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Nolan Arenado trudged through the month of May when the Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman woke up one morning with an ailment familiar to those who felt invincible in their 20s but have advanced into their mid-to-late 30s.
His back hurt.
Not bad. Not enough to keep him out of the lineup. But it was one of those inexplicable moments that come with being an aging Major League Baseball player — threatening to derail a hot streak for an eight-time All-Star who just turned 35.
“There’s more pain,” Arenado said. “There’s just a little more work in the gym preparing for the game than there usually is. It’s a learning curve.
“I’ve always been to the gym, always done it, but there’s definitely more maintenance.”
Arenado got past the minor back issue and continues a breakout season in the desert, hitting .256 with eight homers and 30 RBIs through Monday’s games. He is among a group of 35-and-olders getting solid results at the plate, joining Los Angeles Dodgers veterans Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy along with Houston’s Christian Walker.
But it’s a small club that has shrunk over the past decade.
MLB hitters 35 or older have combined to produce just 5.6 WAR (Wins Above Replacement, per FanGraphs) through roughly the first 1/3 of the season, continuing a trend that has accelerated over the past decade.
In the early 2000s, older stars were the norm in the major leagues. It peaked in 2003, when older hitters combined for 71.3 WAR, with a group highlighted by Barry Bonds, Frank Thomas, Kenny Lofton, Luis Gonzalez and Jeff Bagwell.
So what has changed?
Let’s look at some of the reasons MLB is getting younger these days:
Analytics as younger players
Baseball’s analytics era can be traced back to the work of Bill James in the 1970s and 1980s, but terms like WAR, wOBA, BABIP, and OPS+ didn’t begin to gain widespread use in the major leagues until at least the late 2000s.
Suddenly, the eye test wasn’t enough for MLB’s general managers. Cold, hard numbers were in.
And—overwhelmingly—those numbers showed that the best years for a big league hitter usually come from the mid-20s to early 30s.
That is directly correlated to MLB teams locking up young players to long-term contracts. Arizona’s Corbin Carroll, Detroit’s Kevin McGonigle, Pittsburgh’s Konnor Griffin, Kansas City’s Bobby Witt Jr. and Seattle’s Julio Rodriguez are among dozens of promising players who were signed to lucrative deals well before they reached free agency.
Spending on veterans is no longer fashionable. Walker — a three-time Gold Glove first baseman who has hit nearly 200 career homers — signed with the Astros for a relatively modest $60 million, three-year deal after the 2024 season when he was 33 years old.
“I think it has a lot to do with the ability to gauge guys’ value on the field,” Walker said. “For a long time, WAR didn’t exist, wRC+ wasn’t a stat, right? So you went away from the optics, or this guy’s a good clubhouse guy, or he’s got experience, he’s been to a World Series.”
Velocity has exploded over the course of their career
Today’s young stars have come of age in a game where speed is king, but that wasn’t the case when Freeman and others broke through. The average MLB fastball in 2026 is north of 94 mph, with 18 qualified pitchers averaging at least 96. When Freeman debuted 17 years ago, the league-wide average was below 92, and no qualified pitcher averaged at least 96.
Arenado said one of the first things that becomes more difficult for MLB veterans is the ability to handle really good fastballs — especially inside. That makes for tough matchups against pitchers like Milwaukee’s Jacob Misiorowski, who routinely throws 100 mph.
“I just feel the general age of the levels and the development is trending younger and younger,” Walker said. “And there can be something about it—just like your best balls can be when you’re 27 years old.”
Big league teams also value flexibility more now
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has Freeman and Muncy in his lineup on an almost daily basis. He also played in the major leagues until he was 36 years old and retired in 2008, giving him some personal experience about the aging process.
“The hardest part is expecting and wanting the same output you’ve always had, but not being willing to change the equation,” Roberts said.
Roberts said the process is different for each player. Some need more training. Some less. Others need more sleep. Diet becomes more important. The tricky part is that the habits that got you to the big leagues may not be the same ones that will keep you there in your mid-to-late 30s.
Walker, who didn’t become a starter in the big leagues until he was 28, said he has embraced getting older and enjoys analyzing his blood tests that can signal what’s causing vitamin deficiencies or inflammation. The tests also show how much alcohol can affect his body or the importance of a good night’s sleep.
“For myself, there’s no real magic recipe, just chalk it up to being a late bloomer,” Walker said. “My age is older than most guys, but seniority isn’t. I haven’t been in the big leagues for 20 years or anything like that. Just lucky I can still help the team.”
Arenado embraces change
Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said he believed there were two main reasons why Arenado was still successful in his 14th big league season. First, he gave credit to the D-backs’ hitting coaches.
But perhaps most importantly, Arenado has listened to those coaches, embraced change and found new ways to succeed.
“There’s an adjustment to work habits and mindset when you get to that level where things aren’t as easy as they used to be,” Lovullo said. “Some say, ‘I’ve had my career, it’s not as easy as it once was and I want to shut it down’.”
He later added, “It’s fun to see Nolan Arenado have all this success, but he’s worked hard. He works as hard as any 22- or 23-year-old we have on this team.”
Report from the Associated Press.
