6'1.7", 208 pounds, bats left three times in ten, one in nine born Dominican — and the last season comes at 29.9.
Read the full story ↓Measured across 6,008 players who debuted since 2000, the average MLB player stands 6'1.7" and weighs 208 pounds — beside the commonly reported figures, which is this page’s license. 29.2% bat left-handed and 6.2% switch-hit; 21.2% throw left, counted across every player rather than the pitcher-only figure the famous stat describes.
72.6% of the cohort was born in the United States, 10.8% in the Dominican Republic and 6.4% in Venezuela — the Dominican share matching the league’s own reporting, and standing alone among the sports we measure: no other league imports a comparable share of its talent from one small country.
Across 6,505 completed careers beginning 1980 or later, the final MLB season arrives at 29.9 on average and 29 at the median — about two years later than the NFL. Baseball starts later and lasts longer: the completed MLB career runs five seasons, a full season past football’s.
One record covers all of it — heights, weights, handedness, birthplaces and seasons — so every figure comes from the same measured population with no player counted twice. Sizes, handedness and origins use debuts since 2000; the final-season age uses completed careers only, and holds within a fifth of a season across every cutoff tested. What those careers look like inside the game: how the biggest league counts, and how the tallest one measures.
More from the record book: how long a pro career lasts, the average NFL retirement age, how big the average NFL player is, average NBA height, the tallest NBA players ever, the shortest NBA players ever, average WNBA height, how many players are in the NFL, how many players are in the NBA, the perfect MLB season and every perfect season.
6'1.7" and 208 pounds, measured across 6,008 players who debuted since 2000 — right beside the commonly reported six-two and two-oh-seven, which is the check that licenses the rest of this page.
29.2% bat left and another 6.2% switch-hit, while 21.2% throw left — measured across every player, not just pitchers. The famous one-in-three lefty figure describes pitchers specifically; across the whole league it is about one in five arms, and this page says which population it counted.
The United States, at 72.6% of everyone who debuted since 2000 — but the Dominican Republic supplies 10.8%, roughly one player in nine, from a country of eleven million. Venezuela adds 6.4%. No other sport we measure imports talent at anything like this rate.
The last season comes at 29.9 on average — median 29 — across 6,505 completed careers. That is about two years later than football, where the last season comes at twenty-seven; baseball bodies last longer, and the long minor-league runway starts careers later too.
That is the game this page lives on: spin real franchise eras, fill a lineup and a rotation on the baseball board, and the 162-game season simulates against the same record book these numbers come from.
