Tom Brennan - Age in Baseball is a Ruthless Taskmaster

BILLY, PUT OLD HITTER RESUMES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PILE!

Age in Baseball is a Ruthless Taskmaster!

Jose Reyes learned that a few years ago.

With a birthday in mid season, the year he turned 33, he hit .267.

The year he turned 34, he slipped 21 points to .246.

The year he turned 35 in mid-season, he slipped 57 more points to hit .189, and retired.

I write this to chastise (yes, chastise) Billy Eppler for trying to defy and out-maneuver rule # 1:  

RULE # 1: Age is a ruthless determinant of baseball hitter decline.

The now 35 Tommy Pham and nearly 37 year old Darin Ruf may still look like ballplayers as they don their uniforms, but their birth certificates indicate they are at the age where, try as a hitter might, many slide down as if someone ladled 10 W 40 oil on the steep hill they are standing on.

Did you know Jonathan Villar, who hit pretty well as a Met at age 30 in 2021, hit .208 last year and is not playing for anyone at age 32?

Kevin Pillar hit .231 with a .415 slug % with the Mets at age 32 in 2021, only managed to garner 12 MLB at bats at age 33, and now, at 34, is 6 for 28 in spring ball?

Good guy Jimmy McCann hit .289 in the year (2020) that he hit .289 and turned 30 mid-season.

Mets get him and age 31 he hits 57 points lower at .232.  Age 33, he hits another 37 points lower at .195.  This spring, soon to turn 33, he is roping baseballs at a 4 for 27 rate, with 1 ever-so-lonely RBI.

"Hey Sadie, pass the toast."  Dudes in their 30s turn into burnt toast. 

Need I come up with 100 more examples?

So, Billy....(and maybe someone will show this article to his boss):

Stay away, far, far, away, from aging hitters. The ferocity and variety of MLB baseball pitches rapidly becomes too difficult for most aging hitters. 

It is a game for younger guys. Chuck the oldsters, don't trade for or sign any other aging MLB batters, and let the kids struggle their way to MLB success.  Focus on INCLINES, not DECLINES.