The Mets: Who’s on Second? Semien! Does Age Matter? I Don’t Know! Third Base?”

If you’ve followed our little corner of the Mets universe here at Kiner’s Korner, you may have noticed that it doesn’t take much to send me tumbling down the rabbit hole. A Ralph Kiner video? I’m gone. A forgotten Mets stat? Forget it, I’m living in it. Well, yesterday after the Marcus Semien press conference and all the chatter about how his age might affect his performance, I should have been counting sheep. Instead, I was counting Mets second basemen going over the fence to catch a ball, muttering to myself, “Wait, who’s on second? No, really, who’s on second?”

Spoiler alert, Luis Castillo cleared the fence, caught the ball and then dropped it. But let me tell you, that minor calamity was all the inspiration I needed. I woke up this morning, fired up the laptop, and dove straight down the rabbit hole, picture Francisco Álvarez going into second base without a sliding glove, into the wonderfully weird world of Mets Opening Day starting second basemen.

This dive down the rabbit hole felt like flipping through a Mets yearbook that keeps getting revised, stumbling across a name and saying “who?” and wondering if you forgot to take your Prevagen today, because honestly, for the life of me, I have no recall of Brad Emaus. Provided Marcus Semien stays healthy and claims the 2026 Mets Opening Day start, he’ll be the 37th player to man second base in the club’s 65 Opening Days. That works out to a new second baseman roughly every 1.76 Opening Days, which, if you like, is just about a new face every other Opening Day.

Second base for the Mets has always been a revolving door, a carousel of glove-flipping, double-play-turning, occasionally eye-rolling characters that somehow define eras. Take Ken Boswell, for instance, who manned the keystone four Opening Days in the late 60s and early 70s, though he skipped 1970 because apparently even Boswell needed a vacation. Felix Millán, that guy had a five-year run from 1973 to 1977 so steady it practically came with a snooze button. Doug Flynn and Wally Backman offered brief flashes of consistency in the late 70s and mid 80s, while Jeff Kent, Edgardo Alfonzo, Luis Castillo and Daniel Murphy all carved out three-year stretches of their own, proving that sometimes, just sometimes, a Mets second baseman could be more than a cameo. In the early years of the franchise, third base was the true carousel, an ever-turning showcase of one-year wonders, but names like Howard Johnson and David Wright changed all that. Meanwhile, second base quietly became the infield position with the most flux from year to year, a game of musical chairs where the music never stops and the Mets’ fans are left wondering, “Wait, who’s on second, no, Who’s on first, what’s on second, I don’t know, third base!”

Then there’s the age spectrum. Gregg Jefferies was the bright-eyed 21-year-old wunderkind in 1989, while Robinson Cano, a grizzled 39-year-old in 2022, somehow made second base look like a senior citizen center with speed. Most of these guys hover in their mid-20s to early 30s, though a few veterans like Valentin and Randolph occasionally remind us that wisdom and arthritis also play a role. Last season, Luisangel Acuña got the Opening Day start at age 23, and if Marcus Semien takes the 2026 gig at age 35, that’s a 12-year gap from one season to the next. Impressive? Sure, but believe it or not, that only ranks third in Mets history. Coming in second, 1990 starter Gregg Jefferies at 22, followed the very next year by 35-year-old Tom Herr, a 13-year swing that makes you want to check your math. And the number one age differential, cue Casey Kasem voice for maximum dramatic effect, the 2006 to 2007 handoff from 23-year-old Anderson Hernández to 37-year-old José Valentin, a jaw-dropping 14-year gap, because at the Mets, second base is where you can go from high school diploma to senior discount in a single offseason.

Looking at Mets Opening Day second basemen from 1962 through 2025, the average guy plays about 120 games and hits .262. But here’s the kicker, age doesn’t really seem to matter, at least not across the board. Seriously, the correlation is basically zero. A 22-year-old could be just as good, or just as bad, as a 35-year-old.

Now, if we zoom in on the “mid-thirties club,” the picture gets a little clearer, and this is where Marcus Semien comes in for his hypothetical 2026 age-35 season. Three 34-year-olds averaged about 118 games and hit .258. Two 35-year-olds, Tom Herr and Roberto Alomar, averaged 117 games and .257. And Robinson Canó, the lone 36-year-old, managed 107 games and a .256 average (FYI, Robinson Canó doubled last week at Citi Field at the age of 43 in the Puerto Rican All-Star vs. the Dominican All-Star game). Translation, older Mets second basemen do tend to slow down a touch, mostly in games played, and maybe just a hair in hitting too.

So what’s the takeaway from this deep dive into the Mets’ merry-go-round at second base? First, it’s clear that age alone doesn’t make or break a player. Sure, the mid-thirties club tends to play a little fewer games, but a 22-year-old can struggle just as much as a 35-year-old, and a 43-year-old Robinson Canó can still double in an All-Star game and make you question everything you thought you knew about baseball. The position has seen every type of player imaginable: bright-eyed wunderkinds like Gregg Jefferies, grizzled veterans like José Valentin, and ironmen like Félix Millán, who somehow survived five straight Opening Days without spontaneously combusting. Batting highs, lows, one-year wonders, and career mainstays all share this quirky corner of the Mets’ universe. At the end of the day, second base is less about age, stats, or predictability and more about the stories, the chaos, and the sheer joy of watching these glove-flipping, double-play-turning, occasionally head-scratching characters take the field. And if Marcus Semien steps up in 2026, he’ll be adding his own chapter to this wonderfully weird saga, proving once again that for the Mets, second base is never boring.