.130	0.682
15	STL	1942	0.717	0.590	0.127	0.688
16	CLE	1948	0.792	0.665	0.127	0.626
17	NYY	1998	0.825	0.699	0.126	0.704
18	SEA	2001	0.805	0.679	0.126	0.716
19	PHA	1929	0.816	0.692	0.124	0.693
20	NYY	1937	0.825	0.704	0.121	0.662
21	CLE	1995	0.839	0.718	0.121	0.694
22	BRO	1953	0.840	0.722	0.118	0.682
23	CLE	1954	0.744	0.626	0.118	0.721
24	NYY	1932	0.830	0.714	0.116	0.695
25	NYY	1931	0.840	0.725	0.115	0.614
26	CLE	2017	0.788	0.673	0.115	0.630

Update March 8, 2023: The 2022 Dodgers (.158) would tie for 4th place while the 2022 Astros (.130) would be tied for 15th. See Team OPS differentials for 2022.