The offseason is the time for indulging in strange,
off-the-wall investigations. And so, I will take this opportunity to explore a
question that occurred to me during the regular season: who will be the last
active player who debuted in the 1990s?
I really wish I remember what inspired this question, but
the context is lost to the sands of time, as all the remains is a note on my
“To Do” list that says “WHO WILL BE THE LAST PLAYER FROM THE ‘90s?” Apparently,
I was really excited about it when it occurred to me, and that’s all that really
matters.
With that, I headed to Baseball-Reference’s Play Index to
find out who all was left from the ‘90s. The details of my search were pretty
simple: sort by ascending year of debut, active players with last season 2013
or later. I thought about setting final season to 2014 or later, but I figured
there might be a few cases of players who were active in 2014 but couldn’t play
due to, say, injury, or steroid
suspension.
With those criteria set, I got a list of 30 players who fit
the criteria. However, I had to cull the list even more, as some of the results
were no longer possibilities. Derek Jeter, Paul Konerko, Bobby Abreu, Eric
Chavez, Ryan Dempster, and Alfonso Soriano have all announced their
retirements. I suppose comeback tours are all possible, but I don’t know that
we should be betting on them happening. That leaves us with 24 names.
