Two of the more interesting stories to follow this spring have been the sagas of Omar Vizquel and Jamie Moyer.
Who Will Be The Oldest MLB Player In 2013?
Jamie Moyer and Omar Vizquel are both ancient, by baseball’s standards. Will either of them still be around for Opening Day 2013? And if not, who will take their places?
Vizquel turns 45 years old later this month. Moyer turns 50 in November. Vizquel has made the Blue Jays’ 25-man roster, and not only will Moyer be in the Rockies’ rotation, he’s going to be their No. 2 starter.
Both of these men have been in the major leagues a long time. Both men played at Chicago’s old Comiskey Park ... which was demolished 21 years ago.
Vizquel and Moyer will obviously be the two oldest players in the majors, and the last active players who played in the 1980s. Here are the next ten players by age who will play in 2012, with their birth dates:
Mariano Rivera (11/29/1969), Takashi Saito (2/14/1970), Jim Thome (8/27/1970), Darren Oliver (10/6/1970), Jason Giambi (1/8/1971), Miguel Batista (2/19/1971), Henry Blanco (8/29/1971), Jose Contreras (12/6/1971), Chipper Jones (4/24/1972) and Jason Isringhausen (9/7/1972).
* Manny Ramirez was born May 30, 1972. He won't be active until at least 50 games into the season. So I'm leaving him out of this discussion.
Of those ten players -- plus Moyer and Vizquel -- how many of them do you think will be around on Opening Day next year? One? Two? None?
At least one of them (Rivera) has hinted he’s going to retire at the end of this season, and another (Chipper) has already announced his retirement after 2012. It’s possible that none of those players will be around next year.
So here's the next group -- players who will be playing this season and who were born in 1973 (so they'll turn 40 next year): Geoff Blum, Tim Byrdak, Bartolo Colon, Octavio Dotel, Todd Helton, Derek Lowe, Guillermo Mota, Ichiro Suzuki.
Left off the '73-born list because their status is highly questionable: Casey Blake (released), Johnny Damon (unsigned free agent) and Trever Miller (released).
Looking at the list of forty-somethings and those about to turn the big four-oh, there aren’t too many stars or superstars. Mariano Rivera, Jim Thome, Chipper Jones, Todd Helton and Ichiro would top that list, but often, it’s the guys who are solid backups (Blanco or Blum) or specialty relievers (Oliver or Byrdak) who wind up hanging on the longest.
So who do you think will be the oldest major leaguer in 2013? Vote in the poll. And don’t count Jamie Moyer out.
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