MLB rumors and rumblings. Younger Players are Getting More Playing Time
The beneficiaries of the reduced playing time for older players are, naturally, more inexperienced players. More specifically, it’s the youngest group of players who are seeing the most significant increase in playing time over the last 15 years. When players 35 and older reached their peak with 13 percent of the total plate appearances in 2004, players 24 and under had 11 percent. This was the third time in the four years from 2001 to 2004 that the oldest group of players had more plate appearances than the youngest team of players.
Baseball fans will remember the older players during this time. Craig Biggio and Rafael Palmeiro each had four seasons with 650 or more plate appearances during this stretch. Jeff Bagwell played 160 and 156 games at ages 35 and 36 in 2003 and 2004. Steve Finley played in 162 games as a 39-year-old in 2004. And, of course, Barry Bonds enjoyed some memorable late-career success after the age of 35 during this time.
Things have changed over the last six years. In 2012, players 24 and under had 14 percent of the total plate appearances and players 35, and older had nine percent. That five percent gap wasn’t unusual, but things were changing. Since then, the playing time for the younger group of players has increased to a peak of 18 percent last season, while the older group of players has decreased to a just five percent. That gap in playing time is the largest in the previous 30 years.