Volatility of MLB rosters

2005 White Sox...

Buehrle, Pierzinski, Dye, Konerko, Thornton. And Dye is likely gone now.

Will be interesting to see how long Russell, Loney, Eithier, Kemp and Manny are together.....

Oh wait the Dodgers were smart enough to only sign Manny for two years. Hope he earns his pay the next week.

It's not limited to whether the players are still with a particular team. Try watching a game on ESPNClassic sometime, a game from not too many years ago. You'll see all sorts of players you realize you knew but haven't seen in quite a while.

I think the saying is, it's hard to get to MLB, and even harder to stay there. There really aren't that many players who stick for more than, say, 5 years.

White Sox....forgot one...although he left and came back since '05...Podsednik.

Players still around that I know of from that team..

Contreras, Garland, Uribe, Crede

quote:

I think the saying is, it's hard to get to MLB, and even harder to stay there. There really aren't that many players who stick for more than, say, 5 years.

You are 100% right! This is where the reality of baseball being a business hits home. You may be good enough to keep around at $25K per year but when you run out of options and start costing teams $550K per year you are quickly let go. There are a lot of players that come up, and bounce back and forth for a year or two and you don't even know their names, because they were not around long enough.

I haven't actually looked to run the numbers, but if you figure 30 teams with 25 roster spots at any given time, you probably have 200-250 slots taken by long term MLB guys, and the other 500-550 slots are revolving doors.

All played on the 1995 Yankees before their title run starting in 1996:
Jeter
Pettitte
Rivera
Posada

All came up thru the Yankee farm system

15 seasons together(minus Pettitte for a couple and Posada from 1998 WS on) still going strong