MLB Players Who Defied Father Time into Their 40s
In baseball, age isn't just a number. It's the thing that catches up to every player, including the great ones. Sometimes, though, guys manage to defy Father Time longer than most.
That's the hope of Manny Ramirez, who wants to play this season in the Taiwan League, as MLB Network's Jon Heyman reported on Wednesday. Is it a precursor to an MLB comeback?
The odds are long. Ramirez will turn 48 in May. His last stint in Taiwan came in 2013, and he hasn't played in the big leagues since 2011. Still, you can't fault the 12-time All-Star for wanting to keep the dream alive.
If he's looking for inspiration, Manny can glance at the stat sheets of the following players who continued to produce into their 40s. They're the exceptions to the rule, but they're proof that it's possible to put up decent and even excellent numbers as the gray hairs and creaking joints creep in.
LHP Jamie Moyer
1 of 17
In 2003, Jamie Moyer posted a 3.27 ERA in 215 innings for the Seattle Mariners at age 40. He earned an All-Star nod and finished fifth in Cy Young Award voting. Then he kept pitching...and pitching.
Moyer would appear in eight more big league seasons before finally retiring at age 49. He eclipsed 200 innings every year between age 41 and 43 and tossed 196.1 frames with a 3.71 ERA in 2008 at age 45.
In 2012, his final season, he came back from Tommy John surgery to make 10 starts for the Colorado Rockies and managed to strike out 36 in 53.2 innings, becoming the oldest pitcher to win an MLB game.
INF/DH Julio Franco
2 of 17
Julio Franco played 23 seasons in his big league career and didn't retire until age 48.
From age 40 onward, he appeared in 637 games and tallied 409 hits with 72 doubles and 32 home runs. In 2004, at age 45, he hit .309 in 125 games with the Atlanta Braves.
Franco is remembered for his signature bat-forward batting stance, but even more for how long he managed to stick around as a productive big leaguer.
RHP Mariano Rivera
3 of 17
Almost surely the greatest closer of all time, Mariano Rivera dominated the ninth inning to the end of his Hall of Fame career.
In 2010, at age 40, the New York Yankees right-hander posted a 1.80 ERA with 33 saves. The following season, he put up a 1.91 ERA with 44 saves.
A knee injury cut his 2012 campaign short, but he returned at age 43 in 2013 to post a 2.11 ERA with another 44 saves before leaving the mound for the final time.
INF/OF/DH Carl Yastrzemski
4 of 17
A beloved, career-long member of the Boston Red Sox, Carl Yastrzemski ended his Beantown tenure in style.
Between his age-40 and age-43 seasons, Yaz rapped out 410 hits in 446 games, including 81 doubles and 48 home runs.
He also tallied 231 RBI and was an All-Star in his final two campaigns, including his final turn in a Red Sox uniform in 1983 at age 43.
C Carlton Fisk
5 of 17
Longevity at any position is impressive. Longevity as a catcher earns bonus points.
Carlton Fisk achieved the latter during his 24-year career, which began in 1969 and ended in 1993. During his 40s, after decades behind the dish, Fisk played 537 games and posted a combined .252/.325/.406 slash line. He even swiped 12 bases and hit four triples.
In '93, at age 45, Fisk played just 25 games with the Chicago White Sox—but all of them were in the squat. Once a catcher, always a catcher.
RHP Phil Niekro
6 of 17
Phil Niekro didn't just pitch into his late 40s. He pitched a lot.
The right-hander led baseball with 342 innings pitched and posted a 3.39 ERA at 40 years old. He eclipsed 200 innings in six of the next seven seasons and threw 210.1 frames at age 47 with the Cleveland Indians in 1986.
Niekro hung on for one more year before he finally ran out of gas. In all, he logged 1,974 innings with seven shutouts, 1,148 strikeouts, four Gold Gloves and a pair of All-Star appearances at age 40 and onward.
INF Pete Rose
7 of 17
Pete Rose may never reach the Hall of Fame because of the gambling scandal that tarnished his legacy, but the Cincinnati Reds great kept hustling until his retirement at age 45.
During his 40s, baseball's all-time hits leader tallied 699 more knocks, scored 323 runs, legged out 18 triples and even stole 31 bags.
His .268/.354/.323 slash line wasn't up to his lofty standards, but it was enough to keep him in the league that would ultimately ban him for life.
INF/OF Honus Wagner
8 of 17
One of the greatest hitters of the early 20th century, Honus Wagner kept hitting and using his legs well into his 40s.
From his age-40 season until he retired at age 43, Wagner hit .270 and collected 479 hits in 503 games. Most impressively for a player of advanced years in an era before modern conditioning, he scored 188 runs, hit 36 triples and stole 61 bases in that span.
Those are impressive numbers at any age and in any century.
OF Rickey Henderson
9 of 17
At his Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2009, a 50-year-old Rickey Henderson indicated he'd still love a chance to play in the big leagues. And he didn't exactly sound like he was joking.
Henderson's late career was nothing to scoff at. The all-time stolen base king played 469 MLB games between age 40 and age 44. He scored 281 runs, swiped 109 bases and hit 31 home runs. That, after he led the American League with 66 steals at age 39.
He continued playing independent pro ball until age 46 in 2005, when he stole 16 bases in 73 games with the San Diego Surf Dawgs.
LHP Randy Johnson
10 of 17
In 2004, at age 40, Randy Johnson posted a 2.60 ERA in 245.2 innings and led baseball with 290 strikeouts with the Arizona Diamondbacks and finished second in National League Cy Young Award balloting.
The Big Unit logged 200-plus innings each of the following two seasons with a combined 383 strikeouts and kept pitching until age 45.
In his final season in 2009 with the San Francisco Giants, Johnson went 8-6 to finish his Hall of Fame career with 303 wins.
RHP Cy Young
11 of 17
In addition to being the guy with the award named after him, Cy Young was a workhorse until a ripe old (by baseball standards) age.
In his age-40 campaign, he threw 343.1 innings with a 1.99 ERA.
Between then and his final season in 1911, at age 44, he compiled a 2.36 ERA in 153 appearances, 142 of them starts and threw 15 shutouts.
Really, they should have given that guy a Cy Young.
LF Barry Bonds
12 of 17
Add performance-enhancing asterisks if you want to, but there's no denying Barry Bonds was still a force into his 40s.
After missing all but 14 games of his age-40 season due to injury, Bonds returned the following year and swatted 26 home runs with a .999 OPS and league-leading .454 on-base percentage.
In 2007, at age 42, Bonds hit 28 home runs with a 1.045 OPS and again led baseball with a .480 OBP.
His contract with the San Francisco Giants expired after the '07 campaign and no one offered Bonds a job. Bonds brought a collusion case against MLB, and while he ultimately lost, it's hard to argue he was finished as a highly productive player.
RHP Roger Clemens
13 of 17
As with Bonds, there's a cloud of PED suspicion hanging over Roger Clemens' impressive accomplishments. But there's no denying the Rocket soared during the late stages of his career.
Between age 40 and age 44, when he retired from MLB, Clemens posted a 3.05 ERA with 763 strikeouts in 849 innings.
He won a National League Cy Young Award with the Houston Astros in 2004, his seventh career Cy Young, and led all of baseball with a 1.87 ERA the following year.
OF/1B Stan Musial
14 of 17
From his age-40 to his age-42 season, Stan Musial was every bit the Man.
The St. Louis Cardinals great hit .291 in his final three seasons, including a .330 mark at age 41. During that span, he also tallied 50 doubles, seven triples, 46 home runs, five stolen bases and made three All-Star teams.
He would have been a surefire Hall of Famer and all-time Cardinals icon even without those excellent waning years, but they helped cement his legend.
RHP Nolan Ryan
15 of 17
Nolan Ryan had already put together an all-time great pitching career when he reached the big 4-0. Then he just kept being great.
The hard-throwing righty led the National League in strikeouts at age 40 with 270 and age 41 with 228 as a member of the Houston Astros. Then he donned a Texas Rangers uniform and led all of baseball with 301 strikeouts at age 42. At age 43, "all" he did was pace the American League with 232 Ks.
Ryan played until age 46 and finished with an all-time record 5,714 career strikeouts, 1,437 of them collected after age 40.
CF Ty Cobb
16 of 17
Ty Cobb retired at the age of 41, a relatively young age compared to some on this list, but he certainly went out swinging.
In 228 games at age 40 and after, Cobb hit .343 with 289 hits, including 59 doubles, 11 triples and six home runs during a time when long balls were a lot rarer. He also swiped 28 bases.
It seems he had plenty left in the tank, an assessment he apparently shared.
More than 40 years after his retirement, Cobb was reportedly asked how he thought he would fare against pitchers of the then-modern day and replied he'd hit about .300. Asked why as a .366 career hitter he'd only hit .300, he replied, "You've got to remember, I'm 73."
RHP Satchel Paige
17 of 17
After putting together a Hall of Fame career in the Negro leagues, Satchel Paige made his overdue major league debut in 1948 with the Cleveland Indians. In his age-41 "rookie" season, he posted a 2.48 ERA in 72.2 innings.
In all, Paige played six MLB seasons with the Indians, St. Louis Browns and the Kansas City Athletics
In 1965, he became the oldest player in league history when he made a single start for the Athletics at age 58. Oh, and he tossed three shutout innings with a strikeout.
All statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference.
.jpg?w=600 "Bryce Harper Trade Landing Spots 🛬")
