The best careers after age 35 in MLB history: 2. Cy Young, 1902-11 (35-44)
- 192 wins (192-136)
- 2.18 ERA
- 2.09 FIP
- 54.8 WAR
There’s a reason that in every year since 1956, the greatest pitchers across the MLB are given an award named the Cy Young Award. Simply put, that’s because Cy Young is the greatest pitcher in MLB history. Young owns almost every major statistical category on the all-time leaderboard for pitchers. His 511 wins, 749 games finished, and 7356.0 all rank first. It’s easy to call it as we see it: Young dominated the game for the entirety of his 22-year MLB career.
Now, let’s dive into what he did after the age of 35. Young turned 35-years-old in 1902 while playing with the Boston Red Sox. It was one of his best. The two-time ERA champ started a league-leading 43 games that season and completed 41 of them, also a league-leading mark. That season he went 32-11 (yes, you’re reading that right – 32 wins) with nearly 400 IP and a 2.15 ERA.
Young spent ten seasons in the MLB after the age of 35 and won 192 games, which ranks second only to Phil Niekro. He won 32 and 28 games, respectively, during the 1902 and 1903 seasons and won 20+ games in five of his final 11 seasons. During that stretch, his ERA only raised above 3.00 two different times, while the Hall of Famer recorded sub-2.00 ERA marks in four different seasons.
In total, Young pitched to a staggering 2.18 ERA and 2.09 FIP during his final 11 seasons. He owned a 54.8 WAR during that stretch, a number that ranks second on the all-time list of pitchers over the age of 35. He was enshrined in Baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1937.