I came up with this question this evening while talking to my brother. Unfortunately, I know squat about baseball and he just knows two or three times squat.
On average, how long does it take for a professional American baseball team to completely replace the entire lineup? In other words, if you looked at the lineup for your average pro baseball team today, how many years/seasons would it be before none of the players were the same?
For all I know the answer is different for the different baseball leagues.
How does that compare to team turnover in basketball and football? We were guessing that basketball would have the shortest average cycle and baseball the longest.
I don’t know any averages, but I would say that the time for a team to be fully restructured has been declining for a while due to the amount of trades that happen. For the players, it’s not about where you play as much as it’s about who is offering the most money.
You just dont see too many John Stocktons or Karl Malones who stick with a team for 19 years anymore.
I wish I could cite, but someone commented in another sports thread (regarding baseball, at least) that players actually move around a little LESS often that they used to before free agency. But before free agency, the star players would usually be with one team their whole careers and the role players moved a lot. Now, most players move somewhat.
Of course, Karl Malone just left Utah, and money wasn’t the issue.
Football/soccer teams in Europe tend to have high turnover rates, particularly in the top flight; on the other hand, there are always a few players- usually defenders- who may play their entire professional careers for one team. Ally McCoist played for Glasgow Rangers for ten straight seasons from '84 to '94, if memory serves (although he was a striker).
American football is fairly similar- plus with a roster of 45 players for a regular season, there are always going to be players who stick around for a long time. Emmitt Smith and Barry Sanders, for example- both played more than ten straight seasons for their respective teams. Modern free agency has altered this a little, but I can name a dozen or so players, mostly on defense, who’ve been playing for the Buccaneers since I started following them in '96.
Before free agency: Players moved via trade, mostly. Trades weren’t uncommon.
After free agency: Trades still not uncommon, and now players move via free agency, too.
Conclusion: They move more now than they did before free agency.
Now, there’s a corrolary to this that has to be considered. Nowadays, trades are rarely of the one-for-one variety; there always seem to be prospects or extra players involved. So if Team A trades three guys to Team B for two guys, then Team A has only two new players, whereas Team B has three new ones. These uneven trades might indicate, then, that even when two teams trade players away they’re not turning over their rosters at an equal rate.
I know that this boils down to figuring out how long the average longest-serving player on a team stays with them. Baseball can (or at least could) have long tenures as well – Robin Young played on the Brewers for what, 20 years? And I’m sure that wasn’t a record.
Soccer’s a good comparative sport as well. No rough guesstimates yet, though, hm?
I think Stan Musial holds the record - he played for the Cardinals for 23 years or so. (By the way, it’s Robin Yount.)
You will probably find more players spending more years with the same team in baseball than in, say, football. Football players have much shorter careers anyway, and there’s the added bonus of the salary cap, which baseball doesn’t have to deal with (yet).
Stan Musial played 22 seasons for the Cardinals, but Brooks Robinson played all 23 of his seasons for the Orioles.
I’ve seen statistics that show that the turnover on baseball rosters now isn’t any higher than it was in the 19th century. Or at least there aren’t any more players who have played their entire careers for one team than there is now.
Carl Yastrzemski also spent 23 years with one team.
Turnover is about the same now as it always has been, but it’s more likely that a star player moves at the height of his career. Used to be, stars were only traded once they were past their peak.
As far as turnover, it may depend on how good the team is. For instance, when the Mets won the world series in 1969, they didn’t have a single player from their opening day lineup eight years earlier (they had one player who joined the team later the first year and another who may have been on the team on opening day 1962, and who played a few games in 69 before being traded). The 1994 Mets didn’t have a single player from 1988.
The current leaders in playing their entire careers for one team are: Edgar Martinez - 16 seasons with the Seattle Mariners; Barry Larkin - 17 seasons with the Cincinnati Reds.
