No Place for Old Men

Move over, Luke Appling. You’re going to have company as an old man/shortstop. At least you will if the trio of free-agent shortstops make it to age forty playing that most demanding of positions. Trea Turner, now of the Phillies, will be forty when his contract reaches its final year while new-Padre Xander Bogaerts will be forty-one. Carlos Correa will be forty or forty-one, depending if his new team the Giants are in the playoffs, when his thirteen-year contract ends in 2035. Bryce Harper will be thirty-eight at the end of his deal with the Phillies, thirty-nine if they reach the playoffs. What are the odds of him playing the field past the age of thirty-five or thirty-six? What happens if Turner declines quicker? Who’ll DH? Just imagine Harper in the outfield at age thirty-eight with Turner, eight months younger, manning short. Gosh, I wonder if either one could end up at first base. Luis Aparicio won a Gold Glove at age thirty-six, Ozzie Smith at age thirty-seven. Will Bogaerts, Correa or Turner come close? We’ll have to wait and see, I guess. Aaron Judge’s contract with the Yankees pays him through age thirty-nine. My, but the All-Star Game is likely to have a lot of highly paid DHs towards the end of the next decade. Good to know I won’t be the only geezer around, if we’re all lucky.