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TAMPA — Spring-training camps are open for every team now, but not everybody.
It is difficult to miss who is not present, considering the pedigree of those absent. A few elder statesmen have retired — such as Jorge Posada and Tim Wakefield, seemingly more to control their endgame as much as possible rather than the desire to truly stop playing.
Then you have what essentially are forced retirements — a waiting by the phone for a call that has not, and may never, come. This accomplished class includes Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui, Vlad Guerrero and Magglio Ordonez, Derrek Lee and Miguel Tejada.
There is a “Logan’s Run” feel, but rather than mandatory death at 30 like in the movie, careers are being extinguished with 36 appearing the tipping-point age.
Consider that from 2006-08, either 24 or 25 players in their age-36-or-older season reached 300 plate appearances each year. Over the past three years that number has been 19 once and 15 twice, including last year. Damon, Guerrero, Matsui, Posada, Tejada, Ordonez and Orlando Cabrera (retired) were part of that class, and so was Bobby Abreu, who essentially has been evicted from his full-time job as an Angel.
From 2006-08, between 12 and 13 pitchers in their age-36-or-older season made at least 20 starts each year. Over the past three years that number has fallen to two once and seven twice, including last year.
Over the past four years this is the trend line for how many relievers 36 or older appeared in even 40 games: 23 in 2008, 18 in 2009, 17 in 2010 and 15 last year.
We will avoid the discussion if illegal performance enhancers are dwindling in the game and taking older players, who can’t artificially retain their prime, with them. But the declining production of the game’s seniors has led to a sport-wide fumigation of the species.
When the weekend began, there were just 75 players in camp (including those with minor-league contracts) who were at least 36, or just more than two per team on average. With six, the Yankees were tied with the Rockies for the most.
Look, every year one concern that engulfs this organization is age. Running $200 million payrolls assures long-term contracts and older players. In general, however, the Yankees have successfully navigated the age-old questions.
“I don’t worry too much about it because I am tied to [older players] either way,” Brian Cashman said. “It is not something I can change.”
Though he does work on it. In fact, Cashman’s greatest achievement after being given greater authority in 2005 has been emphasizing the need to build the farm system. One of those assets, 19-year-old Gary Sanchez, is the youngest player in any camp. With Michael Pineda, this will be the fifth straight year the Yankees try to introduce an early-20s starter to the rotation — Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy in 2008, Joba Chamberlain in 2009, Hughes again in 2010 and Ivan Nova last year.
David Robertson is the main set-up man, and the lineup actually is deep in prime-aged players, notably Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson.
Yet even with the departures of Damon and Matsui after the 2009 championship, Andy Pettitte the following year and Posada this past offseason, the Yankees remain beholden to a graying group. They have the majors’ oldest closer in Mariano Rivera (42), the oldest DH in Raul Ibanez (39), the second-oldest shortstop in Derek Jeter (37), the fourth-oldest third baseman in Alex Rodriguez (36) and in Hiroki Kuroda (36) the fourth-oldest starter currently on a 40-man roster.
In Eric Chavez and Andruw Jones, the Yankees have brittle 34-year-olds filling important bench roles. In fact, Jones, Rivera, Rodriguez, Jeter and Ibanez give the Yankees five of the top 20 players in major league service time.
The positive is a clubhouse of savvy veterans who have stood the test of time and know how to prepare, survive and thrive during long seasons.
Nevertheless, of the Yankees’ seasoned contingent, only the timeless Rivera has avoided significant injury or decline. He currently is the oldest player on any 40-man roster. The only two players older in any camp are Colorado’s Jamie Moyer (49) and Toronto’s Omar Vizquel (44). Rivera is hinting at retirement, but the expectation is another prime season in 2012.
There is not that kind of confidence in other aging areas. The concern with Kuroda is more about changing leagues, however he turned 37 earlier this month. In 2008, seven pitchers that age or older made at least 30 starts. Here is the list for the past three seasons: Pettitte in 2009 and Derek Lowe in each of the past two years. That is it.
Following last year, his worst season since 2001, Ibanez took an $11 million pay cut to avoid the fate that has befallen Damon, Matsui and Guerrero as teams move away from using an oldster even as the full-time DH. Ibanez’s OPS has fallen from .899 to .793 to .707 the past three years. He turns 40 in June, and no player 40 or older has registered 400 plate appearances in a season since Jeff Kent in 2008. If Ibanez stumbles or is injured, the Yankees have a minor league contract with Russell Branyan, a 36-year-old whose OPS has slid every year since 2008, down to .699 last year.
The biggest age-related issue involves if the Yankees can win with a left side comprised of a shortstop in his age-38 season and a third baseman in his age-36 campaign. The 1984 Cubs are the only team to make the playoffs with a shortstop, Larry Bowa, in that age group. That club also had a 36-year-old third baseman in Ron Cey, marking the only time players that old comprised the left side of a playoff infield.
History is replete with third basemen Rodriguez’s age or older on playoff teams, four of which won the World Series — the last being the 1996 Yankees with Wade Boggs. But just four times has someone from this category reached 30 homers (Mike Schmidt twice, Vinny Castilla playing home games in Coors Field and Gary Gaetti). The only shortstops in their age-38-season-or-older to top a .300 batting average were Luke Appling and Honus Wagner in the first half of the 20th century.
Will Jeter and Rodriguez defy recent slips in health and production, plus a history that shows few players at their age at their positions succeeding? It is a major part of an old worry for the Yankees.
joel.sherman@nypost.com