From the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter:

Players 36 and older (more specifically, in their 36-or-older seasons, using the age-as-of-July 1 convention) have accounted for just 2.8% of plate appearances to date. That’s a sharp fall-off from last year’s 4.9%, and the lowest number since the expansion season of 1977 (2.7%). It’s one of the lowest numbers in the free-agency era.

The baseball business isn’t going to go back to valuing service time, and it isn’t going to stop generating 23-year-olds who will make $3 million over the next four seasons for comparable production — with more upside — to the 32-year-old who will cost $43 million over that time. This is the new normal.

It will be curious to see if the MLBPA addresses this in the next negotiations or if they’ll prioritize off days/working conditions again.

2 comments on “It’s a young man’s game

  • Rae

    The Mets need to send Jose to Vegas to work on his hitting issues. They can bring up Guillorme who always fields his position well whether he plays SS, 2B or 3B. If they think he is not ready for MLB baseball then bring up Evans, or take a long shot and bring up McNeil. TJ Rivera is not ready to come back from his Tommie John but the Mets need to give him minor league time at SS too as we all know he can hit, and having him play multiple infield and outfield position works for me. If Evans is brought up he can also play some as a catcher so bringing him up now really makes sense but the NY Mets often overlook sense, and do something stupid. We’ll have to wait and see?

    • Brian Joura

      My opinion is that there’s no way Reyes goes to Vegas. If they think he’s done, they’ll just release him.

      I believe in Guillorme but the only way he’s coming up before September is if Rosario gets a major injury. Evans is a possibility to come back as a reserve but he shouldn’t be playing SS on anything but an emergency basis. I don’t see McNeil as being part of the conversation at all.

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