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Talking about Hawkins caused me to look up how many players who debuted in the big leagues in the 90s are still officially active. Tough to determine the official number given that there are still old-ass players who are free agents but haven't formally retired yet.
But it seems likely that it will dwindle down to the single digits by next year given that Hawkins, Hudson, Aramis, and Burnett have already said they are done after 2015. A guy like Nathan probably won't be returning from major surgery at his age. Hunter hasn't ruled out continuing his career into 2016 but returning to the Twins felt like such a "victory lap" type of thing to do. Pierzynski has been shockingly good this year and should easily find work in 2016 if he wants it, but catching at nearly 40 years old isn't exactly something anybody can pull off.
Probably easier to figure out who still will be playing next year. A-Rod of course has 2 years left on his deal, and if he stays as good as he's been this year he might stick around another year past that to clinch the HR record. Beltre has another year under contract. Big Papi has heated up in the last month or so and has 2 more option years, hard to imagine Boston not having him back if he wants to keep playing. Colon has said he wants to keep going.
Of the group Beltre easily seems like the best bet to keep playing into 2020 assuming his body holds up. He'd only be 41 during 2020, so if he can keep swinging the bat like he has now he could extend his career as a DH if he wanted. Would be pretty awesome to have someone play a 4th decade in the big leagues. Jesse Orosco narrowly outlasted Rickey Henderson in the 70s-to-00s group. Omar Vizquel was the last man standing in the 80s-to-10s.
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