From 20 to 43, the best player at each age

On June 25, Eury Pérez threw six shutout innings for the Marlins in a 2-0 win over the Pirates, his fifth win of the year, lowering his ERA to a stunning 1.34. In the opposing dugout was Rich Hill, who would be traded to the Padres, his 13th MLB team, less than a month later.

Pérez was 20 years old when he threw those six innings; he had just turned 20 in April, actually. The day Pérez was born, Hill, who, again, was in uniform just 90 feet away or so, was pitching for High-A Lansing in the Cubs organization, already 23 years old, a little too old to be in Single-A. He wouldn’t make it to Wrigley Field until he was 25.

He’s still here. With Pérez. That’s how long the arc of a baseball career can be. Someone born when you were in the Minors can play against you before you are done.

Thus, today, in honor of the inexorable nature of time itself, we take a look at the best baseball player at each age in the sport. Now, for the sake of simplicity, we are going with their “baseball age,” which is the age they were on June 30 of this year, as opposed to their actual age at this exact second. This allows us to not sweat individual birthdays so much, giving us a universal figure to work from, and it also, if I’m being honest, makes it a lot easier to search on Baseball Reference.

We’re accounting for this year’s success in this tally, of course, but we’re really trying to pick the best overall player. What you’ve done up to this point in your career, particularly recently, factors in as well. You can watch that whole arc of a baseball career in this list.

And if you’re curious, we’ve done this before, in 2019, in '20, in '21 and last year.

20: Eury Pérez, RHP, Marlins. After a sabbatical to rest his arm in the middle of the season, Pérez has rounded into form recently, allowing zero earned runs in 12 innings over his next two starts against the Dodgers and Nats (before giving up three earned runs to Washington on Friday). Those two stingy outings still ended in Marlins' losses, though, and as Miami's postseason hopes start to slowly fade, you wonder how much more they’re going to push Pérez this season. He looks likely to be a mainstay of their rotation for years to come. He should make his first start of 2024 for them next April … the month when he will finally turn 21.

Runner-up: AJ Smith-Shawver, RHP, Braves

21: Elly De La Cruz, SS, Reds. Sure, he has slowed down a bit -- quite a bit, actually -- after that blistering start, but you don’t have to watch the Reds' phenom play for long, even when he’s struggling, to understand what he is capable of doing. The numbers have fallen off in the second half, to the point that the runner-up on this list actually has a higher OPS than De La Cruz, but you can sense the energy on the field every time he steps on it. This is the sort of player a team -- and maybe a league -- builds around.

Runner-up: Jordan Walker, RF, Cardinals

22: Julio Rodríguez, CF, Mariners. Rodríguez is in the midst of an all-time heater right now, the sort of run that builds legends. He has been so fantastic that he has essentially carried the Mariners right into the AL West race. Because he was such a big factor in the Mariners ending their postseason drought last year -- and because he has transformed this franchise so much already -- it is easy to forget that he is still, in fact, 22 years old. But he is. J-Rod is going to be a part of all of our lives for a long, long time.

Runner-up: Corbin Carroll, OF, D-backs

23: Bobby Witt Jr., SS, Royals. Witt Jr. wasn’t an immediate superstar when he arrived in the Majors, leading to a perception that he was somehow a little bit of disappointment. But he keeps getting better and better, and this year, he’s approaching star status -- on the verge of a 30-30 season. And watch him play if you can: He increasingly looks like the best player on the field.

Runner-up: Matt McLain, SS, Reds

24: Juan Soto, LF, Padres. The competition for the top 24-year-old is a little tighter than you might have thought it would be a few years ago. Soto has been terrific as always, but perhaps not quite to the level it looked like, in, say, 2020-21. He’s still one year away from becoming one of the most anticipated free agents in recent history.

Runner-up: Spencer Strider, RHP, Braves

25: Ronald Acuña Jr., RF, Braves. While Mookie Betts has been giving him a run lately, Acuña has been the consensus NL MVP pick for most of this season, leading the best team in baseball while showing off the supernatural skills injuries robbed from us for a while. In case you’ve forgotten, he leads in the NL in runs, plate appearances, hits, stolen bases and OBP. This is transcendent. This is what we were waiting to return.

Runner-up: Adley Rutschman, C, Orioles

26: Kyle Tucker, RF, Astros. It’s a perpetual competition between Tucker and his Astros teammate Yordan Alvarez, but this might be the year Tucker finally passed him. (The year after he caught the last out of the World Series, no less.) Tucker has been so good, and so underrated, for so long that calling him underrated is starting to feel a little overrated, if that makes sense. (And it might not.) If anyone made a charge on Tucker this year, it wasn’t Alvarez; it was Luis Arraez. These guys are all just hitting their prime.

Runner-up: Luis Arraez, 2B, Marlins

27: Zac Gallen, RHP, D-backs. Gallen surpasses last year’s winner, Sandy Alcantara, the guy he was famously traded with by the Cardinals for Marcell Ozuna all those years ago. Pitchers actually dominate this age group, which makes a certain amount of sense: This is usually when you get those early injuries out of the way and figure out what kind of pitcher you are -- when you peak.

Runner-up: Sandy Alcantara, RHP, Marlins

28: Shohei Ohtani, RHP/DH, Angels. Even if he doesn’t pitch for a year, he’ll still be the best of his age group. We still sort of think he’ll be able to do this when he’s twice this age.

Runner-up: Corbin Burnes, RHP, Brewers

29: Corey Seager, SS, Rangers. Seager has dealt with a few injury issues, but when he’s on the field, he has been a dominant player -- a guy who’s looking like the best free-agent signing in many a moon. With any luck, he’ll get to play a World Series in Arlington again … with the Rangers on the field this time.

Runner-up: Matt Olson, 1B, Braves

30: Mookie Betts, OF/INF, Dodgers. Only someone doing what Ohtani is doing could overshadow the all-around brilliance of Betts, not just his season, but for several years now. This might be the most stacked age on this list, but Betts is so good right now he’s still almost lapping it.

Runner-up: José Ramírez, 3B, Guardians.

31: Aaron Judge, RF, Yankees. Judge is reaching the age where injuries are starting to become a factor, as his top rival for this spot, Mike Trout, can certainly attest. But no one this side of Ohtani changes the game more by his very presence than a healthy Judge.

Runner-up: Trout, CF, Angels

32: Gerrit Cole, RHP, Yankees. It is a very Yankees thing to have the first two players of theirs to show up on this list be in their 30s. Is Cole finally going to win a Cy Young Award this year? Is this his last best chance?

Runner-up: Nolan Arenado, 3B, Cardinals

33: Freddie Freeman, 1B, Dodgers. Remember when it seemed impossible to imagine Freeman wearing anything but a Braves uniform? He’s even better in Dodger Blue than he was in Atlanta … though he might get a chance to see those fans again this October.

Runner-up: Jose Altuve, 2B, Astros

34: Merrill Kelly, RHP, D-backs. This is the weakest age on the board for the second year in a row, with Kelly winning the top spot in both. This is when pitchers are getting hurt the most, and, in many ways, it’s one of the shakiest ages for a baseball player possible.

Runner-up: Whit Merrifield, 2B/OF, Blue Jays

35: Clayton Kershaw, LHP, Dodgers. You don’t always know how healthy he’s going to be. But when he’s on the mound, you know what you’re getting, now and forever: You’re getting Clayton Kershaw.

Runner-up: Paul Goldschmidt, 1B, Cardinals

36: Yu Darvish, RHP, Padres. This age completely collapsed this year, exemplified by last year's winner, Jose Abreu, who saw his numbers plummet in Houston. You know which 36-year-old hitter has led his age in batter WAR this year? Charlie Blackmon.

Runner-up: Andrew McCutchen, DH, Pirates

37: Chris Martin, RHP, Red Sox. He has been absolutely terrific out of the Boston bullpen this year, and he’s had a much better year than the Coldplay guy.

Runner-up: Carlos Santana, 1B, Brewers

38: Max Scherzer, RHP, Rangers. If the Rangers can hold on to a playoff spot, Scherzer will be right back where you expect him to be this October: on the mound, trying to stare some poor hitter into oblivion.

Runner-up: Justin Turner, DH, Red Sox

39: Charlie Morton, RHP, Braves. There are two 39-year-old future Hall of Famers currently playing in the Majors. Morton is having a better year than both of them.

Runner-up: Joey Votto, 1B, Reds

40: Justin Verlander, RHP, Astros. The Astros feel like the Astros again with him heading up their rotation.

Runner-up: None

41: Adam Wainwright, RHP, Cardinals. It hasn’t been the final season anyone would have wanted for Wainwright, least of all him. But he has been better lately, and he still has a shot to get to 200 wins.

Runner-up: None

42: None

43: Rich Hill, LHP, Padres. He has thrown 137 innings this year! He’s going to pitch when he’s 90.

Runner-up: None