The oldest Padres player each season

If Chris Young, who the Padres recently re-signed to a minor league deal, does in fact make the major league squad this year, the 38 year old will likely be the oldest guy to play for the Padres in 2018. Unless, you know, they sign Ichiro or something. This got me wondering about the oldest player each season; it seemed like something that has been covered here before, but I couldn’t find it with a quick search, and if it does exist, it needed an update anyway. I checked each year’s team roster on Baseball Reference and sorted by birth date. The ages listed are how old each player was at midnight of June 30 each year, which will put Young in ink at 39 if he takes the trophy this year. As it stands now, the oldest player on the 40-man roster is Clayton Richard at age 34.

1969 - Johnny Podres, 36

1970 - Earl Wilson, 35

1971 - Chris Cannizzaro, 33

1972 - Ron Taylor, 34

1973 - Bob Miller, 34

1974 - Willie McCovey, 36

1975 - Sonny Siebert, 38

1976 - McCovey, 38

1977 - Merv Rettenmund, 34

1978-79 - Gaylord Perry, 39-40

1980-82 - Rick Wise, 34-36

1983 - Kurt Bevacqua, 36

1984-86 - Graig Nettles, 39-41

1987 - Steve Garvey, 38

1988 - Keith Moreland, 34

1989 - Ed Whitson, 34

1990 - Fred Lynn, 38

1991-92 - Larry Andersen, 38-39

1993 - Roger Mason, 35

1994-95 - Bill Krueger, 36-37

1996 - Rickey Henderson, 37

1997 - Don Slaught, 38

1998-2000 - Tony Gwynn, 38-40

2001 - Henderson, 42

2002 - Tom Lampkin, 38

2003 - Jesse Orosco, 46

2004 - David Wells, 41

2005 - Chris Hammond, 39

2006-07 - Wells, 43-44

2008 - Greg Maddux, 42

2009 - Brian Giles, 38

2010 - Matt Stairs, 42

2011 - Heath Bell, 33

2012 - Jeff Suppan, 37

2013 - Mark Kotsay, 37

2014 - Jason Lane, 37

2015 - Joaquin Benoit, 37

2016 - Matt Thornton, 39

2017 - Jered Weaver, 34

(All of the links go to Gaslamp Ball posts. The Mark Kotsay one is especially good.)

-Wise, Nettles, Gwynn, and Wells share the lead with three seasons as the oldest player, but Wells’ term was split thanks to his time with the Red Sox.

-Trevor Hoffman was never the oldest Padre in a season, but he was the oldest on the team toward the end of 2008, after Maddux was traded.

-Cannizzaro and Bell were both 33 in their elder years, but Cannizzaro was 32 until May, while Bell entered the season already 33.

I also made note of the youngest player each season, so I’ll go ahead and make a post out of that too. Once it’s done I’ll put a link to it here.