A Look at 2023’s Potential Iron Men

The ability to stay on the field is a critical component of a player’s value, though much of it is out of their hands. Players do their best to stay healthy and game-ready, but the wear and tear of the season on a body is a significant challenge. Injuries of all kinds and severities emerge unwelcome; performance slumps necessitate days of rest or warrant other players’ chances; and illnesses pass through the petri dishes that are clubhouses.

With so many unpreventable interventions, it can hardly be held against a player that he isn’t able to suit up 162 times in 185 or so days. It’s a remarkable thing to ask of anyone, let alone a professional athlete; I’ve never done that in any job I’ve worked, and my career hasn’t involved trying to hit a round ball with a round bat, squarely, as Ted Williams once put it. But those who do are reaching an achievement seemingly unmatched across professional sports and are deserving of a little extra recognition.

In 2023, six players still have a shot at reaching that goal:

If even three of them make it, it’ll be the most since 2019, when five hitters did; if all six do, it will be the most since 2007.

What also stands out about this year’s group is that it includes some of the best-performing position players in the league. The four NL players — Acuña Jr., Olson, Freeman, and Soto — are four of the top five hitters in the NL by wRC+ (a rate stat, mind you). In the AL, Semien has paired one of his finest offensive seasons with his best defensive one and will garner MVP consideration. Suárez isn’t quite the caliber of the rest, but he’s a key piece on a playoff contender. It makes sense that the best-playing players play a lot, but the ability to sustain this level of performance and play every day is all the more remarkable.

Acuña and Olson just don’t need to be on this list, frankly; Atlanta clinched a playoff spot over the weekend with three weeks left in the season. From a team contribution standpoint, few others should feel as comfortable taking a day off. But Olson is MLB’s reigning Iron Man. He has played every game since being traded to Atlanta from the A’s prior to the 2022 season (thanks to two defensive innings in a late-September game in Philadelphia last year), and he played his last 134 games with the A’s consecutively. That gives him 438 straight games of action, the longest active streak in the league, 437 of which he started. If he’s in the lineup for the last 20 games of this season, it will be the fourth time in his career that he’s played all of his team’s scheduled games, including three full seasons and the pandemic-shortened 60-game slate in 2020. It doesn’t hurt that he’s been more productive than ever in those 142 games, leading the majors with 48 home runs and ranking sixth with a .409 wOBA and 158 wRC+ and ninth with 5.4 WAR.

The same goes for Acuña, who may be otherwise motivated to get on the field every day. In his first full season since returning from an ACL tear in 2021, he is in the heat of what could be one of the most hotly contested MVP races in recent memory opposite Mookie Betts and Freeman — a race likely to be decided by these final three weeks. Much more will (hopefully) go into any MVP conversation than counting stats, and on some level Acuña must just be happy to be healthy enough to have the chance to play out a 162-game slate. But squeezing every at-bat out of these last 20 games won’t hurt his campaign.

Freeman, who may well be the third finalist for NL MVP, has also made some counting-stats history this season, setting a Dodgers franchise record last week with his 53rd double of the season, and he has a shot of becoming the first player since the 1930s to get to 60. Like Olson, Freeman has made it a hallmark of his career to play nearly every day, with his last game day off coming nearly a year ago. The Dodgers may be next to clinch, and maybe Freeman will earn himself a rest day with the second seed in the NL essentially in the bag for Los Angeles. But I won’t be surprised if Freeman makes it to 162 anyway.

Soto, too, may soon have a chance for a guilt-free day off, though for a more disappointing reason, as the Padres have watched their playoff chances dwindle to just about zero. But barring an injury in these final few weeks, he’s certainly poised to pass his 2022 career high of 153 games played, a notable achievement for a 24-year-old who has already accomplished so much.

In the case of Semien and Suárez, their services are particularly needed this month. The Rangers and Mariners are neck-and-neck for the final AL Wild Card spot at the moment, and the two of them have been lineup stalwarts. Semien is another perennial candidate to reach 162. He’s played in 466 of his teams’ last 467 games dating back to his time in Oakland — all but a single game in the midst of a May slump early in his Rangers tenure. He’s been a sparkplug at the top of Texas’ lineup this season, complementing Corey Seager in the league’s best middle infield. Suárez hasn’t been the hitter he was in his inaugural Mariners season last year, but he’s been among the league’s best defensive third basemen, a pair of sure hands next to J.P. Crawford on the left side of Seattle’s infield.

Cal Ripken Jr.’s 2,632 consecutive games played streak is often cited as one of the most unbreakable records in baseball. The closest to matching him since has been Miguel Tejada, who played seven straight seasons without missing a game and didn’t even get halfway there. None of this group can dream of matching Ripken; Soto, the youngest of the group by far, would have to play nonstop until 2039, when he’ll be 40 years old. But that shouldn’t take away from the achievement that these six have a chance to accomplish this season. The last three weeks of this season will be chock-full of exciting races, but I’ll be saving just a sliver of my attention for an unsung race to 162.