We all know about the great, the wonderful, the tremendous Manny Mota. But generally, do aging reserves have a history of success with the Los Angeles Dodgers?

To try to answer the question, I decided to look at the batting numbers for Dodgers since 1958 who were at least 35 years old. (I chose players with between 20 and 400 plate appearances, then removed most of the players who were basically starters that got hurt or were part of a midseason acquisition.) At first I was only going to look at pinch-hitting numbers, but then I realized that except for someone like Mota, a key component of a good bench player includes how well they perform in spot starts.

Of the 89 players on this list, 20 of them (22.4 percent) had at least a league-average adjusted OPS of 100. Mota accounts for three of those 20 seasons, as does Rick Monday. (Sidebar: Is Monday, who OPSed .854 primarily as a reserve in 841 plate appearances from 1980-83, the greatest bench player in Los Angeles Dodger history?) Only 30 (33.7 percent) of the 89 even managed an OPS+ of 90.

Some of these older guys who didn’t produce are catchers or defensive specialists who never were expected to hit much in the first place. Nevertheless, the over-35 bench club is strewn with names of guys who had past hitting success (Jim Eisenreich, I’m looking at you) but were in such decline that not even their veteran moxie could save them.

Even Mota had some unimpressive 35-and-up seasons. Because many of these players don’t get a lot of at-bats, their performances can fluctuate quite a bit year to year. It’s not as if older players are doomed to failure, but there’s clearly nothing about being a veteran that guarantees bench success.

And that makes sense, despite the baseball cliches that would suggest otherwise. After all, there’s a reason these guys lose their starting jobs in the first place — and usually, that reason is related to offense more than defense.

There are some names in the below-average portion of this chart that are actually part of Dodger lore: Vic Davalillo in 1977, Jay Johnstone in 1981, Mark Loretta last October — players who by virtue of a single at-bat put a positive stamp on disappointing seasons. That doesn’t change the fact that overall, veteran benchmen have been more forgettable than memorable.

You can still argue for keeping a Garret Anderson over a Xavier Paul. Maybe the Dodgers will get more long-term value out of Paul if he plays every day in Albuquerque until he’s needed. Maybe there’s a matchup in a key September or October game that Anderson will use his experience to take advantage of. Maybe Anderson’s numbers will improve if his at-bats are rationed.

On the other hand, Paul is 25 years old, entering his prime, superior on defense and already performing at a level on offense that projects better in 2010 than Anderson does. It’s not clear at all that it benefits the Dodgers to hand Anderson a job that he would be earning solely through his resume.



Player              OPS+  PA Year Age HR  OBP  SLG   OPS

Rick Monday          194 156 1981  35 11 .423 .608 1.031

Manny Mota           176  50 1977  39  1 .521 .500 1.021

Duke Snider          149 196 1962  35  5 .418 .481  .899

Rick Monday          140 254 1982  36 11 .372 .481  .852

Olmedo Saenz         132 204 2006  35 11 .363 .564  .927

Jose Morales         131  34 1982  37  1 .382 .433  .816

Rick Dempsey         129 198 1988  38  7 .338 .455  .793

Ken Boyer            123 243 1968  37  6 .317 .403  .720

Jose Morales         121  54 1983  38  3 .296 .509  .806

Chad Kreuter         116 271 2000  35  6 .416 .410  .827

Doug Mientkiewicz    115  20 2009  35  0 .400 .389  .789

Mitch Webster        114  93 1994  35  4 .344 .464  .808

Manny Mota           110  47 1979  41  0 .400 .357  .757

Rick Monday          109 208 1983  37  6 .351 .399  .750

Manny Mota           106  60 1976  38  0 .367 .346  .713

Jeff Reboulet        105 253 2001  37  3 .367 .397  .764

Kevin Elster         104 259 2000  35 14 .341 .455  .796

Trent Hubbard        102 120 1999  35  1 .387 .390  .777

Vic Davalillo        102  81 1978  41  1 .333 .390  .723

Robin Ventura        100 127 2003  35  5 .331 .422  .753

Player              OPS+  PA Year Age HR  OBP  SLG   OPS

Gary Carter           98 280 1991  37  6 .323 .375  .698

Willie Randolph       98 113 1990  35  1 .364 .344  .707

Chad Kreuter          97 234 2001  36  6 .355 .377  .732

Enos Cabell           96 208 1985  35  0 .340 .349  .689

Jerry Grote           96  83 1978  35  0 .354 .343  .697

Manny Mota            96  37 1978  40  0 .361 .333  .694

Brett Butler          95 178 1995  38  0 .368 .336  .703

Bill Mueller          94 126 2006  35  3 .357 .402  .759

Chad Kreuter          94 108 2002  37  2 .333 .379  .712

Brad Ausmus           93 107 2009  40  1 .343 .368  .712

Pee Wee Reese         87 181 1958  39  4 .337 .381  .718

Robin Ventura         86 175 2004  36  5 .337 .362  .699

Bill Russell          85 298 1984  35  0 .329 .321  .649

Manny Mota            85  72 1974  36  0 .328 .316  .644

Sandy Alomar          84  62 2006  40  0 .323 .403  .726

Manny Mota            84  59 1975  37  0 .357 .286  .643

Bill Russell          83 192 1985  36  0 .333 .308  .641

Reggie Smith          83  44 1981  36  1 .318 .314  .632

Boog Powell           83  53 1977  35  0 .415 .244  .659

Otis Nixon            82 191 1997  38  1 .323 .349  .671

Rick Dempsey          81 183 1989  39  4 .319 .305  .623

Player              OPS+  PA Year Age HR  OBP  SLG   OPS

Devon White           79 168 2000  37  4 .310 .386  .696

Vic Davalillo         79  48 1977  40  0 .313 .354  .667

Ron Coomer            78 137 2003  36  4 .299 .368  .667

Jay Johnstone         77  90 1981  35  3 .267 .349  .616

Juan Castro           76 121 2009  37  1 .311 .339  .650

Gil Hodges            76 245 1961  37  8 .313 .372  .685

Gil Hodges            76 231 1960  36  8 .291 .371  .661

Geronimo Berroa       74  35 2000  35  0 .343 .323  .665

Al Oliver             74  85 1985  38  0 .294 .316  .611

Carl Furillo          74 103 1959  37  0 .333 .333  .667

Bill Russell          73 242 1986  37  0 .302 .301  .603

Rick Monday           73  57 1984  38  1 .309 .298  .607

Steve Yeager          72 221 1984  35  4 .295 .310  .605

Jim Gilliam           71 273 1966  37  1 .315 .268  .583

Rickey Henderson      70  84 2003  44  2 .321 .306  .627

Wally Moon            69 104 1965  35  1 .304 .270  .574

Gary Bennett          68  23 2008  36  1 .261 .381  .642

Tim Wallach           68 175 1996  38  4 .286 .333  .619

Rick Dempsey          68 151 1990  40  2 .318 .281  .599

Vic Davalillo         68  29 1979  42  0 .310 .296  .607

Elmer Valo            68 115 1958  37  1 .322 .317  .639

Brett Butler          66 145 1996  39  0 .313 .290  .603

Davey Lopes           66 243 1981  36  5 .289 .285  .574

Olmedo Saenz          65 132 2007  36  4 .295 .345  .641

Cesar Cedeno          65  87 1986  35  0 .294 .282  .576

Mark Belanger         63  57 1982  38  0 .309 .260  .569

Bill Madlock          62  69 1987  36  3 .265 .344  .609

Mark Loretta          60 204 2009  37  0 .309 .276  .585

Jose Valentin         60 184 2005  35  2 .326 .265  .591

Player              OPS+  PA Year Age HR  OBP  SLG   OPS

Mark Sweeney          55  34 2007  37  0 .294 .303  .597

Jeff Reboulet         55  58 2002  38  0 .291 .271  .562

Chris Donnels         54 101 2001  35  3 .277 .295  .573

Phil Garner           54 151 1987  38  2 .299 .270  .569

Ken Boyer             49  36 1969  38  0 .250 .265  .515

Shawn Gilbert         47  23 2000  35  1 .227 .350  .577

Jim Leyritz           47  68 2000  36  1 .294 .267  .561

Mitch Webster         46  63 1995  36  1 .246 .286  .532

Irv Noren             46  26 1960  35  1 .231 .320  .551

Steve Yeager          43 131 1985  36  0 .246 .256  .502

Mike Lieberthal       41  82 2007  35  0 .280 .260  .540

Jim Eisenreich        39 140 1998  39  0 .266 .244  .510

Mickey Hatcher        39 141 1990  35  0 .248 .250  .498

Chris Cannizzaro      35  25 1973  35  0 .280 .190  .470

Brent Mayne           29 113 2004  36  0 .286 .188  .473

Mark Sweeney          13 108 2008  38  0 .250 .163  .413

Jose Morales           3  20 1984  39  0 .200 .158  .358

Maury Wills            3 152 1972  39  0 .190 .167  .357

Milt Thompson         -3  57 1996  37  0 .211 .137  .348

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Generated 3/4/2010.