When did your favorite team get younger than you? - MLB

Craig Robinson of the fantabulous Flip Flop Fly Ball turns 40 today. Happy Birthday, Craig! In honor of that occasion, he does what he does best: creates a fun graphic. This one is a chart illustrating how he has aged compared to the roster of the New York Yankees. The first year in which a Yankee player was younger than him was 1992. Half the Yankees roster was younger than him as of 2001. Now only Mariano Rivera has him beat.

I’m guessing everyone has tracked this sort of thing on some level. The Playboy centerfolds — whose ages are so helpfully included along with their pictorials I’m told — are among the first adult public figures/celebrities (non child-star or college athlete edition) who guys encounter that are younger then them. Then the movie stars. Then the pro athletes. When the doctors and lawyers are all younger than you is when you really start to feel old. The first time we have a President born after 1973 is when I’ll let my ear hair grow out, hike my pants up and give up even the pretense of trying to feel young.

But back to baseball. The first Atlanta Brave younger than me was Jermaine Dye (and later Andruw Jones) in 1996. Now the only ones older than me are Chipper Jones, Takashi Saito and Derek Lowe (though Lowe only by a month and a half).

I don’t really have a problem with this. Aging has never really bothered me. Indeed, each year I get older I feel more comfortable with who and what I am. I was a basket case in my 20s and early 30s. 37 feels pretty good. I’m about the only person I know who looks forward to his 40th birthday. On some strange level I feel like I will finally be grown up then.

SAN DIEGO — The scuffling San Diego Padres claimed catcher Gary Sánchez off waivers from the New York Mets.

The two-time All-Star was designated for assignment after playing in three games for the Mets. He went 1 for 6 with three strikeouts and an RBI, looking shaky at times behind the plate.

With the disappointing Padres (24-29) getting meager offensive production at catcher, they hope Sánchez can provide a boost. Austin Nola is batting .131 with three extra-base hits and a paltry .434 OPS in 39 games. His part-time platoon partner, second-stringer Brett Sullivan, is hitting .170 with four extra-base hits and a .482 OPS in 21 games since getting called up from the minors April 16.

Luis Campusano has been on the injured list since April 17 and is expected to be sidelined until around the All-Star break following left thumb surgery.

San Diego is responsible for just over $1 million in salary for Sánchez after assuming his $1.5 million, one-year contract.

The star-studded Padres have lost seven of 11 and are 3-3 on a nine-game East Coast trip. They open a three-game series at Miami.

San Diego becomes the third National League team to take a close look at the 30-year-old Sánchez this season. He spent time in the minors with San Francisco before getting released May 2 and signing a minor league contract a week later with the Mets, who were minus a couple of injured catchers at the time.

After hitting well in a short stint at Triple-A Syracuse, he was promoted to the big leagues May 19. When the Mets reinstated catcher Tomás Nido from the injured list last week, Sánchez was cut.

Sánchez’s best seasons came early in his career with the New York Yankees, where he was runner-up in 2016 AL Rookie of the Year voting and made the AL All-Star team in 2017 and 2019.

He was traded to Minnesota before the 2022 season and batted .205 with 16 homers and 61 RBIs in 128 games last year.

With the Padres, Sánchez could also be a candidate for at-bats at designated hitter, where 42-year-old Nelson Cruz is batting .245 with three homers, 16 RBIs and a .670 OPS, and 37-year-old Matt Carpenter is hitting .174 with four homers, 21 RBIs and a .652 OPS.