The Senior Class

Looking back on the most-tenured player on all 30 MLB rosters. This list is based on continuous service time with the same team.

Bryce Harper is wearing Philly candy stripes. Paul Goldschmidt has left the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Cleveland Indians bade farewell to Michael Brantley, and Joe Mauer has retired from the Minnesota Twins. Is there any such thing as seniority in MLB clubhouses these days?

That depends, obviously, on the clubhouse. But as the 2019 season opens, long-term, one-team veterans are not yet an extinct species. In fact, nearly half of the 30 teams feature at least one player with a decade of experience – or more — in that team’s uniform.

These are the players we associate with a franchise. Several are likely to retire – and possibly someday go to the Hall of Fame – never having left the cities with which they debuted long ago.

In other clubhouses, of course, churn is a way of life. Five franchises opened 2019 with rosters devoid of even a single player who had been with the team as recently as 2013. The most veteran player on a certain South Florida club’s current roster only arrived in mid-season 2015, less than four seasons ago.

Let’s look at each team’s senior face, the player with the longest continuous tenure on each of MLB’s 30 franchises. The players are presented in the chronological order of their arrival, beginning with the most senior group…those whose team affiliations date back a dozen seasons or more.

That group includes several franchise icons who are doing double duty in 2019. They are leading their clubs’ pennant pursuits while simultaneously polishing their HOF credentials.

Criteria for inclusion involves the player having been included on the MLB roster (or injured list) for at least part of every consecutive season. Listed are the team, the player, his debut date with the team, and, in parenthesis, how he was obtained.